What is the justification of rape? Is there anyone who can justify forced invasion of another persons body, and privacy? “Libido” someone said. Some said “the woman was wearing short clothes”. Some even said they are “sex starved and they wouldn’t have done so if their wives/girl friend gave them the sex they needed”. Some said such girls deserved it. “they were asking for it”.
I need to ask one thing. What if you went through the same ordeal, where you were bound, mauled, pinched, hurt in every possible way and molested? Would you be scarred, and lived your entire life with them etched in your mind? With each detail vivid through every moment? Or would you be justifying the men/women who had done this to you.
According to the official statistics of 1991, one woman is molested every 26 minutes. These statistics refer to the reported cases. Whereas, if the unreported cases were to be included, it would be a matter of seconds- rather than minutes. investigation of Most cases are not reported by victims because of various reasons such as family pressures, the manner of the police, the unreasonably long and unjust process and application of law; and the resulting consequences thereof.
I don’t know why I am writing this. Because I read about men justifying the acts and blaming the girl as much as they can. I can see policemen washing their hands off by saying “it was just an act of prostitution without the full payment”.
Central Government Act: Section 155(4) in The Indian Evidence Act, 1872
(4) when a man is prosecuted for rape or an attempt to ravish, it may be shown that the prosecutrix was of generally immoral character"
I agree i dont what are the other acts the rape laws have. but a digressive act like this one has to stay speaks volumes of the justice system in place for victims of such trauma.There are times when I agree justice has been given to the victim, but then the justice is delayed for so long that it ceases to have an affect on anybody, especially the victim. And instances such as these are too rare to actually dissuade others to not repeat or do an offence like this.
The Supreme Court has in the case of State of Maharashtra Vs. Madhukar N. Mardikar9, held that "the unchastity of a woman does not make her open to any and every person to violate her person as and when he wishes. She is entitled to protect her person if there is an attempt to violate her person against her wish. She is equally entitled to the protection of law. Therefore merely because she is of easy virtue, her evidence cannot be thrown overboard."
As observed by Krishna Iyer, J. in Rafique’s case13:
"When a woman is ravished, what is inflicted is not mere physical injury but the deep sense of some deathless shame… judicial response to Human Rights cannot be blunted by legal bigotry."
Therefore rape laws in order to be of great deterrence, must have a cooperative victim, professional investigation, diligent prosecution; and an expeditious trial. For otherwise it shall not be the law, that fails, but the applicants, the process and application.
It is troubling enough that such a small proportion of reported rapes make it to court, worse still that so few victims come forward in the first place. But most disturbing of all is the reason why so many people keep their suffering to themselves: because they do not think they will be believed. That rape is still a dirty secret, hedged about with so much blame and shame that victims feel they cannot come forward, is testament to how far we still have to go.
There are, of course, great legal difficulties in rape trials. Sexual assault is one of the few crimes where proof lies not in the physical facts of the matter, but in the subjective intentions of those involved. One person's word against another's, with no corroborating witnesses, is highly problematic for a legal system predicated on the concepts of innocent until proven guilty and proof beyond reasonable doubt.
This is no call for the wholesale abandonment of basic tenets of justice. But simply to shrug our collective shoulders, blame intractable issues of principle, and thereby leave a swathe of victims of violent assault with insufficient legal protection cannot be acceptable in what purports to be a civilised society.
In fairness, there has been significant progress in terms of institutional procedures. In many areas of the country, for example, there are now specially trained police officers and court prosecutors for cases of sexual assault. But uneven regional conviction rates only underline the extent to which such practices remain an optional extra rather than standard.
Equally, although victims no longer face the prospect of being cross-questioned by their attacker in court, pursuing a case to trial remains a horrifying ordeal. As a witness for the prosecution, the victim has no legal support, and faces intensely personal questioning from defence lawyers, often while face-to-face with their rapist for the first time since the assault. Even within the framework of innocent until proven guilty, there is more that can be done to ease the burden on victims, not least allowing them legal representation in court.
The rape statistics may be higher in the US. But that is because more incidents of rape are reported by women with the confidence that that justice will be done and after the dust settles, they can get back to being a useful and productive members of society as best as they can. They and their families will not have to guard this incident as a shameful secret for the rest of their lives. Instead, there are systems in place which help them (the victims) for as long as they need it. The society in general, continues to treat them with respect and allows them to lead normal lives without the sidelong glances and whispered comments. We, as Indians, need to relise that the consequences of rape do not end with the judgement of the perpetrators.
