By Roland Francis
Source: Goan Voice Daily Newsletter 1 Sep 2013 at www.goanvoice.org.uk The plight of women in India was highlighted again with the gang rape of a young photojournalist in Bombay, a city that was once considered the safest the country for women. A similar incident took place in Delhi in December last year but fortunately this time the victim was not murdered. Both incidents have demonstrated several things. That some Indian males are basically sexually crazed and repressed and are encouraged in their misogyny surprisingly by the very females in their families; their mothers, grandmothers and aunts. It starts out with little things. The males are fed heartily at meals and what scant, insufficient food remains is shared by the women in the household. It goes on to criminal faults like instigating and abetting the young man in harassing the new bride to get additional dowry from her family ultimately ending in a joint conspiracy to burn and kill the hapless victim if her father is unable to meet these later demands. That Bombay Police are very effective if they are forced to be so by public pressure. The effectiveness has a price though. Suspects are routinely and mercilessly beaten up in custody until they confess and their innocent parents and other relatives are sometimes not immune from similar treatment if they do not give up information that the police need. Also the system of confidential informants (khabris) helps investigations as with police forces in the rest of the world but in Bombay's case those CIs are protected by their sponsor cops even more acutely from their own major criminal activities. That the print, broadcast and social media all play a crucial role in getting culprits to book in such high profile cases. The fact that no lessons are ever learned or no future preventive measures implemented by the authorities is another matter. They count on the light on such incidents eventually fading away and so far they have not been disappointed. This works for them even in case of major incidents like people dying in bus and train accidents which could have been preventable if basic safety and anti-negligence measures had been in place. I need to correct myself. In India there is no dearth of commission reports, rules, regulations and laws. The problem is with a lack of common civic consciousness in following them and the widespread corruption that causes the guardians of those laws to not enforce them. Goa though has no saving grace like Bombay. The police force has been inept, untrained and corrupt right from the time of change to Indian rule. It's not that third degree violence or confidential informants are not being used in Goa, It's just that even the best measures fail in that small state. As an example, the rate of solving as well as obtaining convictions in major crimes like murders and significant burglaries is abysmally low. The past and present heads of this force have been either incapable or unwilling to drive change to modernity and efficiency with better training and equipment. Granted that politicians have been a major thorn and impediment to all this. But such is the bane of police all over the country with the defining difference being that while elsewhere some inspiring IPS officers like Ribeiro, Mendonca, Inamdar, Soman and the current Satyapal Singh make a change to the criminal landscape, no such officers seem to have blessed Goa. There was the nationally famous Kiran Bedi who was a clever traffic top cop, but even she seemed to have made no lasting impression on that crime cursed and driving challenged territory. On the plane of another thought and talking of driving, today's weekend Toronto Star has devoted an entire supplement to the dangers of distracted driving. While thanks to NGOs like MADD (mothers against drunk driving) and police and government efforts as well, society is well aware of the dangers of drunk driving, what is not so well known is that distracted driving kills and maims even more people than driving under the influence of alcohol and drugs. One of the biggest culprits of distracted driving is texting - with eating, drinking coffee or pop, talking, putting on makeup, adjusting the stereo or GPS, hands off the steering wheel and having an animated discussion or verbal fight with a passenger, play their own dangerous roles. Werner Herzog has created an about-to-be released documentary 'It Can Wait' on texting and driving which has a very powerful message for all behind the wheel. It is already on You Tube as 'One Second To The Next' - <http://bit.ly/15vaFCa> http://bit.ly/15vaFCa and has gone viral. Please see the 34 minute viewing and pass on to those you care about. To readers in North America, have a pleasant and safe Labor Day tomorrow.