Yet another blob of shame

All of the Indian nation comes together one more time to condemn the barbaric violation and rape of the Hyderabad vet and as this becomes yet another occasion for the nation to move and raise voice against rape, the immediate step pressed for is to legislate capital punishment to the rapist. Before getting into what legal deterrents must be institutionalised, the case of the Hyderabad vet must be considered for what it is—in all its brutal facts. The vetenerary doctor in her mid-twenties was gangraped and murdered in by four men. According to the Cyberabad Police, the four accused punctured the rear wheel of her scooter, offered to help her, dragged her to a secluded spot close to a toll plaza before they gang raped her. The victim was made to consume spiked cold drink before the misdeed was done. She died due to suffocation since the accused had closed her mouth and nose during the crime. Later, they brought petrol from a nearby village and burned her body on the Hyderabad-Bengaluru national highway. All the four accused were nabbed from their houses and have been sent to 14-days' judicial custody. Following this elaborately planned and executed incident, thousands of protesters gathered outside a police station on the outskirts of Hyderabad on Saturday demanding the four accused be handed over to them. Around 30 protesters including college students rallied outside a police station in central Delhi as well, carrying placards demanding justice and an end to crime against women. Provoking an outrage over social media, the call has been to #HangRapists, presuming that this is the solution to the problem festering in our society. It was not too long ago when the nation was moved to the unimaginably brutal rape and murder of "Nirbhaya" and the nation-wide protests led to hanging of those culprits. But, had that been sufficiently a deterrent, India would not be bearing witness to more such misfortunes. The frequency of crimes against women, the taking in of such an update and the general perception around it are, in fact, languid to the extent that it establishes that it is but an expected occurrence. A degrading Indian society and people may have grown accustomed to news of rapes and crime against women except when the monsterity is of vast proportions but sparing a thought to why matters should be so abysmal, it must be acknowledged that the social conditioning of men and women to not rise against it are the main reasons for things to be so unfortunate. Legal recourse is a short-term solution. Lasting change cam come only from social reform and by mending the rent social fabric.