Here we are making exemplaries of Saudi Arabia and lebanon where men are publically beheaded for rape. So you think countries that dont let their women drive, work or have a right to vote and take insane pleasure at killing others and lynching them publically are good examples of a growing civilisation. What are those men getting killed for? is it a righteous revenge for their misdeed? is it just public outrage at those men's evil wrong doing? or is it just misplaced pleasure at seeing someone else getting tortured? the same kind of pleasure we derive at college ragging. Or looking at a politician getting embarrassed? Have these punishments helped in nullifying rape? or has it just taken another shape?
The government however does not need a commission to remind it of several submissions to get rid of the colonial, sexist and violent practice of the two-finger test. There is no law, which says that doctors must insert two fingers (sometimes more, some even quibble about the size of the fingers in our courts) in the vagina to figure out whether the hymen is distensible or not. This then leads to the inference that the rape survivor is habituated to sex, introducing past sexual history into rape trials. Past sexual history was disallowed in rape trials since 2003. However, the two-finger test by medicalizing consent allows past sexual history of the raped survivor to prejudice her testimony.
This is true even in cases of aggravated rape where the burden of proof is reversed. An analysis of judgments pertaining to gangrape and other instances of aggravated rape shows that there is an increased reliance on the findings of the two-finger test since the burden of proof is reversed and the onus is on the accused to prove consensual sex.
If rape survivors experience rape trials as a pornographic spectacle, it is not only the fault of the judiciary—surely the ministry of home and the ministry of health can change medical protocol.
To treat sexual violence as a public health concern, we do not need judicial reform. We need political will. Can we please shift focus from whether or not to castrate and how to castrate (which incidentally is defined as torture in international law and can only be implemented as a voluntary medical program)? Is it possible for 24/7 television anchors, who dismiss activists making this demand by saying “oh, that’s ok”, to please not be “ok” about this?
What makes rape sentencing different from sentencing for other crimes? Unlike other offences, the crime of rape carries its own baggage. Over the years, stereotypical and patriarchal notions have developed with regard to women’s sexual behaviour. Most of these notions are based on the assumption that the chastity and virginity of a woman are her most important “assets.” Popular notions consider rape as a fate worse than death since it robs women of these “virtues” and casts a stigma over victims for the rest of their lives. In these imaginations, rape is not a crime against a woman’s sexual autonomy or bodily integrity, but an irreparable loss to her chastity, “modesty,” and social standing.
The Justice Verma Committee was set up by the Government of India after the gruesome gang rape incident that occurred in Delhi on December 16, 2012. The Committee was asked to review existing laws and suggest amendments to criminal law to effectively deal with instances of sexual violence. The Committee, however, did not view its mandate as only drafting new laws. It placed its mandate within the framework of the Constitution. The Committee grounded its report in the State’s obligation to secure the fundamental rights of its citizens, which includes the right of every person to assert one’s individual autonomy. In the context of women, if they are denied autonomy, even by actors other than State, the duty of the State does not diminish only on that ground. The failure to secure rights of women results in the State denying the right to equality and dignity that women are guaranteed under the Constitution.
Under the current Section 354 of the Indian Penal Code, a person who “assaults or uses criminal force to any woman, intending to outrage or knowing it to be likely that he will thereby outrage her modesty” is punished with imprisonment of upto two years, or fine, or both. The focus of the provision, rather unfortunately is on “outraging of the modesty” of a woman and invariably the defence against the application of such a provision has centred around what constitutes a woman’s modesty, whether the woman in question was of such a character to claim that her modesty was outraged, whether young girls below the age of puberty have ‘modesty’ etc. Further, under the current formulation the offender can argue that he did intention to “outrage the modesty” of the woman, or that he did not know that his actions would result in the “modesty of the woman” being outraged. Hence, the need for change was palpable, so as to change the focus of the crime from notions of “modesty” to violation of sexual autonomy. The recasting of the provision therefore needed to be wider in scope, cover a range of offences (and consequently provide higher degrees of punishment) and be a gender neutral provision that criminalised unwelcome sexual acts of varying degrees of severity.
Rigorous imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than ten years but which may be for life.
To understand the impact of sexual harassment on women one must listen to the account of its victims as no one conveys the meaning and truth of sexual harassment better than the women who have endured it. In response to the question “What kind of emotional response do eve-teasing /sexual harassment evoke in you”, not a single woman ticked the category of “indifferent”. The survey of the Gender Study Group shows that most women felt disgusted, insulted and scared by any sort of harassment.
Women often internalise male perceptions of sexual harassment and blame themselves for having brought on the harassment. They not only doubt the validity of their own experiences but begin to believe that they themselves must be ‘abnormal’, ‘cheap’, ‘indecent’ or deserving the violence that comes their way.
