Deepak Mahato
Figures of the National Crime Records Bureau show that in the last five years 5,427 rape survivors in the state were outraged by
people they trusted deeply
The issue of women’s safety is one of great importance in modern India characterised by sexual exploitation and violence. The increasing number of rape incidents every year, over a period of say five years, will convince anyone of the widespread nature of sexual offences in Indian society. If you are a teenager or a young lady you are guarded all the time against the excesses of the male population, guarded and reserved in your social interactions. You are also aware that trusting anyone blindly can turn out to be fatal for you: some of the most heinous crimes against women are cases of breach of trust.
So, in today’s world the general confusion as to who to trust is all the more acute in women as they are subjected to grievous crimes. A large percentage of the victims of crime lament throughout their lives that their happy trust led them to disrepute and consequent emotional breakdown.
Hardly a few days back, a girl in mid-teens was raped by three youths in the state capital. According to police files one of the rapists was her friend. Police said that the victim was called by her friend and he took her to a secluded place where he, along with his two other friends, raped the girl.
RP Sharma, police commissioner, in his recent conversation with the media also stated that most of the victims of the heinous crimes against women carried out in the year 2014 were known and closed ones of the victims.
According to police files, in at least 43 cases of rape registered last year, the victims had fallen to the hands of people they knew. In a large number of the cases the modesty of the girl was outraged by her friend.
A victim who was outraged by a group of youths including her friend early this year in Noida, talking to the media then had said, “He was my friend. I trusted him the most. I wanted to marry him and spend my whole life with him.”
“He used me only as a sex object. I had devoted myself to him as I dreamed of having my best days with him but one day taking benefit of my faith he took me to a lone place where he, along with a few others, raped me,” the girl had said.
Taking a quick look at the records maintained by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), in 2013, 1,832 rape survivors were outraged by people they knew in the state, which includes three from family, 91 from among relatives, 489 were neighbours and 1,249 friends or people whom the victim trusted the most.
While in 2012, 1,458 fell victims to people they trusted, in 2011 and 2010, the numbers of such victims were 1,112 and 1,025 respectively.
Supriya Dash, an MBA student, says, “Many girls think it is cool to hang around with boys and have a boyfriend. I know many girls in the neighborhood or in college who move out with boys who are least interested in a committed relationship while these girls are building a home of dreams in their heads. Their dreams will get shattered after their so-called boyfriends leave them after sexually exploiting them. A large percentage of such victims do not even lodge a complaint fearing family backlash and social taboo.”
Similarly, Shweta believes that today we cannot trust anyone. “On many occasions, my male friends have tried their best to make me drink liquor while partying in private and get intoxicated. I strictly said no to them and these days I keep away from them because I don’t consider them my friends anymore. If they had been my friends they would never have forced me to drink.”