What most women fear is rape; what women fear the most is rape.

An 86-year-old grandmother raped by a 30-year stranger who offered to help her; a 19-year-old Dalit girl allegedly gang-raped by four upper-caste men and the girl dies in a Delhi hospital after two weeks; two minor girls aged 13 and 15 gang-raped for three days in Baran district of Rajasthan; 22-year-old Dalit woman gang-raped and murdered in Balrampur of Uttar Pradesh. All these cases have been reported in September 2020, when the country is seeing a peak in COVID cases, touching almost a lakh of daily cases.

Today what most women fear is rape and what women fear the most is rape. But is it just a woman's issue? Is it not about men who stop behaving like human beings and start behaving worse than animals?

Headlines scream ‘rape’ every day. There is one incidence of rape in India every 15 minutes. From a 6-month-old to a 90-year-old woman, of any caste or religion, nobody is safe. Seven years since the nation expressed outrage over the Nirbhaya rape, not much has improved. There is no reduction in rape crimes, even with the prison term being doubled. Rather than being a deterrent, it has prompted rapists to kill their victims to avoid leaving any witnesses behind.

There is no set pattern to this madness, this societal disease that kills or scars victims for life. The monsters who perpetrate this crime are often known to the victim. According to a report released by the National Crime Record Bureau in January 2020, 94 percent of rapes were committed by persons who were familiar with the victims. It could be the men in her family or it could be a teacher, a driver, a neighbor, a shopkeeper, or someone from the workplace. It could be any male she comes in contact with.

India recorded an average of 87 rape cases daily in 2019 and overall, 4,05,861 cases of crime against women during the year, a rise of over 7 percent from 2018, as per the latest government data released on September 29, 2020. The total no. of reported rape cases was 32,033 in 2019, with Rajasthan leading the list with 5,997 cases followed by Uttar Pradesh with 3,065 cases, Madhya Pradesh with 2,485 cases, and Maharashtra with 2,299 cases. Rape cases against SCs increased by 7.6 percent over 2018 with 3,486 cases in 2019. Rajasthan topped the list with 554 cases, followed by Uttar Pradesh at 537 and Madhya Pradesh at 510 cases. The highest number of incidents of rape of tribal women - 358 was registered in Madhya Pradesh, followed by 180 incidents in Chhattisgarh and 114 in Maharashtra.

Why do men turn into amoral beasts and what could be the reason for this social malady which has left women precariously vulnerable? It is difficult to pinpoint the exact factors which lead to this crime, but it could be any of these.

It could result from a patriarchal mindset which objectifies women and doesn’t mind exhibiting the power to subdue her. The urge to rape could also stem from a lack of education leading to a lack of employment opportunities, which inhibits productive thinking. An idle brain that is exposed to free pornography may end up committing such crimes because of the wrong channelization of energy. Substance abuse also reduces the power to think rationally and often leads to sex crimes. Apart from this, a perverted mind may choose to use rape as a weapon of revenge, to teach women a lesson every time the male ego is hurt. Some research studies also show that the rapist, in several cases, is a victim of child abuse himself and uses rape to take revenge on society. 

There have been widespread protests at Jantar Mantar over the Hathras Rape case with politicians from opposition parties joining civil rights activists demanding speedy action. We have reached the second Nirbhaya moment as far as rapes are concerned. But protests do not result in speedy action and justice for the victim or their families. We are familiar with the case of Nirbhaya’s family, who fought for seven long years before justice was served. It is high time some concrete steps like fast track courts and the death penalty are considered to infuse fear into these criminals. 

Rape is not for settling political scores. It is about the social fabric that is being torn apart and needs to be mended soon. It is time women raised their voices and spoke out and reported rapists in their family instead of shielding them. Only when we see action from families, society, police, and judiciary in tandem can this crime be reduced. Till then, the female of the species who was hailed as deadlier by Rudyard Kipling will continue to be sacrificed at the altar of lust.