What Indian Women Will Have To Do To Prevent Rape

If you are a female in India, you have surely heard or read about the tragic case of the 27-year-old female vet in Hyderabad who was gang-raped, tortured, strangled, and finally, burned alive. A few days later, the accused were shot dead in an encounter with the police, at the very same spot where they committed their heinous crime.

Poetic justice and debates of whether it was right or wrong to shoot the rapists aside, you and I both know in our hearts that nothing, not even the fear of death, is going to deter males from sexually abusing women, girls, and babies. What then can we do to keep ourselves safe from these predators?

Exactly what many of us did at school outside the classroom: move around in packs. Except this time, we also carry weapons: pepper spray, stun guns, pocket knives, expandable batons, rape whistles, etc. You can buy all of these items at discounted rates on Amazon India.

Because the truth of the matter is, while everyone is busy talking about this tragedy, victim-blaming, and suggesting ways to prevent other women from suffering the same fate, the noise is going to die down soon. People (especially men) will go back to life as usual until another horror story surfaces in the media. Public rage is temporary, selective and honestly, of no use to us females. With the way things are headed, the best persons to rely on are you and your female friends.

Let the men mansplain all they want. Let the judicial system figure out better laws and procedures. It doesn’t really matter anyway – and not just because it can take years to better the system.

Because at the end of the day, only our female tribes can fully come to terms with how much our safety is at stake when we do routine things like commute, go to work, attend social events, and reach home every single day.

Our male counterparts, although not insulated from sexual abuse, have it a whole lot easier. In fact, they can do most of the above things completely at ease. If only we could borrow some of that male privilege!

While it would be great to say, teach boys and men to respect the opposite sex by conducting community outreach programs like they do over at Equal Community Foundation, the next best and more importantly, the immediate thing we can do is stick together and watch each other’s back. Even a group of two is better than going solo. The way I see it, girls and women cannot afford to go anywhere just by ourselves anymore. It may sound regressive (and it is), but that’s the truth. So remember, always have company when you step foot out of your house – even if that company is a couple of self-defense tools.

PS I am aware that not everyone is privileged enough to purchase self-defense equipment. So why not help out the underprivileged by gifting them the basic but powerful pepper spray? The long-term solution, of course, is to get more women in our government, as this article clearly states. 

Until then, us women should set ALL our differences aside and look out for each other.