A FATE WORSE THAN DEATH
Dr Suhaib Ashraf Bhat
Crime against women, which is increasing day by day, hour by hour, minute by minute and second by second. Thinkers are thinking to reduce the crime; Philosophers making another philosophy out of it yet the rate of the crime is increasing by increasing rate. Punishment for the rape cases or acid attack is much lower than the harm caused. In court, the person freely walks in the society for months and years together, because of the ant-paced judicial system where we get hearings after hearings.
Rape and acid attack: If we talk psychologically there is no difference between the two. The aftermath effect is most probably same.
Rape: Is this not the shame for whole society? Rape is one of the more appalling things that one human being can do to another, and yet there is no other crime about which our society is so ambivalent. That must change.
The effects of rape can include both the initial physical trauma as well as deep psychological trauma. Although rape victims commonly report injuries and issues with their reproductive health after the sexual assault, rape doesn’t always involve physical force. The most common and lasting effects of rape involve mental health concerns and diminished social confidence.
Aftermath of Rape:
The aftermath of rape involves a cluster of acute and chronic physical and psychological effects. It’s important that victims receive comprehensive care. This only adds to the psychological impact of the rape on the victim. Victims of extremely violent rape, or those who were assaulted repeatedly or at a very young age, may need treatment for the rest of their lives. Is this not really breathtaking?
Increasing crimes is what we are witnessing these days. Criminals have come up with various strategies of committing crimes to which unfortunately our judicial system is continuously failing.
When a crime is done to a person and when the victim goes to register a complaint, the first thing our police personnel do is to deny taking the complaint. Even if they take the complaint, they file it in such an easy manner that the criminal can easily escape even if he has done a grave mistake like rape. When a victim is raped the police files the complaint of “sexual assault” or “attempt to rape” and when the victim is assaulted sexually or attempted to rape, these “kind” men advises not to file the case and get compromised as the career of the criminal will get destroyed. These people have soft hearts towards criminals and stone-hearts towards innocents.
When the victims force to file a strong case against the criminals these people have a very good strategy to harass them by taking counter case from the criminals and lay false charges against the victims. In this way the victim is harassed double. In some situations, the victims are unable to tolerate injustice and even go to the extent of committing suicides!
Acid attack: An acid attack involves the premeditated throwing of acid on a victim, usually on her face. It is a gender-based heinous crime against women. In addition to causing psychological trauma, acid attacks result in severe pain, permanent disfigurement, subsequent infections, and often blindness in one or both eyes. Acid attack is a form of gender-based violence aimed at silencing and controlling women. The use of acid as a weapon began to rise in many developing nations, specifically in South Asia. The first recorded acid attack occurred in India in 1982. In many countries, acid attacks constitute a hidden form of violence against women and children that often go unreported and the true number of horrific attacks taking place does not come to light.
Consequences of Acid Attacks:
Physical consequences: Acid burns through skin and flesh, layer by layer, causing great pain and injury. It eats through the two layers of the skin, into the fat and muscle underneath, and sometimes down to the bone, it may dissolve the bone. The profoundness of injury depends on the brawn of the acid and the duration of the contact with the skin – the burning goes on until the acid is scrupulously washed off with water. Further, if thrown on a person’s face, acid speedily eats into eyes, ears, nose, and mouth. The pain is agonizing, as a strong burning heat cuts through the victim’s flesh like a hot knife. Eyelids and lips may burn off completely. The nose may melt, closing the nostrils, and ears shrivel up. Acid can rapidly destroy the eye, causing the victim to be blind. Skin and bone of the skull, forehead, cheeks, and chin may melt. The acid usually splashes or drips over the neck, chest, back, arms, or legs, burning anywhere it touches. One study found that on average, the patient suffered by acid attack burns to 14% of their body surface area, with areas most commonly affected including the face (87% of the victims), head and neck (67%), upper limbs (60%) and chest (54%). Around a third of victims (31%) suffered complete or partial blindness. Psychological Consequences: A psychological trauma is suffered by the victim when she perceives that her skin is burnt off and after the attack the defacement and the disabilities with which they have to bear for the rest of their lives. Some of the psychological problems which the victims suffer are insomnia, nightmares, depression, fear of facing the world, headache, tiredness, fear of other acid attacks. They also feel despondent and worried as they think they turned an outcast from society. The victim’s life gets derailed as every time she looks in the mirror she is reminded of her present insecurity as well as the despondency of the future. Social and Economic consequences: The victims who are not married are likely not to get married as they suffer from many disabilities like blindness, deafness, and many others difficulties and our society’s mindset is not that wide enough to accept a disabled person as their wife. They even do not get a job notwithstanding being qualified as they cannot meet up to the expectation of their employers as not having the ‘personality. Instead of helping them, we make their life more annoying, as we commiserate them as we do not like to look at their faces for long. However, this approach needs to be changed as they are suffering not for their wrong, but due to the fault of some savage animals roaming around the society freely.
For any crime to get reduced or stop we ought to go to the root cause. Know the reasons why it is happening. Be honest in accepting the reasons and endeavour to solve the problem logically. The only solution for this problem and to defend the honour of women – “the jewels of the society” is hardcore punishment. Please no more TAREEK PAI TAREEK.
