We must move beyond outrage against selected rape cases

Protest at India Gate against gang rape in Delhi. TOI photo

Grieved to hear that the student who was gangraped in a Delhi bus has passed away in the Singapore hospital where she was flown for treatment. And about the teenage gangrape victim in Patiala who committed suicide – one of countless, not just in India but elsewhere in Southasia. And the 42 year old woman. And the two girls – minors – in Umerkot, Sindh who were raped. And that a woman is raped every 22 minutes in India – I don’t know what the rate is in other South Asian countries, but doubt it’s much better elsewhere. But will the outrage at the “Delhi Gang Rape case” and the victim’s death change things for women in our part of the world – not just in urban but in rural areas, not just for women? And for those, including minor girls and boys, who are routinely subjected to sexual abuse, not only by strangers and security forces, but most often by family friends and relatives? And for the countless who are subjected to ‘revenge rapes’ or forced to marry their rapists or exchange girls and women for peace? We need to move beyond outrage at selected cases and work towards changing attitudes, not just of of society but of law enforcing agencies and courts that shame victims more than perpetrators.