Emerging market grovels at the bottom of Maslow’s pyramid

A gruesome rape in the city has brought our seething youth back on the streets, voicing dissent against a government that appears indifferent to a lot of recent other bad things. Matters have worsened because of the callous approach with which protesters were handled. This along with previous news on graft and rampant corruption, our reputation and image as an ‘emerging market’ has been scarred further, dragging us further down on a global scale on issues of dependability, growth and development.

Why is this crime affecting us so much today; that too in a nation where women are already least safe as per recent findings on security for women index for all nations?

Reminiscing the days of studying for my MBA, one particular element that will stay in my mind forever, is the Maslow’s pyramid, and where we stack up, as a nation. Do look this up to know where you as an individual stand in your own life’s timeline. If we want to get anywhere higher in our lives as professionals or citizens, we need to shift our focus beyond our basic needs- also called Safety, Biological and Physiological needs, which lie stacked at the bottom of this pyramid. Just in case you thought the rapists are slum-dwelling, illiterate, uncouth animals that deserved to be bathed in acid, let’s take a look at where it all starts.

As men born and raised in this patriarchal society, we have grown up looking at women being ill-treated in our very own homes. It starts with killing the girl child, of the ones that live- assigning them menial jobs that ‘they are made naturally to do’, being preferred over daughters for higher education and other goodies of life, reserving womenfolk to the kitchen or child-bearing and rearing activities only, dismissing their opinions in important matters of the home, demanding dowry and other plagues that never seem to go away. 

What is ironical is that most male children do not yield the 'returns' of all this investment bestowed. It is ultimately the girl child that brings or keeps the family together and keeps the home running despite challenges which men don't have the courage to face up to, simply because the male child always had it easy through his convenient childhood. So much contradiction in a nation that worships numerous, 'powerful' mythological goddesses.

A change needs to be bought about in our upbringing.  It is never too late. It seems easy to say, but political will can change things in a short span of 5 years. An entire nation can change, and be the super power we so can be.
The symbolic artwork is a ballpen on paper copy from 'Green Lantern - The Sinestro Corps War'.