Youth Incorporated Magazine

The rape of 8-year-old Asifa Bano in Kashmir, and 17-year-old Unnao teenager sparked outrage throughout the entire country, and won’t be forgotten for long.

8-year old Asifa’s death was a result of the vile Hindu-Muslim division in the Jammu & Kashmir’s Kathua valley that is prevalent even till today. After facing much criticism, Prime Minister Narendra Modi broke his silence on the issue, saying justice will be granted. “It’s an insult to freedom fighters who gave their lives for the independence of this country. We are all ashamed as a society, as a country,” Modi said, speaking at the inauguration of the Ambedkar National Memorial.

According to reports, the eight-year-old girl had been missing in Rasana village since January 10. On January 17, her mutilated body was found with obvious signs of gang rape. This week, local lawyers tried to prevent the police from filing the charge sheet, and the Jammu High Court Bar Association called for a bandh on Wednesday demanding that the investigation be handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation. The charge sheet lists as the main conspirator the caretaker of the temple in Rasana where the child was allegedly held. The girl was gang-raped repeatedly inside a village temple and kept sedated for hours before being killed by six men, including one who had been ‘invited’ to come all the way from Meerut to ‘satisfy his lust’, the police have told a court. The chargsheet says that the kidnapping, rape and killing of the girl of the Bakherwal community at the Rassana area of Kathua was part of a planned, chilling strategy to instill fear and drive the nomadic tribe out of the region.

A report in Busniess Standard says that the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’s spokesperson Stephane Dujarric told reporters on Friday that he has seen reports about the “horrific case” of the abuse and murder of the nomadic Bakerwal community girl in Jammu and Kashmir’s Kathua. “We very much hope that the authorities will bring the perpetrators to justice so they can be held accountable for the murder of this young girl,” he said.

In Uttar Pradesh’s Unnao district, a 17-year old was raped by BJP MLA Kuldeep Sengar. His brother MLa Atul Singh was also arrested for thrashing the victim’s father, eventually killing him. When famed television journalist Faye D’souza brought MLA Kuldeep’s wife on her panel, she ‘fainted’ after D’souza asked her some hard-hitting questions regarding Kuldeep’s whereabouts. Inevitably, this angered citizens further, but also brought in the question of ‘accountability’. Why aren’t our leaders willing to own up to their follies? When lives were lost during the Elphinstone stampede, it was revealed that a number of complaints were made to officials about the miserable condition of the bridges, but no heed was paid. Yet, leave it up to our netas to deny playing a hand in such disasters.

Given the sheer number of cases that have come to light in recent times, it almost seems as if the perpetrators aren’t afraid anymore. A few candlelight marches, and a few lakhs thrown at victims’ families till another one pops up, maybe.

Speaking to BBC, Shiv Visvanathan, a Delhi-based social scientist said,”I believe that media is almost tired of reporting violence in India. Rapes, lynching, torture is being reported all the time. It’s almost like you have to run a torture report, like the weather report.” Have we really accustomed ourselves to waking up to news of such brutality, almost every second day? In a country where our leaders have themselves set shameful examples, how much do we expect of its citizens.

For all intents and purposes, it could be the unified spirit that our government seems to be taking advantage of. We hear of the gruesome news, unite to form social media campaigns, Facebook petitions, conduct candle marches, switch on our TVs to watch a heated news debate, but is there anyone listening?

From 8 month-olds to 18-year-olds, is there any left to spare?