Monday, September 26, 2022

Why I shared Adtiya Tiwari's death

In India, hundreds of people are killed for hate each day. Aditya Tiwari was neither the first, nor the last blameless person to die. The very next day, a girl in Bulandshahr was so tarumatised by the rape and conversion threat that she hanged herself. 

So, why did I specifically share Aditya Tiwari's issue? 

3 things need to change:

1. Juvenile Law - Seriously needs to relook at the way serious criminals use it. There are gangs that use 17 year olds just because they will come under JJA. And these criminals definitely do not belong under JJA.

2. The crime of the silent bystander is as much as that of the perpetrator. Aditya Tiwari refused to be a silent bystander while his fellow student was sexually harassed and paid for it with his life. If the other bystanders had had half the integrity, he would be alive today. Even in death, this boy lives more than those who stood by and watched him being killed.

3. Something gives 15-year-olds the confidence to be this brazen in committing a public crime. Something gives them the feeling of entitlement to first sexually harass a young schoolgirl, and then to violently kill the person who opposes such behavior. Wherever that messaging is coming from - that the law will not catch up with you, or that you can do this and get away with it - that messaging needs to be systematically uprooted. Instead of showing what the criminals did, show where they ended up, and how fast. Don't show the picture of the Bulandshahr girl hanging from a rope. Show pictures of the boys in jail. Show pictures of the perpetrators in police vans, going to their court cases and getting no bail. Let the headlines scream - Bail Denied. Let the Headlines Scream - Life Sentence for 16 year old murderer.

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