How a modern society manages its own aberrations is often a function of a number of complex variables, but management is rarely questioned unless in times of visible and often tragic aberrations. In those times, many in those societies often raise their voices to stimulate discussion and offer solutions to avoid future aberrations, but the underlying complexity often undermine the chances of success in the short term.
As the year draws to a close, the two biggest democratic societies on the planet have been rocked by aberrations. In the United States, by the senseless slaughter of many schoolchildren by a mentally unstable man with a powerful weapon. And in India, with the brutal violation of a woman going about her daily life in the capital city. Both instances provoked strong outrage, and many pundits emerged to start discussing ways to avoid such future tragedies. No executable solution has emerged, and it is unlikely that any quick fixes are possible. This writer is guilty of the same impulse to offer easy fixes.
In the United States, solutions suggested have ranged all the way from stripping the constitutional rights of all citizens to own any guns to the ideas suggesting that arming the victims could have led to less tragic outcomes. A spirited debate is underway, now with the President involved to find an “American” solution – whereby reasonable people may continue to own guns while maniacs are kept away from them. The jury is still out, however, on what types of reasonable guns could be given to those deemed to be reasonable people. While the majority in society were on the side of less gun control prior to the most recent tragedy, it remains to be seen whether the changes some detect in public opinion following the aberration have any permanence. There are some things fundamental to the American ethos and world view, and gun ownership has remained one of those things. Shooting events are common in America ,and so is per capita gun ownership, so this shooting event wasn't a statistical aberration. But comparisons of gun related body counts in the US to the rest of the rich world’s societies, in absolute terms, reveal stark aberrations.
In India, the upwardly mobile urban youth has said, tweeted, posted, suggested quite a lot - especially in cyberspace. Human rights activists, media, students, politicians, career bloggers and NRIs have taken to the streets and their Facebook walls with a lot of words, passion and ideas – ranging along the spectrum of stronger legislation to barbaric instant justice that mutilates the rapists. The complex interplay of inequality, gender ratios, gender roles and criminal impulses of a few have contributed to what happened, possibly undeterred by the inability of a fiscally starved, hurtfully inefficient and bureaucratic set of institutions. A reasonable set of laws to deter crimes such as rape appear do exist on paper, but are incredibly unable to bring justice to those who deserve it simply because the apparatus required to do so does not exist. The way society handles the victim in the aftermath , how it polices the incident and then ultimately how it prosecutes through the criminal justice system is often more criminal than the act. This may partly explain why so many of these acts go unreported in the first place. These failures are not all failures of governance and bureaucracy, although they too are certainly failing, but also a failure of society to better manage its own affairs. It is a resource problem in providing enough people, systems and processes to police crime, assure dignity and dispense justice. Very bluntly put, society has failed more in not having supported these institutions to be in a position to take action. One could argue that this support and respect should be earned, but then again it’s a vicious circle of debate that does not solve the issue at hand. This event was also a statistical aberration, in that the criminals were not known to the victim, whereas most rapes in India are committed by acquaintances.
The second amendment of the American constitution was put in place to arm the citizen militia, should it ever have to rise to defend against the forces of tyranny. It is time for an amendment to the Indian constitution to provision guns for her women citizens as they emerge from the shadows of ancient domination. Because society is unable to prevent this tyranny. And very rarely is it willing to take notice. Let New Delhi show the way now.
(And since we were talking statistics :
http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/executing-the-neighbour/article4218247.ece)
