‘If I were in the place of that hapless girl, I would have
bloodied his nose and reduced him to pulp’- It was the reaction of Alique Padamsee,
veteran actor and social activist, while taking part in a discussion in a national
TV channel over the brutal rape of a girl student by a police man (the law keeper
turned law breaker) in a police chowkee at Marine Drive, South Mumbai in 2005.
Mr.Padamsee was fretting and fuming with rage. All those who took part in that
discussion were agitated, angered and infuriated over the incident. Whole Mumbai
rose in anger against that incident demanding harshest punishment be meted out
to the police man which caught the national attention.
There was a time when Mumbai was a safe place for woman who was
respected by the male community as a whole compared to Delhi, the national
capital where incidents of rapes are order of the day under the very nose of
ruling mandarins.
I recall the ladies walking alone in the thick of night to
their abodes free from fear and apprehension of rapes in Mumbai in the 80’s and
before. No incidents of rape were reported from anywhere. Those were days the
city was free from terror elements too, barring few lumpen elements.
But gradually the picture began to change with cases of
rapes and violence by unruly elements grabbing headlines.
The thursday gang rape of a photo journalist from a city
magazine of Mumbai by five goons in the premises of Shakti Mills, a decrepit,
dilapidated structure surrounded by bushes and trees in Central Mumbai at about
6’O’clock in the evening after overpowering her male colleague who was beaten up and tied
to to a tree immediately caught the attention of the entire Mumbai. After the
gang rape by five men the 22 year old lady lay there unconscious until 8’O’clock.
She was later rusheded to Jaslok hospital immediately and
underwent surgery. The doctors later
declared her condition stable. If the incident reminded me of the brutal gang
rape and subsequent death of a phsysiotherapy student who was brutally gang raped
by five men on a running bus at Capital, Delhi which shocked and enraged the
entire India few months ago,, it is not surprising.
The intern photo-journalist was on an assignment to take the
pictures of chawls of Mumbai and dilapidated buildings in the city. The accused
five men are reported to be from Mahalakshmy the Central Mumbai area.
Is Mumbai too going in the way of Delhi since reports are
pouring in of women who are scary of travelling in the local trains and on foot
late in the city. Some ladies even fearing the lumpen elements have quit their
posts. In Mumbai, in many of the firms, the working hours for employees are
reported to be until 8PM or more. It is a pity and shame that a city which was
renowned for its safety of women is no more a safe place.
Can Mumbai regain its status as a city well-known for its
safety for its women community like in the early days? Will the rulers raise to
the occasion and make it a safe haven for ladies. Or will it continue to turn a
deaf ear to the anger and shock gripping the city indefinitely? Wait and see……
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