Even though it is the 21st century, it is still a burden to be a woman in India. And when you hear the heart-breaking story of Neelu from Delhi, you just can’t stop wondering how as a society we fail women every day!
This woman was killed in broad daylight by her husband. Her only fault: She chose to work at a hospital and not leave her job to become a Housewife.
Recently, we stumbled over a story of how a 26-year-old woman who was stabbed to death by her husband at one of the most crowded market places in Delhi i.e. Rohini on Saturday (April 10). As per the sources, the accused Harish Mehta (40), who worked with a marriage bureau, belongs to Rajkot in Gujarat. He met Neelu through a matrimonial site and got married to her recently. Neelu, who worked at a government hospital, was a strong and independent woman.
After marriage when Mehta wanted to quit her job for being a housewife. But, she refused to leave her job and continued working at the hospital. Her decision to defy her husband left Mehta in so much dismay that it became the reason for Neelu’s death.
tw // stabbing , murder
— ☾ ًpeach⁷ jay birth ! (@jinnierette) April 12, 2021
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A woman in India was st4bbed 25 times in broad day light just cause she choose to keep working. not one bystanding men stopped the husband. where’s the right to choose??? pic.twitter.com/hr36zSFeGp
While being unable to accept his wife’s decision to work, he started suspecting his wife of having an affair. And, after a few days of their wedding, the victim left her husband and started living with her parents. Police said that enraged by his wife’s decisions, Mehta decided to kill her. On Saturday, when she was returning home after work, he stabbed her with a knife in full public view in the broad daylight.
But, what shook us was the fact that this husband was stabbing a woman in the broad daylight in front of so many people. While the people recorded the video, no one came forward to stop him. The video also shows people casually passing by as the man stabbed his wife.
“Harish kept telling everyone that she was his wife, “Like that justifies what he was doing. It was meant as a warning for us to not interfere in their ‘personal matter’,” an onlooker shared with The Quint.
Neelu was taken to the hospital where doctors declared her brought dead. But, her heart-breaking story left us shattered.
While there are so many parents struggling hard to raise strong and independent daughters, it is heart-breaking how our society fails these independent women and their parents every day.
Neelu’s story is an ugly reflection of how in our quest to empower our daughters, we may have forgotten to empower our sons! It is useless to raise strong and independent daughters if our men don’t know how to live with these strong women!
As we are mourning Neelu’s death, we wonder how even in the 21st century, there are many men who still believe women are the objects that they own. In many families, there are many men, who are being told to control their wives. Whether it is about their careers or about meeting their family, women are still expected to seek permission from husbands and in-laws.
While many of us are fighting against the regressive society, we feel the battle would have been much easier if parents of sons also join us in create an equal society. We don’t just raise empowered daughters, but empowered sons too!
