Crisis of Safety: Women’s Security in West Bengal
The culture of women assault is sharpening its teeth and spreading its claws in West Bengal. If one opens any Bengali news channel, the multiple news of women assault has become the headliners. Any print media or their online versions will also depict the same. The issue of violence against women is rapidly escalating resulting a challenge to women’s security in the regime of Mamata Banerjee.
Whether it’s an adult or an adolescent molestation or an assault, all sexual violence have been staging in today’s West Bengal. The news of molestation inside the super specialty Government hospital SSKM has certainly drawn attention of various levels. It raises a serious concern about Women’s Security across the state of West Bengal. So, the women’s security has come in front of a big question mark.
The Problem of Impunity even in case of Women’s Security
Where from these perpetrators are getting the courage of such vastly staged women assault? How some local goons get the audacity of convening a Kangaroo court to hand out lashings like its medieval times? A simple and precise answer is that they know the long hands of law will never reach them. So Casual attitude about women’s security has raised the anger of public
Even if the police arrests, they will manipulate the law to file the case under trivial, toothless charges. Even if the police take the accused into custody, the defense lawyer will easily secure bail. The watered-down sections of the law make it possible without difficulty. In most cases, the accused stay closely associated with the ruling party. A single phone call from any level of leadership is enough to shake the on-duty officer. So, the women’s security remains in question.
The ruling spokespersons are jubilant in quoting the NCRB report, where Kolkata has been declared as the safest city for women. They will hardly turn the page to utter publicly that the same report reveals that West Bengal has topped the list for acid attacks on women. Aren’t these figures raise serious questions about Women’s Security in Bengal?
This selective citation creates a significant disconnect between official narratives and the grim ground reality regarding women’s security.
Leadership and Responsibility
We never live in a dreamland that women assault is a rare incident of the present or did never happen in the past. The reference of other states and countries may work as solace at times, but it can hardly bypass the fact that the canon fodders have found the West Bengal as a free-for-all zone for thuggery. Can the Women’s Security be maintained at all?
Indeed, the Chief Minister of West Bengal is a female and portrays an image of oh-so-compassionate face of humanity. She has launched a host of social welfare schemes for women like Laxmir Bhandar, Kanyashree and others. Yet the main responsibility of any administration is to restore trust and conviction of the people. So the Women’s Security in West Bengal can become a glittering example in the country.
If the state becomes a heaven for hooliganism with the series of recent women assaults, can people show confidence on her?
