Abstract
India is a country where several goddesses are worshipped. Women’s day is celebrated widely by sharing Whatsapp statuses and wishing the fellow women. Yet it is also the country where rape and sexual offences are so high that they rank in the top 10 countries around the world where women are most unsafe. From a period where women felt ashamed to report such gruesome incidences, we have come to a period where more women come forward to report it. But this does not necessailry mean that they get justice because the conviction rate in India for rape is as low as 25.5% only.
Rape is among the many sexual offences that women suffer all around the world. It is also the most perverse and most brutal of them all because, not only does it do physical damage but it also pushes the woman to a state of trauma and agony that she relives throughout her life. Other sexual Offences such as groping, molesting, eve-teasing, etc. are also similarly traumatising. It hinders all of the women’s future relationships and causes an overall fear to step outside in the streets, pushing her back into the four walls of her house after all the struggle that they went through over decades to come out and establish their place in the society.
This article focuses on the reasons why such offences are on the rise in India and discusses the various factors that contribute to such growth. It also discusses several means as to how such offences can be prevented and what must be focused on in order to prevent them.
INDIAN WOMEN AND RISING SEXUAL OFFENCES
From the times of Manu, where the women were treated as property and considered as impure and where menstruating women were compared to swine, we have definitely moved on. Women have for long struggled to get a voice in the society. Whilst several women have made achievements in different fields, the focus of this essay is not about development but rather about safety of women. The increase in the number of rapes and trafficking of women is quite appalling. The fact that women have to consider taking self-protection measures like pepper sprays, Tasers, etc., every time they leave home speaks for itself on the status of women in Indian society. While on hand this says that women are leaving their homes for various purposes in contradiction to the women of traditional times, it also says that they aren’t safe when they leave their homes and thus they have to consider such measures to keep themselves safe.
I do not disagree that there are several instances that do scream that women are being empowered in various fields and are given a voice and a wage equal to men. But just that this is not the same for all women. Rural women do not enjoy this as they are seldom given a voice and they are often not paid equally as men despite the same output. This is often seen in the case of construction workers, who are frequently discriminated on the basis of their gender and paid quite less in comparison to the male workers. There is also another side to this same story.
Though most urban women do enjoy employment where they are given a voice and wage with no bias, are they safe in their workplace? Unfortunately not. They face several sexual harassments during their work hours from their employers, employees and co-workers, becausefor some reason these men can’t seem to see anything beyond their gender.None of their achievements even matter to these men. Just the fact that she is a woman makes her seem to them as a sex object whose sole purpose is to satisfy their perverse desires.
WHY ARE SEXUAL OFFENCES ON THE RISE?
The reasons are several starting from the organs of the government and extending to every single person in India.
While punishing rape, why is the Indian Judiciary so lenient? Do these men deserve mercy? Does merely serving a sentence in prison and paying monetary compensation to the woman really compensate her for the agony and trauma that she suffered? Is that justice? Do these men even fall under the definition of ‘humans’ to be protected by the HRC?
When a young child is raped, it is brutality right there. Does the child want monetary compensation for its trauma? No, it wants a happy and safe childhood. Most of all it wants its innocence, which unfortunately that money cannot bring back.
Yes, the incident has happened and there is nothing that can be done to reverse it, but the government can prevent this from happening to many other children and women by making the punishments rendered to the convicts even harsher.
This is not just the fault of the judiciary but of the legislature and the Executive as well. In fact it is the fault of every single person in India. The legislation for its lenient laws that are self- contradictory and ineffective. The executive for its ignorance and lax attitude and also for sometimes going to the point of misusing those women by taking advantage of their authority and the victim’s vulnerability. The people who blame the victim for the rape. The people who speak up for the women yet do nothing to advocate their rights. Even the people who work for the rights of women. Obviously they aren’t doing a good job if there are these many rape incidents happening every day.
It doesn’t help that Indian society is predominantly a male- dominated society. With the men growing up seeing women being treated as inferior and seeing women assume their submissive roles, it makes them to fix the ideology that women live to serve them. They take women for granted and do not pay heed to their consent.
