It takes a thousand years to figure out the ways to keep a woman safe. In the Middle Ages a woman retreated into the seclusion of her home or castle to stay out of the reach of prying eyes. But today one needs to work. What does a girl do if she has to travel to work and back, especially if her work requires her to stay out late? She has to weigh her options before she can commit to work like that unless of course her office provides her transport facilities. I remember working for a database company that required me to work for the night shift. At 10.30 pm when we poured out of the building to board the cabs in the muggy weather, we were usually looking around to see if there were other girls sitting in the cabs with us. No girls, no cab until we were sure there were at least a couple of them to keep us company as the cab left the parking lot and ran straight into the heavy vehicular traffic that would keep us drearily hoping the traffic would ease and we could reach home. And no, I could not spot a single woman on the pavement walking alone even if the roads were lit and men walked about looking as if the world belonged to them. Well, I guess it does. Do we, at least here in Delhi, wait another thousand years before we can walk in the night along a road feeling unthreatened? The death sentence awarded to the rapists and murderers of Nirbhaya makes me wonder if only capital punishment of the sort the Middle Ages rulers were known for, is the lone deterrent to criminals of their kind. Again, it probably is. Still, the question is, will that make our roads safe?
Posted on: Sat, 28 Sep 2013 17:39:49 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015