Sometimes a “sorry” is not enough… Then what is?

In simple English a sorry is defined as a feeling of sorrow, regret, or penitence. The important word here is, the realization, that the offense one has done is wrong, and due to which one has a feeling of ‘sorrow’. This deep distress or sorrow should engender a feeling of ‘regret’ which ought to lead to ‘repentance’, which is displaying the sorrow and setting things right. ‘Repentance’ involves a commitment to personal change and resolving to live a more responsible and humane life.

The word sorry is a very wide word, encompassing sorrow, regret, repentance and ultimately a change in the offender. We come to a question now, why such a topic? Why is ‘sorry’ not enough? The reason friends is that the process above is not followed. The person condoning the offense ought to condone only after repentance. For an offender to reach the stage of repentance, a feeling of sorrow should emanate from within, which would only happen if the offense is classified as such and treated as an offense.

Are we classifying offenses as offenses in society? I doubt! Let’s take a recent case of a woman raping a minor boy. First this act is not even classified as rape in law. Forceful sexual intercourse by the woman with a minor is termed by media as forceful physical relationship. Playing down the offense reduces it’s intensity and will never evoke the feeling of sorrow in the offender.

Then we come to the laws, forceful sexual intercourse with a male is not even defined as rape. It does not even find a place in the Indian Penal Code section 375. As per IPC, rape can only be committed by a man thereby absolving all women of this gruesome offense. So a woman who commits rape is not even an offender.

Then we have a special law for protecting children from sexual offenses, Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO). In this sexual offenses are defined as penetrative sexual offence and non-penetrative sexual offence. The act of rape by a woman with a minor comes under the definition of non- penetrative sexual offence which has a very low prison term, thereby undermining the whole offense. (For the initiated, do read my article titled, To Rape a Minor or not…, Her Choice!, for a detailed analysis on the incident and Indian laws).

So now we come to the second part of the question, Then What? Then nothing, sorry is sufficient, it is us who have made it ineffective, it is us as a society who treat women offenders with kid gloves, leave them with a slap on the hand. No wonder the situation has spiralled to alarming proportions and serious crimes by women have increased exponentially (refer to my previous article titled ‘The Fairer Criminals’) over the past decade.

Still we propose gender biased laws and cannot truly embrace ‘equality’. If this is what we would do, off course people will ask questions Sometimes a “sorry” is not enough… Then what is? #sorry. (Written for Indiblogger’s #indispire)

Let us all Stand Up for a Cause…