I woke up this morning to the words “rape” and “six year-old” being used in the same sentence. It was an unbridled assault to my senses that has left me shaken.
This week, tensions are running high as news spreads about parents protesting in the streets in Bangalore after a 6-year-old girl was raped in her school. Reports say that the young girl was allegedly assaulted when she left her classroom to go to the bathroom. The rape is now raising questions about the safety of India’s schoolchildren and started yet another nationwide outrage over rampant sexual violence against girls and women.
I have lived a sheltered life for the most part. My parents migrated to the North America before I even began school and, for a good portion of my life, my knowledge of my birthplace was limited to the country portrayed by Bollywood. Ignorance is bliss, they say. And, I can vouch for the statement: it was bliss.
But, my bliss was at the expense of so many others. There is something deeply unethical and inhumane about choosing to be ignorant and looking in the other direction while our fellow human beings grieve losses that are indescribable…
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Anjali Joshi 