Has Mumbai ceased to be a safe youngistan?

A 15-year-old girl committed suicide after being gang-raped by her friends. DNA asks experts and Mumbaikars why crimes against teens are on the rise.

Women deserve equal respect
We may understand science and technology, but we still lack basic knowledge about respecting women and children. This is because many men still believe women are just objects and treat them as the weaker sex. The only reason for this is that we are unable to provide a broad perspective to see women more than that. This needs to be worked upon from the grassroots, but it will take time. All women should learn self-defence, martial arts, etc. Secondly, there is a huge loophole in the working of the police as they never provide prompt service. This needs to be corrected immediately.
—Victor Lobo, animator

Mumbai doesn’t seem safe now
It's sad to see that our city is not safe for anyone. Exposure and peer pressure are the major causes for a rise in crimes amongst teenagers. Teenagers are very ambitious and in this materialistic world they want everything. Schools provide basic education, but I think it is the duty of the parents to monitor their child. Values need to be inculcated in children from a tender age. The relationship between children and parents needs to be open. Parents should keep tabs on the daily activities of the child. At the same time, it is important that we have more stringent laws for criminals who commit such crimes.
—Leon de Souza, PR professional

We can’t even trust friends
Every second day there is news about some young girl being raped or committing suicide. It's upsetting to read this in newspapers or to watch it on TV. I don't know why men have to behave like animals. And the worst is when your friends turn into foes. If you can't trust your friends, then who can you trust in today's world? Girls need to be strong and stern and not get influenced by anyone. Personally, it is these programmes that influence youngsters to take such a drastic steps. And now the violent video games in phones have made it worse. All this must be stopped.
—Kripali Sen, student

Keep tabs on child's activities
I fail to understand how young, school-going students get embroiled in such situations. This is not the first instance, there have been similar incidents in the past. The recent Tiss rape case was similar, where the girl was allegedly raped by an acquaintance along with strangers. We trust our friends blindly and never think that it could lead to something like this. Parents should intervene and be stricter with their children. They should have the contact details of all their children's friends. The whole scenario seems unsafe these days with youngsters not being too tolerant and taking extreme steps.
—Sejal M, asst manager, HR 

Flog and hang rapists in public
We need to be tough when dealing with such culprits. Laws need to be more stringent, especially for heinous crimes like sexual abuse or molestation. Guys who are found guilty of such acts should be hanged or flogged in public, similar to the treatment meted out to rapists in Arab nations. Only such punishment would discourage others from committing such shameful acts in future. What is more shocking is that in this case, the accused were not strangers but friends. We should ensure that they are not let off easily.
—Mehul Hemani, student

Expertview

Too much exposure to the internet influences minds
Sexual crimes cannot be confined to a social stratum. They can happen with anyone anywhere. There has been a rise in these crimes against teenagers and I think the prime reason for this is the high level of exposure. Initially, Playboy magazine was difficult to access, but now thanks to the internet such material is easily accessible on the click of a mouse. There are so many websites that support and encourage pornography. Youth today is incited by these websites. At times, these chatrooms where people chat with fake identities also have a certain element of sexual talk.

The disparity of exposure and what our social system allows is increasing. This ends up creating some kind of internal crises. Youths tend to become frustrated and then decide to do things even if our society doesn't allow them.

The second kind of crime is where friends kidnap classmates for ransom or any other related crime. This kind of crime does have something to do with the economic strata of a person. The need to be someone else or like somebody is what drives an individual to commit such a crime. Peer pressure is also responsible for this.

Then there is this new technique being used, a daring technique. Young adults are getting influenced by adventure sports and programmes on TV as well as video games and games on cell phones. They tend to dare their friends by placing attractive rewards at the end. Trying to win the dare or to prove themselves, teenagers do tend to get influenced.

That is why I always maintain that schools should have sex education sessions with their students. Learning and making them comfortable at an early age about the opposite sex is one of the best ways to reduce the number of sexual crimes against youngsters. Any clue or things to look out for while interacting with strangers and warning signs are some things that one becomes aware of through proper counselling.
—Minnu Bhonsle, consulting psychotherapist

Parents have to bridge the generation gap
It would not be wrong to say that we are living in a violent society. We don't expect any kind of crime anywhere in our society, but it happens every now and then. So, it is necessary to be more and more alert all the time. There is a need for stringent laws to check all types of crime, especially against children and women. There should be life imprisonment or death penalty if anyone commits crimes against minors, especially if the culprit is an adult.

We must look at the reason why a criminal tendency is growing among minors. Sending them to the juvenile jail will not be enough. A counselling session, along with the juvenile imprisonment, is definitely required. If children have been victims of any kind of sexual abuse or crime, then the parents should evaluate any strange behaviour of their children. It is the duty of the parents to understand their mental status and make the children free to communicate.

Sometimes they cannot share their problems and find it difficult to handle the social pressure, and hence they take steps like committing suicide. So parents have to bridge the generation gap and resume a friendly communication with their children.

Fight-Back has now initiated an online petition, which calls for harsher punishments for such criminals. So far, Soli Sorabjee, former attorney-general of India, has agreed to be the guiding light on the Fight-Back Rape Petition. Fight-Back has now approached the Law Commission of India with this petition. With hundreds of people having already signed this petition, Fight-Back is expecting a positive response from the commission.
—Zubin Driver, founder, Fight-Back