Sexual harassment is nothing less than the showcasing of male dominance. Given an opportunity, such men (those committing sexual harassment) would try fulfilling their desire. However, it also not true that all cases of sexual harassment are such- where the accused is guilty of conceiving the intention of a sexual intercourse. But it also depends on each individual case and circumstances, because it may well be the case that the woman may also be at fault.
The law of rape is not just a few sentences. It is a whole book, which has clearly demarcated chapters and cannot be read selectively. We cannot read the preamble and suddenly reach the last chapter and claim to have understood and applied it.
However, Justice Verma commission has pointed out some changes, broadening the definition of consent, so a woman’s failure to resist physically can no longer be regarded as consent, and requiring “unequivocal voluntary agreement” to sexual activity; a victim’s sexual history is no longer considered relevant and she cannot be cross-examined about it or her “moral character”; rapes can be committed by more than penises, in that they can include objects used as substitutes for a phallus; while the archaic idea of “outraging the modesty of a woman” remains in the law, there are new sentences of one to three years for offensive touching, gestures or words, treating them as sexual assault.
In another change to existing law, the government upped the maximum sentence to the death penalty for “extreme” rape cases – those that lead to death or leave the victim in a persistent vegetative state – and for repeat offenders.
Though the Verma Committee had recommended against it, calling it regressive when many countries are moving to end capital punishment, the move was popular with much of the public. The government also ordered a minimum 20-year sentence for those found guilty of gang rape.
Organizations working for victims of sexual violence were quick to point out that the new law has serious omissions: Most prominently, it does not criminalize marital rape. A woman raped by her husband continues to have no recourse under Indian law.
Approximations have quoted that every 6 hours; a young married woman is burnt or beaten to death, or driven to suicide from emotional abuse by her husband. The UN Population Fund states that more than 2/3rds of married women in India, aged between 15 to 49 have been beaten, raped or forced to provide sex. In 2005, 6787 cases were recorded of women murdered by their husbands or their husbands’ families. 56% of Indian women believed occasional wife-beating to be justified.
The marital rape exemption can be traced to statements by Sir Mathew Hale, Chief Justice in England, during the 1600s. He wrote, “The husband cannot be guilty of a rape committed by himself upon his lawful wife, for by their mutual matrimonial consent and contract, the wife hath given herself in kind unto the husband, whom she cannot retract.”
Not surprisingly, thus, married women were never the subject of rape laws. Laws bestowed an absolute immunity on the husband in respect of his wife, solely on the basis of the marital relation. The revolution started with women activists in America raising their voices in the 1970s for elimination of marital rape exemption clause and extension of guarantee of equal protection to women.
In the present day, studies indicate that between 10 and 14% of married women are raped by their husbands: the incidents of marital rape soars to 1/3rd to ½ among clinical samples of battered women. Sexual assault by one’s spouse accounts for approximately 25% of rapes committed. Women who became prime targets for marital rape are those who attempt to flee.
Marriage does not thrive on sex and the fear of frivolous litigation should not stop protection from being offered to those caught in abusive traps, where they are denigrated to the status of chattel. Apart form judicial awakening; we primarily require generation of awareness. Men are the perpetrators of this crime. ‘Educating boys and men to view women as valuable partners in life, in the development of society and the attainment of peace are just as important as taking legal steps protect women’s human rights’, says the UN. Men have the social, economic, moral, political, religious and social responsibility to combat all forms of gender discrimination.
In addition, the Verma Committee attempted to end the impunity that human-rights groups say India’s armed forces enjoy on matters of sexual violence. The committee recommended the idea of “command responsibility” – that a senior officer be held responsible for the failure to prevent rape by troops under his or her command. The government did not add this to the law.
The Committee has started receiving feedbacks and opinions from the public.In the view of Supreme Court Advocate PP Rao , " Making stringent law is easy but implementing them is a tougher task. Demand for a more severe punishment than life is understandable , but it should not shocking. Civilised society does not accept lex talionis, the law of retaliation, that is , a tooth for a tooth, an eye for an eye. According to the supreme court, " a barbaric crime does not have to be visited with a barbaric penalty. Castration , without the consent of the person convicted of rape , will be vulnerable to challenge, unless in the event of providing for death penalty, the choice is left to the convict to opt for castration."
If the prosecution in all such cases is carried out in a very efficient and professional manner by specially trained public prosecutor well tuned with female psychology and if specially constituted Sexually Offences Courts headed by Women judges are constituted in every where in India, the conviction rate would surely improve considerably to act as a deterrent for those who often dare to commit such heinous act owing to our slow justice delivery system.
