Here is what our government did in the Uber rape case which they shouldn’t have done

The shameful incident of a Delhi-based professional being raped by the Uber cab driver who was entrusted with the responsibility of her safe transport, has been all over the news in the past week. The way the incident has been reported and the events that have played out since, has yet again displayed the same myopic approach of our law makers towards handling this heinous crime. The decision of the Delhi govt. to ban Uber cab services from the state, which so far has been the most concrete step taken by the govt. towards the issue, seems at best a knee-jerk reaction with really no long term effect.

It is true that the company had committed an unpardonable mistake when it employed a registered sex offender without conducting a background check. In fact their list of crime goes on as they had not paid heed to a previous complaint lodged by another passenger against the same driver. Their lax attitude towards ensuring the integrity and characters of their employees and as a result ensuring the safety of their clients is responsible for this heinous incident and for this they should definitely be penalized. However, what is problematic here is the willingness of all parties involved to place the onus of the entire crime on Uber and pretending nothing else is wrong.

Uber definitely bears responsibility for the horrific crime but to a certain degree. The issue has far reaching roots which at the very outset points to our own judiciary, treatment and rehabilitation of sex offenders.

As has been reported over and over by now, the accused is a repeat offender with multiple charges of rape and molestation registered against his name. He even did time for rape in Tihar jail in 2011 and was convicted for another rape in 2013 before being released on bail, yet not only did he make his way back to the public space, his incarcerations seems to have had absolutely no effect on him. What does this say about our own system of justice? Accounts of offenders repeating their crimes once let out of jail, news of convicts and sex offenders occupying high public offices are commonplace in our nation today. This makes us question what does convicting someone really mean in our nation and what is the purpose of our jails? They appear to have the same effect as ‘time-out’ or ‘sit in the corner’ punishments do for children.

Further, once this current incident came to light, several women from the hometown of the accused have come forward to report cases of rape and molestation against the same person. The current count of fresh cases reported against the accused is nearing 30. None of these women were able to come forward on their own before the current crime was made public, maybe if even a fraction of them would have spoken up before, the others would have been spared. This fact highlights that for every reported crime of sexual violence, there are multiple accounts of such crimes which go unreported. The fear of being ostracised by family and society forces most victims to keep mum; the socially prevalent practice of slut shaming which is endorsed by people from all sections of our society is responsible for their silence and for perpetuating such crimes. Will a simple banning of a cab service serve a panacea for all these problems?

Let’s just for a second remember that last December’s horrifying gang rape that shook the nation, took place in one of the buses that daily plied the roads of Delhi, also there have been countless reports of similar crimes being perpetrated even in such conveyances as a school buses. Was Uber or any other transport service responsible for those crimes?

Finally, the accused himself is a poster child of all that is wrong with our society. He is a repeat sex offender roaming freely among all, immune to the effects of jail time; he has bribed his way through to obtain licences, character certificates, permits – all that was needed for his job as a cab driver, and as per recent news believes all the women he has raped or molested, had fallen for his charms. Our society which moulded the misogynistic mentality of this man, which makes him think his victims wanted what they got; our home grown agents at various services who helped him obtain forged licenses and permits that put him back on the road among people, the limp effect of our courts and jails on this repeat offender’s behaviour, are all equally responsible as Uber for the appalling incident.

Today we are ready to point all fingers at Uber for hiring a criminal as their employee and punishing the company for their faults is right, but what about the role of our own society has played in bringing about this incident? What about those political leaders who bear the cross of many a heinous crime themselves and yet enjoy the title and perks of being people’s leaders? What about those so-called leaders of our people who spout such pearls of wisdom as “Ladkon se galti ho jaati hai” to justify the most horrific of rapes, trivialize the crime and create an unsaid social acceptability of the same? Also, what about those who are blaming the girl for dozing off in the cab and pinning the responsibility of the crime on her? Will the banning of a taxi service serve as the magic potion to all these problems and put an end to the crime, or will the tendency to always look for an external cause of our problems only turn us into Ostriches burying our heads in the sand?

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