From: vivek@ecst.csuchico.edu (Vivek R. Prabhu)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.indian
Subject: Re: MORE ABOUT INDIA / INDIAN WOMEN ARE TREATED FAR BETTER THAN HERE.
Date: 8 Oct 92 16:09:53 GMT
Distribution: usa
Organization: California State University, Chico
NNTP-Posting-Host: cscihp.ecst.csuchico.edu

In article <1992Oct08.013505.110934@ua1ix.ua.edu> ngopalas@ha02.eng.ua.edu (Nath S. Gopalaswamy) writes:


>Reeeeeaaaaally? Do tell us more. Let me give you some examples of our ever
>famous public coming to the rescue of damsels in distress. On a train near
>Madras,[Dadar express, carrying many Bombayites] a gang jumps on board, targets
>a female, and in BROAD DAYLIGHT, in the presence of 60 other passengers is
>brutally raped just because she openly remarked that she did not like their
>attention. Her three male friends are injured when they try to intervene. The
>police do nothing as usual and try to arrest the man who filed the complaint
>on the woman's behalf. In Calcutta, in BROAD DAYLIGHT, in the presence of
>hundreds of commuters, a girl is raped by some goons, just because she compl
>ained against the unwelcome attention of the hoods. Again, nothing is done by
>the police. Again in BOMBAY, a girl is BURNT alive by some sickos when she is
>sitting down to take her exams for her X standard, the police are yet to 
>charge the men involved with murder. If these can happen in broad daylight then
>just think how much goes on under the cover of darkness.


You are talking about criminals who have committed these vile acts, and it 
is indeed shameful that these things still happen.  But the point of issue 
is the comparison of treatment of  women in India vs. that in the U.S.. If
you see the statistics for this nation you will find that every 15 minutes
there is a woman being raped here in the U.S.. As well as the fact that in
every 5 minutes there is a child dying of starvation here again in U.S..

>
>Sorry for the overdone dramatic tones, but they kinda get the point across
>very effectively :-) And this is also to refute the suggestion by Mr Premkumar
>that police reports be made for such incidents, when police themselves are
>rapists in many cases, how sure can the female be that going to the police 
>is such a good idea?


Well the dramatic overtones are unnecessary.  If you are talking about the 
police,  you  are requested to read reports of policemen raping women here
and I have seen one such programme on T.V. which was in Unsolved Mysteries
where they had shown the murder of a Deputy Sheriff by a woman whom he was
trying to rape. Besides rape here has many definitions, acquaintance rape,
date rape, asault and battery, etc.  That  the fact that they have to give
different name s to the same crime here speaks volumes of the frequency of
occurence here of the crimes.

But however, we have to make a concerted effort to stress upon the fact in
India that attitudes which are rather overbearing towards women have to be
changed, not merely for the sake of change, but more so if our society has
to progress towards a more rational, progressive, and liberal society.

Regards,
Vivek.

-- 
vivek@cscihp.ecst.csuchico.edu (Vivek R. Prabhu),
Systems Engineering Laboratory, Department Of Computer Science, 
School Of Engineering, Computer Science And Technology,
California State University, Chico, California.