Anyway the anti rape bill got a clear nod in the parliament. The law is still very lenient. 18 years of age is still the yard stick to determine a juvenile and an adult. It is seen that the subject did not arise interest among the members, as many of them were absent. The whole thing seems to be done half-heartedly.
It's not only about creating a law to punish the guilty. It's about preventing such incidents. It's also about changing mindsets of people towards women. When a man respects a woman, He will not misbehave with her at all. So, It's about creating respect in minds of people towards women. Most of the men in the world respect their mothers and sisters. If They are taught to respect other's mothers and sisters in the same way, all the problems are solved. Lack of respect towards women is the root cause of all these problems. Wearing a skimpy dress, being seductive, too much make- up, behaving like a sex object and roaming the city with a lot of boy friends don't create respect in men's minds towards women. Naturally, Men respect women more when sexuality is not involved. Most of the women who give too much importance to their sexuality and dress don't understand this simple natural fact. So, Government must include lessons in school and college books about respecting women. Because, lack of respect towards women is the root cause of this problem. Once men change their mindset to respect women, They will automatically treat them well.
Indian waited for 66 years to bring a strict law for rapists, repeated offence will make him get death sentence is somewhat concession, instead in first offence he should have got death sentence , most of the rapists are the politically backed ,who has no fear of any after effects because of the immunity they enjoy. Can one expect change in such cases where even the police were not entertaining the complainant for registering the cases? Hope is the only answer.
Remember Shriram Raghavan’s Johny Gaddaar, where Neil Nitin Mukesh is shown reading James Hadley Chase and watching the Amitabh Bachchan movie, ‘Parwaana’ before he acts ‘Gaddaar’? A fleeting glance at newspapers might reveal cases where people committed crimes in ‘filmy’ style or inspired by a particular film. It leaves me wondering whether films really provide fodder to criminal minds.
The recent Delhi’s gang-rape (it was Delhi, the capital and the trust in our judicial system that got gang-raped) has ensued many a talkathons on television accusing films for instigating rape. Really? Do you buy the notion that Munnis, Sheelas, Fevicol and Halkat Jawaanis are responsible for such heinous crimes? There surely must be a line drawn, but do you mean to say that the bus driver was high on films perhaps porn films featuring Sunny Leone .
Well, here’s the revelation – the driver was high on alcohol, not filmochol! Pick up any newspaper and you’re sure to conclude that every criminal worth his ‘Malt’ was in an inebriated state before committing the crime. If we have a penchant for banning things, it’s the ready availability of alcohol that must be banned. Sadly, this too, isn’t the solution as the only thing that needs to be banned is the ban.
Instead of focusing on the actual issue, we’ve suddenly started pointing fingers to our films, the soft target. Interestingly, we didn’t choose to do that. What we picked up from the film was ‘candle march protest’ – the safest bet, which was reiterated in Rajkumar Gupta’s No One Killed Jessica. So when an Anna Hazare goes on a hunger strike or a 23-year old gets gang-raped in a bus, we buy candles on our way from office, gang up and jam the streets with candles in our hands and pose at the local news channel’s camera. Dude, candles are for candle-lit dinners, not revolutions.
The Delhi gang-rape victim would have saved if the passersby hadn’t ignored her lying half-dead and full-naked on the roadside. At this stage where we need to come up with solutions to avoid such dastardly acts, all we end up doing is pooh poohing over the vulgarity shown in movies. We lap it all up during weekends over a three-course popcorn meal and gyrate to the item numbers during New Year Eve parties (how many of us skipped the New Year celebration in mourning of Nirbhaya’s death on 29th Dec?) and dance at the weddings and then ask censors to snip those scenes and songs, alleging that they instigate rape and molestation.
Have you wondered why Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s films still make for a great watch? Surely, they were well-made and well-written films, but they reflected the society consisting people leading a simple lifestyle and were essentially good-hearted. Perhaps deep inside, we miss those elusive attributes and find solace in watching those films and reliving those days when moral values and respect for women weren’t a part of an Aastha channel, but inherent part of one’s upbringing.
" Crime in India " published annually by National Crime Records Bureau substantiates this amazing fact. As per the latest record, in the year 2011 there were 24,206 cases of Rape across the country, adding to that there also had been 8,570 cases of Sexual Harrasment and 42,968 incidents of Molestatio against women. These figures just reflect the reported cases and exclude those numorous instances where helpless survivors remain silent out of fear of social trauma.
