Ritika Ruminates

Image source: New Indian Express Honour killings. One of the worst crimes that have been taking place in our society. Honour killing is killing of a relative, especially a girl or woman, who is perceived to have brought dishonour on the family More often than not, honour killings kill women more than men (men in case one's daughter married a boy from 'lower' caste) and it mostly happens in the cases of inter-caste or inter-religious marriage, or when girls/women do not obey the strictest of rules laid down for them by the patriarchal society. To logically think over it, there is no honour in honour killings. You are murdering someone, over stupidest of things. Caste, religion or patriarchal rules set up (for females) matters more than someone's life🙂. When it comes to inter-caste marriages (or even inter-religious), often the accused is girl's family. Even more so when the boy is from 'lower' castes. But mostly do not have an issue if their girl...

NEET aspirant stabs his sister-in-law to death as niece disturbs his study . Woman shot dead by father-in-law for not serving breakfast . Father, brother, uncle and grandfather rapes a minor girl . Father kills his daughter over phone/remote use. Man stabs waitress to death. This are just few of recent cases from past 1 month. This makes me wonder- in this digital age where they get anything at a few clicks, has people really started to forget their patience? Be it within family or outside, this cases are only getting more and more common in India and abroad. Everyday, I get news of atleast one murder case like this over trivial of issues. One day, some weeks ago, I remember reading cases of 2 murders by family member itself within 1 day. All such murder cases makes me wonder that many people are really  losing out on patience, that one is even ready to kill someone (or already killed). In the above cases I mentioned (you can search those on Google which I saw on Inshorts news app,...

Image source- YouTube I had recently came across a video by bestseller author Ravinder Singh where he spoke about reducing the age to 16 for youth. To watch that video, click  here . Do watch the video before reading the blogpost, as to understand the references. I do agree with what he has said in his video. Though I have some additions of my own too on that perspective. Often, when teenagers (13-19, though gonna focus only on 14-17 here in this blogpost) enter into relationships, which is getting a lot common this days, they do indulge in romance (even if its not anything sexual). But those who do, and it comes in light to any of the families, be it only about relationship or something more, most often, their phones are taken away and they are made to split up without choice of their own. This also causes defamation to girl, either by her family themselves or the society, cause the respect of family lies with her🙂 (boys have no role in upholding family respect, it se...

Image source- Wikipedia Social media was invented for people to connect with people worldwide and stay in touch with known people. Initially, it was a safe space to say, at least from the dark reality of the outside world. But soon, over time, the hatred of the outside world creeped into our phones and screens as well. Go through comments on any post on any of the social media platforms, we would find at least one hateful or mean comment. And this has just only been becoming more common. All those who have an account on social media will at least have come across some online bullying or abuse. Wasn't it expected that with coming years, people would get more open minded and become more accepting? But where are we even heading? Unnecessary cuss words, trolling, threats to life by rape, acid attack or murder. Children, being innocent, often falls prey to most of online abuse. The reason of this hate and abuse is many. To name a few- gender, hierarchy systems, religion, rac...

 Congress MLA Ramesh Kumar had passed a disturbing and sick statement- 'if rapes are inevitable, lie down and enjoy'. How low can a person even get? Reducing rape to something like it is no big deal. There is really no words for it. These kind of politicians are the one who are criminals, support rapists and reason for rape culture in India. How people even happen to elect such people. I know it is an exaggeration, but if he ever had a daughter of his own, he wouldn't mind to even rape his own daughter. That's how sick and disturbing his statement is. Does he even know the mental trauma a victim/survivor can go through after any degree of sexual assault, other than the physical harm caused. Experiencing (or even witnessing) a traumatic event can lead to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), which often lasts years or lifetime. To know more about PTSD, it causes and how it affects a person, click  here. Ministers like this should never be brought into power. They think ...

Image Source- VideoHive Recently,  UP Women Commission member have stated that girls using phone have lead to rapes . What more shocking is that this statement comes from a woman herself. Along with blaming girls for using phones, she has even blamed 'carelessness' of mothers for increase in rape cases. Question that arises is- aren't even babies to school girls to old age women who don't use phones, have been victims of rape? What the phones have to do with rapes? Yes, online sexual harrassments (in forms of morphed pics, sending non consenual pics of genitals, etc) do happen due to phone and social media. But if both boys and girls are taught to be respectful of others and their consent and be precautions on social media, then it would be reduced a lot.  About her eloping statement, not everyone elopes. And some do due to controlling and toxic parents who refuses to accept their relationship due to societal standards, caste and religious differences. Checking kid'...

