Editor,
Let’s talk about the Arunachalee men. The man of any household in our Arunachal feels a sense of entitlement towards three things in his life: money, car/bike (Scorpio/Duke) and most importantly, women.
Whenever there are cases of crimes against women outside our state, we all say way or the other that “hamara Arunachal toh bahut acha hai, ye sab maamle mai.” Is it, though? Is our Arunachal as safe for women as we claim it to be? Is the crime rate really lower?
For the sake of argument, let’s assume that crimes against women in our state are lower compared to other states. But you can’t really be comparing an Indian state to other Indian states because India, in general, is highly unsafe for women, and if you consider it otherwise then someone needs to break your bubble.
A pregnant woman was allegedly murdered by her own husband and the first thing that everyone was talking about was his other wife and how she was an accessory to the murder and maybe she was, but that just goes to show the hypocrisy of our society. On the one hand, we are mourning the death a pregnant woman (and rightly so) but on the other hand we are placing the entire blame on the other woman.
And just a few days after this horrific incident, we got ourselves another case where an Arunachalee man repeatedly raped an underage girl who was employed in his household. First up, let’s start with the usual victim-blaming questions, shall we? How did she get employed if she was underage? She must have lied about her age. Is she even underage as she claims to be?
Okay. Now that that’s done, understand that almost every household in Arunachal employs a domestic help and almost every one of these domestic help is a girl who is underage. Everyone from politicians to engineers, doctors, farmers and teachers employ these kids and make them babysit their kids, watch and feed their dogs, look after their cows/pigs, cook, clean, etc. A kid who has merely learned anything at all is made to do all these things. And the irony of it all is that all of these people who employ these kids have kids of their own who are of the same age but the sheer contrast in which they are both treated is, let’s just say sad, and we expect our kids to shape Arunachal’s future. Kids who will grow up to be like, well, us.
What happens now? A few more weeks of dharna and debates and we will move on with our lives and forget all about it. The men accused will most probably be out on bail in a few months and be reinstated in their jobs. As for the girl, she’s already psychologically scarred for life and adding to that trauma, she will also be shamed and blamed.
Another classic case of Arunachalee men returning unscathed.
Anonymous Arunachalee