DWS Extra

Street harassment and rash driving. Two of Delhi’s most well-known evils. Both out of control. They came together yesterday to kill Pearl Gupta, a 17-year old first-year-student of Aditi Mahavidyalaya.

This is what happened according to Parul, her friend who was walking with her when it happened:

“Barely 20 metres from the college gate, a scooterist came from the wrong side and tried to drive between me and Pearl. He was passing lewd comments. We both fell – I got pushed to the footpath, Pearl fell on the road. A Blueline coming at full speed crushed her head. By the time I ran to her, she had died. The scooterist fled; the bus driver jumped off the bus in panic and ran away.”

In this case, the Blueline bus may really not be to blame. Even at a legal speed of 40 kmph, a bus kills you if you fall in front of it on the road. The real culprit here is the man on the scooter. And he got away. The women constables posted near Aditi College did not even take down the number of the scooter, and no one else did either. Chances are, he won’t ever be caught.

So there you have two of the worst things about Delhi. A complete nonchalance for harassing women, and rash driving on the streets.

Would someone do something about this? I am a bloody blogger; this is the best I can do.

From what I hear, Delhi’s campuses have an active political life. Is street harassment not something they can take up? Imagine the student unions jointly deciding to protest, across Delhi, that harassment of women should stop.

From what I have seen of Delhi, that seems unlikely. Two reasons. The male students – a good percentage of them – are as casual about street harassment as a good eprcentage of Delhi’s male population. They, frankly, don’t care. Often, at the street level, a bit of pestering or nudging girls and women is actively encouraged upon even now. Men find it embarrassing to tell their friends – its not macho – to refrain from the commenting and touchy-feely behaviour.

Cops are not immune to this either. I can’t find a link to this online – but the cops who landed up at the accident spot asked the protesting students why they were creating a hungama; the girl was after all not their family member. Typical. These retards infest the police across in India. Nothing, really, is a problem for the typical Indian unless it is to do with his own family, right?

This is not exactly a short post. But when I saw this news in today’s morning papers, I was quite speechless. This is happening a lot to me these days: a general, helpless speechlessness when the unfairness of things hits me a bit hard. Maybe it’s my age. But there is young blood – a lot of it in fact – in Delhi’s campuses. And if they want, they can put an end to it. Governments have always succumbed when students decided to protest – so if Delhi’s students are more interested in their own new shiny mobiles, cars, malls and making MMS clips, they have only themselves to blame.

Boys and girls, if you do not want this to happen to someone you know and love, take this seriously and do something. If you can take a break from shopping and Orkut-ing for some time.