 Image source- Monash Impact The recent judgement of Nagpur bench of Bombay High Court has made all people feel more unsafe than what we feel already. It ruled that groping a minor without 'skin to skin contact' isn't sexual assault under POSCO.  Sexual assault is unfortunately very much normalized in our country. All girls and women feel unsafe. I myself know many who have gone through any kind of sexual assault. Pepper sprays, holding keys between fingers, inspecting cars or cabs multiple time before getting in, learning self defense, having to give up short clothes, having to have a male with us to protect us, and the list goes on. Though this is not only experienced by minors, but also adults irrespective of gender. Image source- Twitter @egyptianbeyonce   This ruling will make the matter for girls and women and even boys even more worse. Unfortunately, for minor boys, they cannot even complain or raise their voice as " Boys don't get sexually assau...

A fake rape allegation is as traumatizing as a actual rape case. Few days ago, a guy named Aman Baisla committed suicide on the grounds of threatening about fake rape allegations and his money not being returned by two people- Neha Jindal and Sumit Goswami. He had lend money to Neha and Sumit and later they were not returning him his money back, though blackmailed him about fake rape allegation.  This is not the only case of fake allegations. 40-45% of daily cases are fake allegations made and registered against innocent man (source of information- Youth Against Rape). Multiple guys goes into depression, the guy's and their family's reputation is unnecessarily tarnished, and many guys even end up committing suicide. Girls like this use woman card and put allegations on innocent men/guys. Pseudo feminism or fake feminism is as disastrous and traumatizing as patriarchy and misogyny. It's utterly disturbing when some immature selfish woman misuse the rights and put fake allega...

Hathras wnd Balrampur rape cases. Yet girls are getting sacrificed. Almost 18 rape cases in UP within 24hrs. Every day, average of 87 females gets raped (as per 2019 stats). What the hell is going on?  What's the government doing?  UP police, they are just looking at the drama and being 2nd class of criminals. Politicians are beyond the imagination of cruelty.  Rapists (or read monsters) rape a girl, break her bones, cut her tongue, let her fight for her life, police do not file rape FIR for many days, and the day she dies, police KIDNAPS her dead body and 'cremate it according to the rituals and family consent'. How much can you stoop low? How much can you even lie? Police would had taken strictest actions if it would have happened to woman within their own family. Other's sister/daughter/mother/wife, who cares? Not just rape, there are many incidents of police brutality, police raping the citizens, a police officer masterbating infront of some woman, and many more. Yo...

When I think that nothing more cruel cases of rapes can happen to girls and women, every day a new rape case comes up, crueller than the yesterday's. What has happened to India?! Why so many rapes and assault cases on a daily basis? You may recover from coronavirus (or non-terminal life-threatening diseases for that matter) but not mental trauma or even death caused by assaults and rapes. I have no hope that this mentality gonna change in years. Girls and women need to learn self-defence, no matter what your age is. Learn basic self-defence which can help you, if not advanced martial arts. Carry pepper spray (you can buy it online, sharing link at the end of the blogpost for Indian customers. If you are non-Indian, you can search it online) with you wherever you go outside. Keep emergency numbers in your phone. I don't wish, but if you ever confront such a situation, hit the person enough to immobilize them so that he cannot follow you for some minutes and run away from th...

The crime against women has been ever increasing. Every new day comes with various kinds of crime against women- ranging from as small as eve-teasing (which is uncomfortable too) to as big as acid attacks, rapes, and murders. There has not been a stop to these rapes since it has started. Every day, many girls and women have become victims of these crimes. The monsters and evils in the body of humans have been the reason for these crimes. Their lust has become more important to them than the moral human values. These evils have been satisfying their lust by committing these crimes against women. It is ironic that in the world where women are worshipped as goddesses, the crimes are committed against women. The reason for the crimes committed against women is many. The main reason is the lusty behaviour of these monsters. Every woman looks like a sex object to these monsters. They satisfy their lust through these heinous acts. The second reason is that they don’t understand what ...

Here is my 1st try at a poem. This poem is based on acid attacks and dedicated to all the acid attack survivors out there. What a shocking moment it was for her, when a stranger proposed her for marriage, though she didn't feel anything for him, she politely rejected his proposal, but what she did'nt know was a storm that was awaiting her, the very next day, he threw acid on her face, spoiling her entire face, and later to be found laying at a hospital bed after hours of surgery, thoughts started looding her mind, 'was this his love?', 'was his ego more important than love?', and so does the other thoughts occupied her mind, months and years went by struggling, struggling through physical pains, through the comments of society and the fake sympathy, depression chased her, negativity chased her, but with support of family and friends, she slowly learned to accept and love the new lo...