After watching the documentary...I
became numb for a while and I cold shiver swept my body. Tears started rolling
down uncontrollably. Never before I felt so helpless and desolate and I
desperately prayed for betterment of our society and country at large. I may
sound very selfish but my first reaction as I just turned off the window was
that while we feel disappointed and let down by the small altercations in life,
the World around us is going through never-ending quagmire of perils. I really
felt so helpless for our mighty, youthful nation-India. The documentary was an
insightful social film reflecting the callous attitudes of all kinds of people
directly or indirectly related to the brutal crime. My heart sank when I began
to slowly understand the state of affairs in our country.
As a woman the grotesque crime
committed by the bunch of inhuman, uneducated and remorseless youth evoked
intense hatred and revulsion against human beings. I shudder to even imagine
what the young woman must have gone through. The root of the gender
discrimination, bias, inequality and their prevalence is harrowing. Ignorance,
orthodoxy and poverty are facilitating the spread of these narrow-minded
attitudes. The ground realities and the pain staking lives of millions of
Indians shown in the film was heart rendering. The inhuman living condition of
the people living in shanties is an issue of grave threat to social harmony of
the nation. The extent of poverty prevailing in the society puts common man to
shame. Mushrooming of slums on the outskirts of townships and metros have
become breeding grounds for the depraved youth, who are easily drawn to crime
and anti-social activities. Especially the unrepentant attitude of the convict
and absence of remorse even after committing a horrific crime is disgusting.
The existing gender
discrimination is heart wrenching. People attribute a lot to the culture of the
land. No culture on face of earth ever teaches or preaches humiliating the
individual of opposite gender. It is infuriating as how the so-called educated
and reputed lawyers brazenly express their misogynist views and get away
without any censure or rebuke. The film brings into fore, deep- seated
misogynistic attitudes. The threatening cult of the gender-discrimination is steadily
tearing apart the morale of Indian society.
While the implicit social message
is very relevant and can help in charting out future policies to bring about transformation
in the society, but the general mute and self-obsessed public may not be able
to understand the real intent and purpose of the documentary. A mute,
impassionate watching of the film just for the sake of watching might indeed do
a greater harm than good. Since the existing gender-bias and discrimination is
not new to common man. Further, the negative repugnant and deplorable attitudes
of the convicts and their defence lawyers would embolden the ruthless attitudes
of certain sections of people who perceive that disrespecting woman as a social
norm in India.
The film which focussed on the
travesty had two delightfully reassuring sources of new change or transformation
for our nation. Firstly, the parents of who stood by her and assured of all
support and secondly, the scores of young Indians who braved the harsh winter weather
hit the roads and forced the inept government into action.
The inequalities of our Indian
society are sharp, stark and dreadful the only equaliser can be education. The
need of hour is to empower woman through education, make them self-reliant. They
should be able to rejoice their life for being a woman. Banning a film in this
age of technology is ludicrous. It is time to get rid of the patriarchal structure
and stop blaming woman. While there is no doubt it is part of a larger plan to
portray India as a sick nation as the maker herself has out-rightly lashed out,
but it time to set things right. The fruits of development and progress should
reach the common man else, all the morals and cultural norms prerequisite of a
civilised society will bite dust. Undeniably the responsibility of bringing
about a gross change in the attitudes of the society lies with Indian men and
women. The first step towards such change is to start respecting woman and it should begin from home.
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