My Take: Power and Rape

India’s rape problem has been in the news recently, particularly for the extent that Indian culture has allowed these atrocities to happen. The latest story, reported by the AFP, is that of a Bangalore private school roller skating instructor who is alleged to have raped a 6 year old girl at Vibgyor High School and has been arrested. This is a new low, and has outraged parents at the school for obvious reasons, particularly as it happened in a classroom in an expensive institution with a long list of well-off alumni. My take is that the biggest problem with this is that not only was this allowed to occur, but that it seems in modern society, such actions by people in power seem commonplace. For example, Rolf Harris’ indecently assaulting girls as young as 7 years old, that he has only recently been convicted for. It seems to me that a number of the people who are famous and are in position of influence, public life or wealth are predatory in nature and are drawn to fame and power due to the easy access it allows to get to innocent victims. Rape in India has been a big issue since the 2012 Delhi gang rape, in which a 23 year old woman and her male friend were so brutally raped and killed on a bus, and is made even worse by the lack of justice which allows criminals to kill women while knowing they’ll get away with it and also India’s patriarchal culture in which the victim is often blamed for the rape.