It has been quite long since anything has been posted here. A lot has happened since then in the lives of T & B. But today’s post is not about them. Yesterday BBC released a documentary named “India’s daughter” worldwide.This documentary film “India’s Daughter” based on the 16 December gang-rape of a medical student Jyoti Singh. It is in the news for a lot of reasons – outrage, offense, gut wrenching pain and last but not the least the TRUTH. There was a lot of reaction to it in the social media. Here is our take on the reactions we saw –
* ‘Most‘ Indians are feeling ashamed & overwhelmed – They should! Disrespect towards women is at it’s worst in India. It is not only in actions but in the mindset of people. A female cannot go anywhere at any time of the day without someone leering at them or thinking something offensive or in a sexual context about her. It’s the truth ! What is even more surprising is that the male Indians find it acceptable behavior and the female Indians are used to it. Treating another person as a human being is extending the other a simple courtesy of human dignity. We owe it to every human. But all this should not stop with the outrage and demonstrations stoked by this crime and the documentary. Indians must come together and stand against such inhuman crimes against females. We should ‘educate‘ ourselves that it is not right to do gender discrimination (Please note that being educated is very different from being literate ). It should be mandatory in every home to give respect to others in the family and outside it, whether we know them or not. There is no excuse – be it poverty, illiteracy, prosperity etc that can justify behaving in an offensive manner towards other humans. It is no more optional !
* ‘Some’ Indians feel offended at BBC publicizing this documentary – There is no reason to feel affronted at that. Had it been untruths and fake facts presented just for the sake of publicity, taking offense makes sense. However all the documentary is showing is the perspective of everybody involved in that case. The plain truth. It is the Indians worldwide who are watching it, expressing concerns or outrage which is resulting in the huge publicity. To quote Bollywood actor Boman Irani – “Documentaries are stories of truth! We should be embarrassed of the truth rather than the fact that the documentary got made#IndiasDaughter”. Had an Indian news channel done the same documentary, we would be focusing on the issue. Talking about BBC would let any BBC agenda, hidden or otherwise, succeed. Voyeuristic this documentary might be but this needed to be said, and someone said it !
* ‘Some’ Indians are hopeful and determined to bring a change – We agree that ‘women‘ have come a long way in India – they are able to get education, get jobs, earn money etc. What they have not been able to do is to make themselves appear ‘human‘ in the eyes of the males. The mindset of the society reflects that ‘females‘ are treated as property of the ‘males‘ in the family. We need to bring in that change by educating ourselves to be human. To stop getting used to crimes like this. To protest and persist until we change this.
* ‘Some’ Indians think it is more of the females‘ fault – This is absolutely depressing to know that some people think that it is the females who are the culprit.They think that such behavior is acceptable. That when such heinous crimes are being committed the females should let them happen, suffer and keep it to themselves in order to be spared alive. How can any human think like that ? These are the people who need to be educated and convinced that ‘inhuman’ behavior towards anyone is not acceptable and cannot be justified by any reasoning. One crime cannot justify another crime. That’s the point. If such crimes are happening in other countries they should be ashamed and try to fix it. As an Indian that India needs to fix the mentality and the root of this issue.
* ‘Some’ Indians are being cynical about whether India can fix it – It is no more optional whether to fix it or not. We have to and every Indian will have to pitch in. It is human nature to move on. But this time we have to keep reminding ourselves to not give up until we achieve our goal of making India safe for all. Expressing oneself on an issue like this, it’s for spreading awareness and to contribute however little individually towards the massive effort we would need on all Indians’ part to fix even a small part of this.
India is a beautiful country with an even more awesome culture. It deserves to be the safe haven for all it’s people and it is our duty as Indians to make sure India becomes the place of our dreams.
P.S. : Here are the links to some very thought provoking views that I came across :
Why we must watch India’s daughter
Sarcasmic Jottings on India’s daughter
Unbidden Thoughts 