Rajasthan Minor Detained For Killing Aggressor; Yet Again Society Fails Its Women!

A minor girl was detained and sent to a juvenile home for allegedly killing a 45-year-old man in Rajasthan’s Alwar district. The police when looked into the matter, found that the man had been blackmailing the minor and repeatedly raped her for months.

According to the reports, the Alwar police said that the man had been sexually assaulting the minor for nearly six to seven months and later three of his friends also joined him in the heinous act. The police added that on May 17, the minor who is in class 10, decided to put an end to the ordeal and killed the man while he was inebriated.

Why did the minor take the matter into her own hands? Was it a failure of the judicial system that led her to choose this resolution or was it the belief that the police may instead blame her which forced her? Isn't it a failure as a society that she couldn't confide in someone? Have we not failed our women if they can’t access legal remedies?

Rajasthan Minor Detained For Killing Aggressor

The investigators told the media that initially it was thought to be a case of natural death until his family noticed marks around his neck. Further investigation led them to the 13-year-old minor. She confessed to the crime once she was taken into confidence.

Elucidating further the police noted that she used to speak with a boy and once used the deceased’s phone. Since then, he’d been using call recordings of the two and blackmailed the minor which eventually escalated into sexual assault.

Although a case of gang rape under the Indian Penal Code and Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act has been registered against the accused, the others are yet to be arrested.

Why do you think the dead man could blackmail the girl over the fact she spoke to a boy? Is it not because of our archaic values which dictate women to stay away from men until it comes to marriage? Is it not us who is to blame?

We collectively inhabit the society and we will indeed interact. Placing arbitrary boundaries as such by no means will be beneficial. Had we created a safe space for girls, and women where they’d be believed and not blamed if sexual assault was perpetrated against them; the minor in the juvenile home wouldn’t have had to take matters into her own hand. Our vilification of every action by women led that minor to take matters into her own hands.

Is this the first case of sexual assault and rape against girls? No. Just a few days ago the entire nation was shaken when boys from affluent families in Hyderabad raped a minor in Hyderabad. The case led to massive outrage and opposition parties even took to burning effigies of Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao. Following this, news of three other rape cases in Telangana came to the light.

All of these cases come and go but there’s no solution for the long haul. Moreover, these are cases which got documented, what about those that don’t get reported at all.

Do we have a resolution of tackling this problem? Why are we unable to tackle sexual violence? Is it because we refuse to leave behind the patriarchal outlook or is it because the culture is so deeply etched in our minds that we want nothing but subordination from women at any cost? Will we ever change?

Views expressed are the author's own

Suggested Reading: Instead Of Safety, Politics & Religion Take Centre Stage In Hyderabad Gangrape Case