Of Rape, Sex, Prostitution ..

Today is December 23rd. The nation is roiling. And the cause of turbulence: the delhi gang rape. The sheer brutality of the incident has conjured up public sentiment like never before. Delhi’s youth have hit the streets in massive numbers, demanding death penalty for the violators. Not a new sight, but this time, the mob is surprisingly recalcitrant. In their best efforts to disperse the demonstrators, delhi police has exhausted its arsenal. Tear gas, water cannons, smoke grenades, fists and batons..all too little to contain the fuming indignation. Meanwhile within the Thihaar jail, the arrested rapists are probably praying that the crowd is granted its wish. A death penalty would indeed be better than the humiliation and torture they are going through. Not at the hands of the police, but hardened and remorseless co-inhabitants. One was made to eat his own excreta. Nothing more than what he deserved, no doubt.

But nevertheless, this is india. By the time, our dilatory legal procedures culminate in a verdict, everyone who is so concerned today would have moved on, either to the next media sensation, or to their own mundane daily lives. Death sentence or not, rapes would still occur. The land of Vedas, the home of spirituality, that often talks disdainfully of the depravity of western civilization in contrast with our rich cultural heritage. Total bullshit. Researchers estimate that less than 20% of all cases of sexual assault are reported. The delhi incident is by no means a rarity. In the less exposed, indigent regions of the country, alarming lawlessness exists. Countless sex crimes are committed every day. Many of them, even more odious than the one at hand. So what is to be done?

Over the past couple of days, feministic writers have filled newspaper columns, some out of genuine concern, others happy at the opportunity to sell their hackneyed “girls, stand up and fight” and “girls, don’t run scared anymore” bombasts. Some preach martial arts training for girls. Others like Shobaa De want a society where men simply will not think of rape. Well let’s get real and face it. That rape-less Utopia is NEVER coming. Girls have every reason to be scared.  Among the 1 billion Indians spread across unfathomable sociocultural diversities, there are bound to be perverts. And given the difficulty of law and order enforcement in every remote nook of the vast nation, rapes too are bound to be. I am certainly not justifying it. Neither am I a male chauvinist.  I am just being realistic. Yet there ought to be something that can be done.

Why don’t we legalize prostitution? And in the process arrange a means of catharsis for the suppressed basic instincts. Sigmund Freud said that sexual drive is ‘the single most important motivating force in adult life’. Keep a man starved, he will steal for food. Similarly with sex. So liberalise the norms of sex.  You may call that an irrelevant/dumb suggestion or perhaps even a dangerous one that can erode the moral basement of our society. But the supposed centers of decadence in the west do not record half the number of sex crimes India does. Sex is a taboo subject, the way we are brought up. And that could very well be what we are doing wrong and they are not. Recognizing sex workers could be the first step towards liberalizing our thought process and surmounting our inhibitions.

Apart from that there are other advantages. Such an act could be a boon for the 3 million (out of which 2 million go undetected in government records) sex workers in india. They are often subjected to cold hearted brutality about which they presently cannot do anything. They cannot approach the police for obvious reasons. They cannot expect help from the society which despises them. Once prostitution is recognized as a profession this situation can change. In fact after agriculture, prostitution is the oldest profession in the world. Legalizing it can also go a long way towards checking the spread of sexually transmitted diseases. For instance, if the sex workers are registered with the government, it would be much easier to ensure that requisite safety measures are implemented. They can also be subjected to regular HIV tests. One solution to rid the prostitute, the rape-fearing woman, the sex-hungry man, the health ministry, and a pretentious society of some major headaches.

Majority of the sloganeering Delhi-ites are just happy to feel like they are part of something again. To feel that they are doing something for a cause. What if today, right now, the government announces death penalty for the delhi criminals and a set of stringent laws for protecting women? There will be momentary celebrations. Then they would sink back into the glum monotony of their day to day existence and be hoping for some new controversy to sprout. For a chance to go out and revolt. Rapes would still occur, no matter what. Just like the one reported in today’s newspaper, right in the middle of a nationwide anti-rape movement. So…  prostitution.