A Question Mark on Our Collective Conscience

The fate of the lady who was brutally assaulted and raped after falling down from the train near Vallathol Nagar railway station, Kerala and who succumbed to her head injuries last Sunday puts a question mark on our collective conscience. The brutal action of the criminal, the neglect and passivity of the passengers in the train and the irresponsibility of the railway authorities are all despicable to the core. The whole incident shows how immoral and unkind our society and its people have become.

Anyone who frequently travels in a train would know how big a nuisance and security threat the travelling mendicants and beggars have become. In all our journeys we could see a plethora of them with all sorts of ingenious begging tricks and begging tools. They travel without travel ticket or any other valid documents and this makes it extremely difficult to track them and prosecute them for any crimes that they commit. Neither the railways nor the state authorities are known to take any honest legal actions against such people and therefore they feel rather fearless in continuing with their unlawful occupation. One such spurious traveller, who is physically handicapped, and undoubtedly morally afflicted, is behind this savagery assault and rape on the young lady. The heartless and merciless way in which the girl was attacked bears evidence to the unsound and dangerous moral nature of the culprit. It must be said that the culprit deserves no mercy from the society or our legal system and he should be given a model punishment that would prevent anyone in the future from the reiteration of such barbarism.

The brutality of the culprit is only rivalled by the indolence and inaction of the passengers in the train where the incident happened. On seeing that one lady had fallen down from the train, one traveller had urged others to pull the chain and stop the train, but they all turned a deaf ear to him. Had they heard him and stopped the train the life of the lady could have been saved. But it was not to be and they continued with their journey. It was one perfect example of how our society has declined in its morality and magnanimity. We have all become restricted to ourselves and our families and the woes and troubles of others are nothing to us but an annoying nuisance. One can’t help but get dismayed by such callousness and insensitivity of our society.

It is high time we raise our voice against the irresponsibility of the Indian Railways. We know that the public sector giant is making enormous profit out of its travellers. Yet they fall awfully short of implementing security systems in the train and in the railway stations. Travelling in a train has become a fearful thing for the people, particularly ladies who are often insulted and attacked inside train compartments. The Railway Protection Force or the state police (arguments are still going on about on whom the real responsibility of train security lies in) should take immediate steps to rein-in anti-social elements. In addition to punishing culprits who attack women, the law enforcement agencies should step up their intelligence gathering mechanism as well.

The pathetic fate of the lady who came under the attack would prick the individual conscience of every single one of us as well as the collective conscience of our society. Her tragic end would raise fear among all of us whose mothers, sisters, wives, friends or colleagues travel in Indian trains. Let this young lady, who was a beloved daughter to a mother and a beloved sister to a brother, lead us to a moral awakening. Let us take a pledge that from here onwards we would not let a person’s call for help leave unattended. At the same time, a murderous man’s merciless bestiality on a poor, innocent young lady makes me ashamed on being a member of the masculine gender.