During the nine nights of Navratri, which happen every fall, India comes alive as people celebrate the goddess in her numerous manifestations, such as Durga, Kali, Lakshmi, and Saraswati.
People sing hymns to her might, worship idols, and do Kanya Pujan, which means honoring young females as representations of Shakti. Politicians and leaders tell us that women are the “source of creation and strength.”
But after the lights go down and the celebrations are over, the goddess goes back to her pedestal. Real women, on the other hand, go back to a world that still doesn’t treat them with respect, safety, or equality.
A Place of Violence and Worship
The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) says that India had 4.48 lakh crimes against women in 2023, which is a small increase from 2022 (4.45 lakh) and 2021 (4.28 lakh). This means that there are 66.2 crimes for every lakh women. The charge-sheeting rate was 77.6%, but there are still a lot of cases that are still open, which means that survivors are not getting justice quickly.
These stats don’t show how bad the problem really is.
A postgraduate doctor was raped and killed inside R. G. Kar Medical College in Kolkata in August 2024. This led to riots all throughout the city.
In Noida in August 2025, 26-year-old Nikki Bhati was reportedly burned alive at her husband’s house over dowry. This made people angry again about the ongoing problem of dowry deaths.
A five-year-old girl in Akola was raped by her stepfather last week while her mother was at Garba celebrations during Navratri in Maharashtra.
Every occurrence is a scary reminder that violence against women is not far away in India; it is a part of everyday life.
The Cruel Side of Acid Attacks
Acid attacks are one of the most terrible acts that show how violence against women is. Even if there aren’t as many of them as other crimes, the effects last a lifetime: survivors are scarred, blind, and shunned by society, frequently for saying “no” or claiming independence. Even though the Supreme Court has banned the sale of acid without regulation, it is nevertheless shockingly easy to get.
Missing Daughters: Worship in Temples, Rejection in Wombs
The irony goes all the way to birth. India worships goddesses, while millions of daughters go “missing” because of sex-selective abortions. States like Goa (838 girls for every 1,000 boys) and Himachal Pradesh (875) have birth sex ratios that are very troubling. These kinds of demographic imbalances lead to trafficking, child marriages, and less power for women in the long run.
Ritual vs. Reality
To be clear, festivals like Navratri are not the problem. They are very important to our culture and religion because they remind us of principles of power and justice. But the trouble occurs when rituals take the place of accountability.
It is hypocritical to light lamps for Durga yet not let your daughters go to school.
It is hypocritical to feed minor girls during Kanya Pujan but allow child marriage.
It is hypocritical to bow down to gods but not care about domestic violence next door.
From Symbol to Real Thing
Real reverence goes beyond just worshiping in a ritualistic way. It calls for changes to the structure:
Strict enforcement of rules against harassment, acid sales, dowries, and domestic abuse.
Faster trials and fewer cases that are still open for crimes against women.
Most importantly, we need to transform the culture so that boys learn to treat women as equals, not as goddesses on pedestals.
It’s easy to pray to a goddess. It’s hard to show respect to a woman at home, at work, or on the street, but it’s the only kind of respect that really counts.
A Call to Action
We commemorate Durga’s victory over devils every Navratri. But the devils of today are real. They are relatives who want a dowry, people who hurl acid, people who harass you on the street, neighbors who don’t say anything, and a legal system that takes too long to help.
If India really thinks women are divine, it needs to show it not just during nine nights of worship, but every day of the year. Navratri will only become genuine when it goes from being a ritual to being a reality, from divine irony to women’s dignity.