A  23-year-old medical student who was brutally gang-raped by six men in New Delhi lost her battle for life on Dec. 29, 2012 due to severe internal injuries caused mainly to her intestines by an iron rod.
 Similarly, the rape in Steubenville, Ohio, involved two high school football players who allegedly sexually assaulted a 16-year-old girl. Reports suggested she was raped anally and urinated on by the men. When I read about the two stories above I was in a state of complete dismay. “What is wrong with people?” my heart questioned.
What has entered the fabric of our modern human society? Is it a brazen mindset or a weird masculinity in which women are perceived as nothing but mere sex objects? I was intrigued when groups of politicians blamed the victim for the assault in both the incidents.
The victim in New Delhi was returning home after watching “Life of Pi” with her male friend. After failing to find any transport, they decided to board a bus which had six men in it, including a juvenile who later raped the woman, assaulted both of them with an iron rod and then threw them out of the moving vehicle.
What did she do wrong? Go out for an evening show at a movie theater or board the bus with only men in it? As ironic as it may sound, her will to fight at a Singaporean hospital in her last few days after the gruesome attack was an after effect of this inspirational film she had watched on that ill-fated night of Dec. 16, 2012, which depicted the character’s quest to live and reach the coast post a ship-wreck.
According to statistics published in the Wall Street Journal on Jan. 4 2013, 14,263 cases of rape were reported in India in 2010 out of which the conviction rate was only 26.6 percent.
This situation is grim throughout the world, as well. According to statistics from the United States Department of Justice, a woman is raped every two minutes in the U.S. In 2000, there were 261,000 victims of rape, attempted rape or sexual assault. Of these 261,000, 114,000 were victims of sexual assault; 55,000 were victims of attempted rape, and 92,000 were victims of completed rape.
The methodology of the National Crime Victimization Survey is such that these figures do not include victims who are of the age of 12 or younger.  While there are no reliable annual surveys of sexual assaults on children, the justice department estimated one of six victims is under the age of 12.
The figures above are grieving. We need retrospection on what societal values we trudge upon, what lies in our future and what footprints we leave for the next generation to follow. Why is it that a woman is always on the receiving end? Why is the law blunt when it comes to dealing with sexual assault? Few have suggested measures such as to make death penalty or chemical castration the maximum punishment for rape throughout the world. But will it help in changing the mindset or will it instill fear to prevent such crimes? There are serious questions that need to be answered and moreover a self-analysis by each individual.  Are we really serious about crimes against women? Do we really care? Do women in our society possess equal right with men? Are we quick to jump the gun and blame the victim for a rape?
What should spearhead in improving things is our attitude toward women; it is very easy to blame the victim for a crime against her. She shouldn’t have worn what she did, she shouldn’t have traveled alone, she shouldn’t have had alcohol are some common examples I have heard.
The outrage is as much against rape as against this disastrous claim that women’s clothes and behavior invite rape. As ambiguous as it may sound, this is our reality. The sooner we face and bring measures to improve it, the better it will be for women.
Otherwise, we will expect women to live in an era where they are as fast-paced and mobile as men but continuously covered with a veil of precariousness wherever they go. So let us pledge in unison to create a much safer, better and respectable environment for women in this world.