Whom should I trust?

Everyone has similar opinion on the Delhi gang-rape case. It has touched most of us and got us into thinking. But personally it got me scared. The profile of the rapists has rattled me. I used to think that I am safe inside four walls of home/ office. But I realized that there is a hidden monster in those who are seemingly harmless. I now dread to interact with my milkman, paperboy, postman, courier guy, security guard at home and office, vegetable vendor, shopkeepers, auto/ cab/ bus drivers, etc. The fact is that women are surrounded by men at all places. The incident has induced prejudice in my mind against all those men I interact with usually. Who knows what thoughts are lurking behind their smiling facades?

Most of them are illiterate. They don't read newspapers every day. They might not have televisions at home at all to know what is happening around them. They have least knowledge and regard for laws. I am not sure how amending laws would change their psyche. Even if laws are made, what respect does anyone have for them if one is sure to get away using loop holes in the implementing system? Literate eve teasers have little respect for any lady on the streets. Some of them come from affluent families as well. It is not that they are unaware of their deeds. It is just that they are unafraid of the outcome. Strict and quick implementation of whatever the law is the one of the major ways to bring fear into those who think that they can get away. There will always be those extreme cases against which women need to guard against.

A broken trust is difficult to mend. No law on paper would bring back the trust in a hurry. Everyone in the society should work towards making every woman feel secure and safe no matter what time/ place she is in. Passers-by (including us) should have the concern for strangers and come forward to help. The web of 'I, me, myself' that we have built around us should be broken to include those in our surroundings. That, I think, is a huge task which is not going to be completed in a hurry. It will take a generation time for that awareness to come.