In the last few days, vested interests have taken it upon themselves to run down the Modi government's Beti Bachao Beti Padhao initiative, which is not a mere slogan but a mission statement. The fact that this mission statement has found resonance with the average Indian, is best exemplified by the surge in the sex ratio at birth (SRB) in Haryana, from 871 in 2015,to 914 in 2017, with districts like Panipat and Yamunanagar reporting SRB of 945 and 943 for every 1000 males.

While the reported rape cases in Unnao, Indore and Assam raise many uncomfortable questions about the safety of our girls, the truth of the matter is, in the last four years, conviction rate has improved dramatically in many states, particularly say, Maharashtra, from a dismal 8 per cent in 2008, under a corrupt Congress-Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) combine, to a solid 54 per cent today, under a Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP) led alliance.

World Health Organisation data shows that the nation wide maternal mortality rate (MMR) has fallen from a high of 215 in 2010 to 174 now, with the Modi government's intention being to bring it down to 100 by 2020. The infant mortality rate has also fallen by 15 per cent from 40/1000 to 37 in 2016 and 34 in 2017.

To cut a long story short, on every conceivable parameter, girls in India are far safer today than they have ever been. Yes, when it comes to the safety of our girls, there is always room for more, but in this case, the buck does not stop with the elected government alone. The other stakeholders in nurturing a safe environment are the civil society and the media. Unfortunately, glib talking activists who adorn television studios have trivialised ghastly crimes like rape, thanks to their selective outrage.

While crimes against women in states like Uttar Pradesh are widely reported and rightfully so, there is deafening silence from large sections of a compromised media that has never deemed it fit to highlight crimes in say a State like West Bengal or the recent case where a 67-year-old Zakir Alam raped a 9-year-old inside a Madrasa in Bawana,or for that matter, Hyderabad,where 76-year-old Abdul Wahab raped and impregnated a 13-year-old, who is now eight months pregnant and stares at a horrific future.

Civil society that carried out candlelight marches for the Kathua victim and again rightfully so, did not even shed fake tears for 24 year old Heena Talreja who was gang-raped and mutilated by her own husband Adnan Khan and his friends, only because she dared to question him, after he walked out on their marriage and all this, after she was forced to convert into Heena Khan, no less.

Sexual assault on women should be condemned unequivocally, irrespective of the perpetrator's or victim's religion but when you focus on Kathua and Unnao, conveniently ignoring the brutal rape of a class five student by a brute called Zakir Hussain, in Nagaon in Assam, you are doing a disservice to the larger cause of women.

A rape is a rape, but when jaded Bollywood starlets and lyricists well past their prime, communalise violence against women by carrying placards for the Kathua victim, without ever having raised even a whimper,against an army of violent goons of a radical Muslim outfit, the Raza Academy, who unleashed unprecedented sexual violence against women police constables way back in 2012 in Mumbai, the collective hypocrisy of Bollywood bigots, stands exposed!

Working towards women empowerment is best achieved when we get rid of our doublespeak. For instance, there is stony silence from lawyers, activists and the media mafia that rubbishes every single move of Yogi Adityanath, but has stoically refrained from so much as even questioning the bloodthirsty Communist ideology in Kerala, which reported a total of 16960 cases of crimes against women and children in 2016, including 2578 rapes!

Coming back to Beti Bachao Beti Padhao, the most path-breaking step by the Modi government on this front has indeed been, bringing in the Juvenile Justice (Care & Protection of Children) Act of 2015, that lowers the trial age for heinous crimes like rape and murder from 18 years to 16 years. A 16-year-old will now be treated and punished like any other adult as per due process of law under, Sections 376 and 302 of the Indian Penal Code.

Cabinet approval on 21 April 2018 for an ordinance to bring in amendments to the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act to ensure death penalty/life imprisonment to rapists where the victim is less than 12 years of age, raising the minimum imprisonment tenure from 10 to 20 years where victim is less than 16 years and from 7 to 10 years where the victim is an adult and, setting up fast-track courts to deliver verdict in a time-bound manner, are indeed sweeping measures by the Modi government,to ensure justice is neither delayed nor denied!

Again, to decriminalise politics and to ensure that criminals who happen to be legislators or parliamentarians are brought to book, the Modi government is setting up twelve fast-track courts to specifically try and conclude 1,581 cases of serious crimes, involving politicians. This is something which the erstwhile Congress-led establishment royally ignored, for reasons quite obvious!

The best deterrent for a crime-free society is a strong social fabric, which is possible only if the people who we elect have their heart and mind in the right place. Toward this end, the Modi dispensation is also bringing in changes to the Representation of Peoples Act 1951, whereby a person who has been convicted or has a chargesheet pending against him in a criminal offence, cannot run for elections even six years after serving his sentence. Once effective, this would imply that a politician who is awarded, say, a seven-year sentence, cannot run for any public office for 13 years.

Hate India Hindu-phobic cheerleaders and left-wing bigots of various hues who have been mocking the Beti Bachao campaign, would do well to know that the Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana, to facilitate the education of the girl child, has already reached out to more than 1.3 crore aspirational young women. Again, of the Rs 5.3 lakh crore that has been disbursed to empower more than 10 crore people under the Mudra Yojana, 74 per cent are women, largely from the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe, categories. Ditto with the Jan Dhan Yojana, wherein, of the 31 crore bank accounts opened, more than 50 per cent of the beneficiaries are women from the weakest sections of the society.

Unarguably, however, the landmark achievement of the BJP government to further the cause of Beti Bachao, has been the seven crore plus toilets built in rural India under the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan. As an outcome, more than 3 lakh villages in more than 300 districts in India became open defecation free (ODF). This has, among other things, also led to a dramatic fall in heinous crimes like rapes in the rural hinterland.

Last but not the least, let us condemn every crime with equal contempt. Rape within the close confines of a Madrasa by a Mullah in Kolkata or by a Christian pastor in a Church in Kerala is as despicable as any other. Choosing to condemn one while being silent on another, tantamounts to intellectual and moral bankruptcy and a certain level of criminal complicity.

Presumably, the Leftist "Big Bindi" brigade that was gleefully cheering for the rehabilitation of the "juvenile", Mohammad Afroze, the most heinous perpetrator of the Nirbhaya gang rape, will see through its own hypocrisy. The BJP led government took a giant leap of faith on 21 April 2018. We need to do our bit to get rid of our patriarchal mindset because we as a nation can do so much better.