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Rape of foreign tourists shames the nation!
M. S. Verma, 15 January 2008, Tuesday
Views:: 1571 Comments: 2
Not only women tourists from abroad, our own women are not safe in our country. As a Lucknow girl rightly puts it, “Women are not safe anywhere-in the womb, in their homes, with family, with in-laws, in prison, on the streets or public places”.
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“UK JOURNALIST raped by a guesthouse owner; US tourist molested at Pushkar, Rajasthan; Japanese student molested; Swiss tourist raped”, scream out the headlines in the national and local press. What is happening to India after all? The scriptures declare ‘Atithi Devo Bhava’ or ‘the guest is God’. The foreign tourists are our guests. But the ground reality tells a different story. Foreigners are no longer treated as guests. They are an easy prey to human predators. What puzzles me is the scant concern shown to these shameful almost-daily occurrences by those whose duty is to guard the tourists against such things: the government, tourism department, hoteliers, guest-house owners, taxi drivers, parking lot attendants, the moralists, temple priests, the socialites - in short, everybody is indifferent to this important issue. Recently a British tourist was raped in Goa. But the government explained that it was just an isolated incident. Well, it could be so, but how many such incidents would awaken us to the gravity of this serious issue? Molesting, ill-treating, harassing, humiliating, insulting, violating the modesty, stealing the purse and documents, cheating, deceiving and fooling tourists, exploiting their trust and vulnerability, murdering them, etc, constitute a dangerous trend that sends negative signals to the outside world.
I was in Kabul, Afghanistan, in the 1970’s and my room-mate was a beautiful, young American girl. She was also a teacher in Kabul University. During the winter vacation (as summer vacation there is not that long or important), she visited Pakistan. The previous year she had been to Kashmir. On her return, she told me plaintively that although she enjoyed her visit to the country, she felt very bad when ogled and leered at. Eve teasing, she observed, was worse in Pakistan than in India. But I don’t feel proud when I recall her words now. Then why confine ourselves to foreigners alone? The Indian women are treated no better. Rape of grown up women or small girls, oral sex or any act of perverted mentality has been on the rise and is being highlighted in the media. The lines from a letter to the editor of a newspaper by one Deepti of Lucknow, aptly expresses the genuine anguish of a woman; it speaks for all Indian women: “Women are not safe anywhere- in the womb, in their homes, with family, with in-laws, in prison, on the streets or public places.” All of us understand this and nobody is so inane as not to see this, realise its consequence; the writing is on the wall. But what do we do next? Are we serious enough to face this scourge or would we prefer to look the other way?
Of course we prefer to look the other way and pretend that nothing has happened. The law will take its own course, we argue. Why should we bother? After all it is not our doing; not our responsibility. But this cannot go on for a long time. This attitude of the Indian society will take its toll. The county will lose its fine cultural image and the foundation of its excellent ancient traditions will erode. In the long run, tourism will suffer and the country will lose revenue. The efforts of the ministry concerned to promote tourism will be negated. It will not be able to promote India as a country inhabited by a hospitable and friendly people. Indians abroad will be looked down upon by the people of the host country and labelled barbarians, boors and bullies. Indians won’t be able to hold their head high abroad with national pride because of the crime committed by a few of their fellow countrymen back home in India against foreign tourists. It is high time punishment for crime against foreigner tourists was reviewed and made more stringent. The punishment should be severe enough to instil fear into the perpetrators of these shameful acts. Some poster campaign or some steps for educating the people generally involved in such shameful acts against the foreign tourists should be undertaken. There is no dearth of means when there is an end in view. There are resources but only the will to act is absent. But things are being delayed which naturally causes concern in the minds of the right-thinking people.
Rape of foreign tourists shames the nation!
M. S. Verma, 15 January 2008, Tuesday
Views:: 1571 Comments: 2
Not only women tourists from abroad, our own women are not safe in our country. As a Lucknow girl rightly puts it, “Women are not safe anywhere-in the womb, in their homes, with family, with in-laws, in prison, on the streets or public places”.
Submit... Browse...
“UK JOURNALIST raped by a guesthouse owner; US tourist molested at Pushkar, Rajasthan; Japanese student molested; Swiss tourist raped”, scream out the headlines in the national and local press. What is happening to India after all? The scriptures declare ‘Atithi Devo Bhava’ or ‘the guest is God’. The foreign tourists are our guests. But the ground reality tells a different story. Foreigners are no longer treated as guests. They are an easy prey to human predators. What puzzles me is the scant concern shown to these shameful almost-daily occurrences by those whose duty is to guard the tourists against such things: the government, tourism department, hoteliers, guest-house owners, taxi drivers, parking lot attendants, the moralists, temple priests, the socialites - in short, everybody is indifferent to this important issue. Recently a British tourist was raped in Goa. But the government explained that it was just an isolated incident. Well, it could be so, but how many such incidents would awaken us to the gravity of this serious issue? Molesting, ill-treating, harassing, humiliating, insulting, violating the modesty, stealing the purse and documents, cheating, deceiving and fooling tourists, exploiting their trust and vulnerability, murdering them, etc, constitute a dangerous trend that sends negative signals to the outside world.
I was in Kabul, Afghanistan, in the 1970’s and my room-mate was a beautiful, young American girl. She was also a teacher in Kabul University. During the winter vacation (as summer vacation there is not that long or important), she visited Pakistan. The previous year she had been to Kashmir. On her return, she told me plaintively that although she enjoyed her visit to the country, she felt very bad when ogled and leered at. Eve teasing, she observed, was worse in Pakistan than in India. But I don’t feel proud when I recall her words now. Then why confine ourselves to foreigners alone? The Indian women are treated no better. Rape of grown up women or small girls, oral sex or any act of perverted mentality has been on the rise and is being highlighted in the media. The lines from a letter to the editor of a newspaper by one Deepti of Lucknow, aptly expresses the genuine anguish of a woman; it speaks for all Indian women: “Women are not safe anywhere- in the womb, in their homes, with family, with in-laws, in prison, on the streets or public places.” All of us understand this and nobody is so inane as not to see this, realise its consequence; the writing is on the wall. But what do we do next? Are we serious enough to face this scourge or would we prefer to look the other way?
Of course we prefer to look the other way and pretend that nothing has happened. The law will take its own course, we argue. Why should we bother? After all it is not our doing; not our responsibility. But this cannot go on for a long time. This attitude of the Indian society will take its toll. The county will lose its fine cultural image and the foundation of its excellent ancient traditions will erode. In the long run, tourism will suffer and the country will lose revenue. The efforts of the ministry concerned to promote tourism will be negated. It will not be able to promote India as a country inhabited by a hospitable and friendly people. Indians abroad will be looked down upon by the people of the host country and labelled barbarians, boors and bullies. Indians won’t be able to hold their head high abroad with national pride because of the crime committed by a few of their fellow countrymen back home in India against foreign tourists. It is high time punishment for crime against foreigner tourists was reviewed and made more stringent. The punishment should be severe enough to instil fear into the perpetrators of these shameful acts. Some poster campaign or some steps for educating the people generally involved in such shameful acts against the foreign tourists should be undertaken. There is no dearth of means when there is an end in view. There are resources but only the will to act is absent. But things are being delayed which naturally causes concern in the minds of the right-thinking people.
Rape of foreign tourists shames the nation!