India isn’t safe for its women, if theyhave to think twice before doing anything or saying anything out of the fear of being murdered or raped or tortured. She isn’t safe if the government cannot protect her from the monster who violently snatched her rights and honour from her.
RECENT LEGAL AMENDMENTS
Recently the Indian Government has brought out several laws in favour of women and children who are sexually abused. With the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2018, amending various provisions of The Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012, The Indian Penal Code, 1860 and the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, the punishments for the sexual offences have been made more severe depending on the severity of the act and the tenderness of the age.
Some of the notable amendments are-
1) The rape of a girl below 16 years of age will amount to 20 years of rigourous imprisonment.
2) The fine imposed shall be just and reasonable to meet the medical and rehabilitation expenses of the victim
3) Police officers committing rape anywhere shall be awarded rigourous imprisonment of minimum 10 years.
4) Investigation in rape cases to be completed within 2 months.
5) No Anticipatory bail can be granted to any person accused of rape of a girl below the age of 16 years.
6) Appeals to be disposed of within 6 months.[1]
But are these amendments enough to deter the monsters from committing several more of these offences?
The Delhi High Court put forth a noteworthy question when hearing a Public Interest Litigation, “Did you carry out any study, any scientific assessment that death penalty is a deterrent to rape? Have you thought of the consequences to the victim? How many offenders would allow their victims to survive now that rape and murder have the same punishment?”[2] This question is worth thinking about.
STATISTICS
Mere laws aren’t enough to protect the women and children, the implementation is a crucial aspect and one which is obviously necessary to make any sort of difference.“Justice delayed is Justice denied” is a phrase that speaks a lot by itself. When a rape victim’s case is dragged on and on for years together, there is a feeling of dissatisfaction and distrust that people feel towards the government. The 2016 NCRB (National Crime Records Bureau) census shows that there were 3, 38,954 cases of crimes against women reported to the police and 1,58,528 cases were carried forward from the year 2015 and 1, 64,181 cases are still pending with the police. It also reported that 2,60,304 cases were sent to trial in courts and 10,81,756 cases are pending in the courts from the year 2015 and 12,04,786 cases are pending as of 2016. The total number of cases completed in that year was 1,22,088 but only with a conviction rate of 18.9% (that is 23,094 cases).
The total number of persons arrested for crimes against women are 4,95,236 and the persons convicted are 40,772 and the persons acquitted are 1,67,042.
This pathetic conviction rate shows that only one out of four rape cases end in conviction. Recent survey has showed that the Indian conviction rate for rape is as low as 25.5%. Which obviously means that the judiciary is letting down its women and that there is almost no justice served in India.
EFFICIENCY OF THE LEGAL SANCTIONS
The executive are also taking advantage of these women and their vulnerability after the offence. And the amendment increased the punishment for police officers who rape the women to 10 years of rigorous imprisonment. The question is, is this justice? That the people who are supposed to do the protecting are the very people who women should be protected against. Is this not a breach of duty and breach of trust as well? Are they punished for that?
Also the question arises whether the rigorous imprisonment awarded to these criminals are really ‘rigorous’? Recent days, the simple imprisonment has been reduced to no work and the rigorous imprisonment to ‘do work’. They enjoy good food and comfort inside the prisons. Will this even help the accused to deter or repent their actions? Initially the accused were charged with solitary confinement and made to rest in cramped spaces with no food or water. That was solid punishment and those were times were the offences were low. How is the present rigorous punishment any different from the outside world where people work and get their food? In fact isn’t it obvious that they enjoy better comforts that most poor people in India who work several times harder and still get almost no food despite the fact that they innocent and have committed no offences?
