93 women will be raped today, writes Twinkle Khanna

I am sitting in the balcony, reading the papers. And there I see it — An Uber cab driver has raped a young woman in Delhi.

There is an outrage about how unsafe Uber is, how they have to do a thorough check before hiring and how people will now be apprehensive before getting into one of their cabs.

This is not just about how Uber should be more responsible (they clearly need to make sure there are no such security lapses), this is about our men. There is a disease running through our country and through our men. Every single day, you read about rape.

Gujarat: A six-month baby has been raped by a neighbour and is still lying in critical condition in the hospital.

Goa: Three boys raped a five year old. Their ages? Nine, 12 and 15.

Raipur: A teenage girl was threatened and raped several times over a period of eight months by three men.

Mumbai: A 14-year-old girl has been repeatedly raped by her stepfather.

Nagpur: Five men abducted a school teacher in Nagpur and gang raped her. They dressed up as police officers waylaid her and proceeded to brutally rape her.

I don’t understand this. I can’t unravel the back-story of this incident. How do five men talk about this and plan this? Did they sit together in a room and say, “We need sex. Let’s rape women? Let’s dress up as cops and do the needful?” Is it socially acceptable to talk about this as a group? My mind is reeling.

The moral police will have you believing that a woman provokes this assault onto herself by the way she dresses, the way she walks, the way she talks. Really? The three-year-old who got raped and was then killed provoked her assailant? The 84-year-old grandmother who got raped by a 30-year-old man was wearing a mini-skirt?

Why are we hearing about this every day? Is it the fact that it’s being reported more often and that’s why the huge numbers are coming to light? Or is it the fact that all these men have phones and 3G and via that access to Internet porn which is indirectly responsible for these disgusting acts?

And all the parents of these vile men should be asked a few questions. Where did you go wrong in raising these boys? There have to be signs. These boys cannot go from running in little shorts and playing chor-police to shoving bamboos into women and destroying lives with absolute disregard to any sort of humanity, without at some point revealing glimpses of their sick minds.

It seems like there is nothing we can do to stop the rape cases that we hear about, day in and day out. There is nothing we can do to protect our children and ourselves. The only thing in our control is to make sure we report the crimes and urge others to do the same.

I know a Gujarati family where the cook repeatedly raped their 13-year-old daughter. The conservative family, scared of the social repercussions, did not report the crime. They did not even beat up the cook, just dismissed him as they did not want to draw attention to the rape as it would (in their eyes) bring shame to the family. A clear message was sent, not just to the assailant but to everyone else around as well, ‘There is no punishment for this crime.’ That cook is still out there, working in another household and probably looking for yet another opportunity to rape yet another girl as he now knows that he can get away with it so easily.

There are laws against rape, but scores of men still do it. The law is enforced but they still do it. We agitate and try to get the death penalty for acts committed, but they still continue. The latest statistics from National Crime Records Bureau state that 93 women are being raped daily in this country.

How do we stop this? No one seems to have the answer. All we have are daughters in our homes and a deep sense of despair.