You have failed her, along with countless of your daughters.

You have snatched away their rights, and have reduced them to someone who feels grateful for being given something that was theirs all along. A multitude of your victims have given up hope.

Dear Indian Society,

Consider this a confession from a broken and tormented adult who once as a child believed that you'll be out there to stand up for the just and the fair, and that you surely would dispel off your inherent ignorance and apathy to protect the dignity of your daughters. Abound with childlike innocence, she dreamt the impossible, dreams that were set in a utopia of equality wherein no precious girl had ever faced the wrath of demonic and twisted ideologies.

“ As long as girls of a tender age are married off, cruelly raped and disposed off, an equal world would remain enshrined only within the pages of fantasy.”

She loved to sit beneath the shade of the temple tree,as she poured her heart out on fragments of paper. Upon the onset of puberty, she was aware that her body was going through a myriad of changes, but thought that it was no big deal. She couldn't have been more disillusioned. One day, she was denied from visiting her favourite spot because due to certain divine interventions, she had suddenly become "impure". The word thrown at her like an abomination, shook her to her core. She stared long and hard at the idol of the goddess nestled within the building, and laughed at your two-faced naivety.

Even when she clapped her eyes upon many such outlandish practices, she still had expectations from the mature citizenry of your lot. At a day and age when she understood the gravity of a heinous act such as rape, she thought that certainly no sane and civilized society would ever put up with this menace. She believed in such words as the sanctity of the law. Eight years ago, she was certain that justice would soon be done. Fast forward eight years, she merely hopes and earnestly wishes for the same.

All these years, you have been her oppressor, the ravager of her dreams. You have failed her, along with countless of your daughters. You have snatched away their rights, and have reduced them to someone who feels grateful for being given something that was theirs all along. A multitude of your victims have given up hope. They can no longer perceive a day wherein all women will enjoy the abundances of equality. As long as girls of a tender age are married off, cruelly raped and disposed off, an equal world would remain enshrined only within the pages of fantasy. Notwithstanding your many prejudices and biases, this daughter of yours refuses to give up faith in the quality of humanity nestled within your being. Although she no longer dreams the impossible, she hopes that good sense would prevail and justice would extend to the most marginalized and oppressed of her mothers and sisters.

She aspires for an Indian nation wherein her girls feel privileged, and not ashamed as the residents of a nation which features among the worst places for women on Earth. Considering the state of affairs, that stage seems arduous to attain, but surely not unattainable. She is aware that change is coming in with leaps and bounds, education of the masses has positively contributed to the lives of several women. But, how far these changes will extend to the lowliest of the law, she knows not, and can only hope.

Yours truly,

A victim of your mentality.

-Vaishali Mishra