Prevention is better than Cure

Every one grew up hearing this sentence... Prevention is better than cure. 

We heard this sentence being applied in so many different ways.. fighting an illness- if we keep fit and eat right we wont get sick easily..

Education- if we spend more money on education, we wont need to spend so much on prisons (not that I agree with it), etc etc... 

"It is a very old saying that holds true in every day life, no matter how old you are."

I am going to try and bring this saying to a completely different aspect now...

I am sure most of you came across the "stay safe apps" for your smartphones.. With all due respect to the app development companies, how is an app going to help me or any one else when attacked? at which stage of this attack will I be able to pull out my phone and send an sos message to someone? 

Maybe I could tell the attacker, "Hold on for a second, I need to make a call... done, you can now get back to killing me or raping me or what ever it is you wish to do to me... I just hope somebody sees my message and gets here quick enough" 

How about the reliability of these apps? During a workshop we conducted not so long ago, we asked the ladies participating in the workshop whether they ever tried using a safety app.. One of them said that she did download a certain app and even tried to run it, but for some reason, the sos message placed her in Africa. 

These past few days, there is this lovely ad running on tv, with a lady police officer telling the public how with the increase in crime rate against women, rape crisis centers and physical abuse victim centers are now being opened in various locations across the country. Dont get me wrong, it is a great initiative and I salute the efforts. 

But what if instead of investing so much money for a cure (crisis centers), a little more could be done in the field of prevention..... 

What if basic awareness sessions and self defense sessions were made compulsory in schools, colleges and companies (for the women).... what if sexual education and basic sexual awareness became a part of teaching curriculum and the employee welcome talk... What would happen if "prevention" became more important than looking for "cures" ... 

The ad is running so frequently now, that while watching it, you get this really strange feeling... It is as if the smiling and cheerful police officer is telling me that this country has become so unsafe for women, that one day or the other, I will need to visit the crisis center so why not get familiar with it already? 

Prevention is better than cure... Each one can take it wherever he or she likes... We can pretend we live in a safe city and go around thinking, "this can never happen to me."

But what if it did?