News of death generally is accompanied with anguish and grief. It's seldom that we welcome it. But, it happened with me. The moment I got the news of death of Ms Aruna Shanbaug, my instantaneous response was," Thank God, she has been relieved." The soul was trapped inside body motionless, for last 42 years and has been liberated.
But with her death, she has raised profound questions on the way our Indian Society lives by. No, I am not talking of euthanasia. This post relates to some other trivial things. Throughout her life and in her death, Ms Aruna has caused deep agony to a sensitive mind. It's difficult to understand what her fault was? For the novice let me tell who Aruna Shanbaug was? She was a nurse in the King Edward Memorial (popularly known as KEM) hospital, merrily engaged to a junior doctor in same hospital. She was raped by a ward boy Sohanlal.She was 22 then and died age of 66 yes in May 2015. To immobilize her before the ghastly act, he used a dog chain to tie her, resulting in cutoff of blood circulation to her brain. As a result, she had been in a vegetative state since past 43 years. In simple terms, she was chained to life on hope that she may be revived one day. Yes, chained to life. Death acted as a liberator for her. It is said that Death, by its mere presence, liberates the soul of its worst fears and motivates the body to perform remarkable feats. But, here death acted as freed her body and soul from the suffering of past 42 years. Compare this to the punishment given to Sohanlal, her tormentor. 7 years in jail and freed for life. The reason for so less punishment was:a) Hospital authorities didn't pressed the case of sexual assault, fearing repercussions and stigmatisation for Ms Aruna in her later life.b) As per Indian Criminal Procedure code(CrPC), rape was considered to be committed only iff there was a vaginal penetration. In Aruna's case Sohanlal did anal sex, because she was menstruating.
After 42 years, its time to look back and see if we see any changes. Unfortunately there are no changes except some piecemeal alterations. For instance, the Supreme Court had framed guidelines for safety of working women in 1996 in absence of any concrete law.They were called as Vishakha guidelines as case was Vishalha v/s State of Rajasthan. They were followed till 2013. Only after another tight slap of Nirbhaya case, the society awakened in December 2012, the society woke up from its deep slumber. The protests that followed Nirbhaya case led to changes in laws and CrPC was amended to give sexual assault a wide definition. But what about our patriarchal mindset? Nothing has changed.
My agony is that it only takes a heinous case like that of Aruna or Nirbhaya, followed by mass protest that laws are amended. Our male dominated society is yet to be proactive to ensure safety of women. Instead of punishing the culprit, we sing paens of traditionalcity and blame the victim.Result, widespread increase in eve teasing and molestations.' Be the change, you want to be' said Gandhiji once. To initiate women safety, we need to change ourself. Instead of eulogizing maleness on number of girlfriends( or 'sperm count' as in Tank weds Many returns), let us strive to make a society where respect to women is considered as an crucial value. Then only we can have a wonderful place to live, where people are treated on their inherent qualities and not on basis of religion, caste, sex or colour of skin.If we are not striving to create such a society, then the grief endured by Ms Aruna and Nirbhaya are in vain.
P.S: The only silver lining in Ms Aruna Shanbaug's case was the way the doctors , sisters and support staff took care of Ms Arjuna for past 42 years.
