[Trigger Warning: Mentions of rape, brutality, and sexual assault]

An average of 85 rape cases are reported on a daily basis in India. These exclude the cases that were never voiced – the stifled screams, the muffled violence faced by Indian women on a daily basis.

We’re taught to fear the outside world before we learn how to walk.

Just 4 days ago on June 25th, a 24-year-old law student at the South Calcutta Law College was allegedly gang-raped on campus by two seniors and an alumna of the college. CCTV footage found following the complaint has irrefutably confirmed the presence of the perpetrators as well as the security guard. In fact, the student says that the crime took place inside a guard’s room on the ground floor of the institute.

This horrific case is yet another tragic reminder of the brutality faced by women. What’s far more disgusting than the case itself, in fact, are the victim-blaming reactions of members of our very own government.

Madan Mitra, the senior party leader and MLA of Trinamool Congress (TMC) made a contentious remark on the case, saying that the incident would not have taken place had the victim taken a couple of friends with her.

This disgustingly insensitive comment stands as a reflection of the secondary-victimising mindset of many individuals in India. Are we, as women, not even safe on our own college campus? Has it become dangerous to step outside in the very institution we enter to learn?

As a teenage girl living in India, it is terrifying to read about such brutal, gut-churning assault cases every day. What’s more, we’re taught to wear ‘appropriate’ clothes, to avoid going out after dark, to carry pepper spray like it’s part of our school kit – but I don’t see the male youth of our country being taught to respect women.

Here, a woman’s body is treated as public property – and her suffering as public silence.

For all the talk about how women have already achieved equality in India, the constant reminders of our unsafety in society seem to prove otherwise.

Even as a high school student, I have witnessed firsthand the unjust mindset that exists among our own generation. Far too often, I’ve heard male classmates dismiss conversations about gender equality – claiming that feminists are overreacting in their account of inequality faced by women. They brush off real stories of harassment and inequality as exaggerations.

It’s time for us to wake up as a nation and acknowledge the fact that this is an unsafe country. While we cannot undo the past overnight, we can change the narrative we pass on to the youth. Instead of endlessly teaching young girls how to avoid danger, let us finally teach our generation to respect the women who are simply existing.

Until respect becomes instinct and not instruction, we will keep writing obituaries in the blood of innocent victims rather than writing laws that protect and not punish.

Yours truly,
Divi