The insulting part is the interference of the Human Rights Commission who almost always stand up for the accused more so than for the victim. They are working towards removing the death sentences which are awarded to these monsters and yet what work have they done for these victims who have lost their lives or worse, living in such a traumatised condition? These persons are not humans, their act wasn’t humane. They do not deserve mercy. They do not deserve sympathy. Extreme acts such as sexual offences, which force the victim to go through an agonising and humiliating act of beastly nature, do not deserve them. Extreme acts must be punished with extreme measures
Rape and other sexual offences are not the fault of just the organs of the government but that of every single person who exists in this country. We don’t see people saying “He was murdered because he was there in the wrong place with the wrong company at the wrong time wearing the wrong clothes” but there are always people saying this whenever there is an offence committed against women, especially of sexual nature. A woman’s character is often attributed to the kind of clothes she wears, to the company she hangs out with, to the way she talks, even to the time that she is out in the streets at. She is never spoken of as what she is but rather with regard to all these factors. This is the reason why several people blame the victim for the rape or the trafficking. This ideology is burnt so deep into the minds of the people to the extent that the victims tend to blame themselves for the offence.
HOW CAN ANY OF THIS BE CHANGED?
We cannot simply sit back and wait for the government to do something. It is not an act that should be dealt with in such a laidback manner. The change must be from every single person. Changing their own attitude for starters might help decreasing this to a great extent. Seeing women as fellow human beings, instead of objectifying them for their sex, will help decrease rapes and trafficking.
There are various other steps that can be taken to reduce the incidences of rape-
Pornography must be banned or at least be made harder to access, for its demeaning nature towards women. Catherine MacKinnon, an American radical feminist legal scholar writes of pornography as, “Admiration of physical beauty becomes objectification. Harmlessness becomes harm.” It changes the way men look at women and makes their minds polluted with the view that women are sexual objects whose sole purpose is to satisfy the desires of men.There was an incident in Dehradun where a 10th grade girl was raped by her seniors who said that they raped her because of the influence that pornography had on them. They had tried to imitate what they had seen in the pornographic movie. Though this doesn’t necessarily imply that pornography does prevent rape, it is simply to remove the objectification of women by men, which would help decrease the occurrences of rape.
It is also the popular notion that men cannot simply control their sexual desires but that is the most outrageous of all lies. Sexual desire is much like any other basic human desire and can be controlled. Several men do live controlling their sexual urges and it is no excuse to use force in order to obtain sex. For there are other ways that they can help themselves without violating a woman’s body for their selfish pleasures.
Stringent laws must be brought out to strike fear at the hearts of men when they think of committing such a crime.The laws that are brought out must also be brought to the knowledge of the general public to make them aware of their rights and for the possible perpetrators to fear the consequences.
The lax attitude of the executory bodies must be kept under check and must be punished as well. The main reason behind so many acquittals is this attitude of the investigatory agents. Their incompetence to carry out their duties has caused women to lose their dignity and also their chance at justice.
In the end, Indians must learn to “live and let live” after all cohabitation with the other gender is the only way to survive and no gender is inferior to the other.
“Equality, in meaningful terms, in terms of greater freedom and more space for women is a global need. Degrees of oppression may differ, kinds may also differ subject to the difference in other factors: but gender discrimination persists almost in all societies. The dreams of women may differ, their struggles even more so, but their need for air to breathe is the same.”[3] This must be taught to the children as they grow up to remove any gender discrimination and violation of one gender in the forthcoming generations.
[1]Ashok K.M.,Death For Child Rape-The Criminal Law Amendment Ordinance, 2018 Promulgated: Read the Salient Features, 2018 LIVE LAW (Apr 22, 2018, 12:44 P.M.) https://www.livelaw.in/death-child-rape-criminal-law-amendment-ordinance-2018-promulgated-read-salient-features-read-ordinance/
[2]Prabhash K Datta, POCSO amendment: Why Delhi High Court may be right in questioning Modi govt, INDIA TODAY (Apr 25, 2018, 12:18 IST)https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/pocso-amendment-why-delhi-high-court-may-be-right-in-questioning-modi-govt-1218974-2018-04-24
[3]WOMEN IN PATRIARCHY: CROSS CULTURAL READING,(Jasbir Jain ed., 2005)