The chronology of events that took place after the shocking Delhi rape incident reveals that the political leaders were the last to react to the issue. Mahatma Gandhi once said that “the day a woman can walk freely on the roads at night, that day we can say that India achieved independence”. The growing incidence of rape and sexual harassment is a pointer to the reality that mere empowerment of women will not ensure their safety either on the roads or at the workplace. The statistics disclosed by the Union Home Minister that in 2011 more than 2.28 lakh cases of rape were registered and 1.78 lakh charge sheets were filed but that only 30,266 convictions were secured underlines the tardy justice system prevailing in the country. It is time for a serious introspection on how to overcome the moral and ethical deficit in our society.
Our parliament can enact or amend a law to make the law more stronger with the contemporary needs and challenges. Finally, it is the role of the Criminal justice system which includes police,prosecution and judiciary to reap its real benifits. The investigation of a rape or sexual violence need to done very fast with the usage of modern technology and investigative techniques.
The government and experts might be talking about punishment of chemical castration for rape convicts. However, good set of society are ready for oppose it - largely males in India. Khap Panchayats in Haryana have already resisted the demand for death penalty for rapists by saying that such laws can be misused. The government has constituted Justice Verma committee to rewrite rape laws and tasked with submitting its report within 30 days after the Delhi gang-rape case that shocked nation and world consciousness but medical experts have said that it is easier said than done.
Sadly, we have no specific laws to deal with child sexual abuse and incest in our country. The cases are still tried under the IPC sections of rape. The conviction rate in such cases is too low due to obvious reasons. The relatives of the victim turn hostile and never turn up in the court to tell truth. Ironically, there are relatives who stand for the abusers in the courts of law.
The crux is nobody stands for you because nobody else has been raped. One needs huge courage to stand for this cause. The victim is on the verge of losing everything. Her social rehabilitation is difficult and her marriage prospects are next to impossible.
We as a society have conspired to leave no other option to our children. Once they fall prey to a sexually perverted relative, they have to accept it and live with this reality for life. Once a victim is married, she becomes more vulnerable. Abusers have access to their houses, they meet them in family functions, and they are always there to ask for their share of her flesh. Now if anything comes to light, it’s all about her chastity and promiscuousness.
It’s my personal opinion that society will pay a huge price for neglecting their children. As per the citation from the Mahabharata, dharma eva hato hanti dharmo raksati raksitah (It is dharma that destroys when destroyed. It is dharma again that protects when protected.)
We as a society have failed to protect our dharma and we have failed to protect our children. When 53 per cent of our children are being abused, we can imagine the number of abusers roaming free in our society. There is nobody to check their moves and there is no one to stand against them.
Rape is a topic that makes many people of all ages uncomfortable. Few people think of themselves as potential rape victims, and even fewer consider themselves capable of the rape of another. The natural reluctance to talk about the issue and the widespread existence of mistaken ideas about rape have resulted in a great deal of secrecy, silence, and shame surrounding the subject.
Lack of understanding, awareness, and open communication about rape only adds to the suffering of victims. Since rape affects teenagers more than any other group in society, teens deserve and need accurate information about its causes and effects.
I ask all the men, What have the womenfolk done to deserve such atrocities all over the world at our hands? Why are we so unfair to half of the humankind? When and how did they wrong us? What right do we have to subjugate and punish them for our mental sickness and false chauvinism? “How zealous are we in punishing and killing those who disrespect our God or country. How shameless are we when we rape a 23-year-old who is studying miles away from home, in hope that someday, she can support her old parents and finance her brother’s education.
It’s not Islam or Hinduism, but the entire womenfolk that is in danger. They care for us; they listen to our rants, bear our kids, and even earn their own bread to ease our financial burden.
And what do we offer them in return? We decide what they should wear, who they should talk to, in fact, whom they should vote for!
One of the biggest failures of the modern society is its inability in making the world a safer place for women folk. Rapes, molestations, harassment at home and work know no territorial or cultural boundaries. While the guilty of such crimes should be handed out the severest punishment, let’s not evade the bigger question – ‘why have women been so marginalised and exploited and what should be done to change the mentality of men?’
I find myself incapable of a perfect answer to this question. I feel there is no single perfect answer. Therefore, I turn to you, I turn to us. Together, can we find the reason? Can we find the answers?
Like a hyper-energetic baby on a sugar-rush, the national outrage factory burns itself up and settles down into its warm blanket, sucking on a pacifier. The politicians go back to their day jobs—making money for themselves and those that give them money. Police reform , a national sex-offenders database for convicted sex felons (and yes not just rapists but convicted street-sexual-harassers) are not pursued because they are all difficult concepts that difficult to get angry about. People will keep opining on message boards, on and off, as to why rapists are not being hung by their testicles, but, in general, that will be their level of their engagement.
SIDDHARTHA SHANKAR MISHRA,
SAMBALPUR,ODISHA
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