On RAPE, rhetoric needs to meet reality.
Dr. T. Rama Prasad
Yatra naryastu puiyante ramante tatra Devata
RAPE SCENARIO in 2024 in India
Something very obnoxious has been happening to women in India. On matters like cases of rape and crime, the President of India, usually, refrains from commenting sharply. On August 28, 2024, the President Droupadi Murmu, in a rare intervention, said, in a signed article for news agency PTI : "The gruesome incident of rape and murder of a doctor in Kolkata has left the nation shocked. I was dismayed and horrified when I came to hear of it. What is more depressing is the fact that it was not the only incident of its kind : it is part of a series of crimes against women. Even as students, doctors and citizens were protesting in Kolkata, criminals remained on the prowl elsewhere. " Recalling the NIRBHAYA incident of the past, she said that we should not let amnesia prevail over the memory of such criminality. "There have been laws and there have been social campaigns. Yet, there is something that continues in the way and to torment us," she said. The article by the President is a clear indication of the collective failure of the nation to curb the menace of rape.
This news report sums up the rape scenario in 2024 in India. The brutal and horrific nature of the rape and murder of a trainee doctor at the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata on August 9, 2024 brought in a nationwide protests and prompted the Supreme Court of India (SC) to take suo motu cognisance of the case. This is a rare action taken by the SC as the Calcutta High Court had already transferred the case to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), citing laxity on the part of the local police. The SC might have taken this action with the intention to examine long-neglected systemic loopholes resulting in increasing number of rape cases despite stringent punishments enacted after the Nirbhaya rape-murder case. The Apex Court seems to have serious intention to stem the rot in the society. CBI said that the crime scene was altered and tampered with. There was a mid-night vandalism at the hospital on August 14, 2024. A Justice of the Bench expressed concern at the manner in which the police handled the case. The Chief Justice asked : "Why did the Principal not come to the college straightaway and direct the registration of the FIR ? Why was the Principal, as soon as he resigned, appointed to another college ?" Politics played their part unabashedly. The cartoon below tells a lot about it.
Finally, doctors had called off their 11-day strike against the brutal rape and murder of their junior colleague on August 22, 2024, after the Supreme Court's appeal and intervention to do justice.
The present scenario indicates the strong presence of a faultline in civilisation, moral values and bringing up children. It is much more beyond the case of rape and murder of the doctor.
Precious little seems to have changed notwithstanding the introduction of tougher rape laws, including the death penalty, in 2013. Not a day passes without newspapers bleeding and TVs howling -- one rape every ten minutes in India. The reports of abundant cases of rape in the following years (2013-24) indicate that even this legislation has not acted as a deterrent. This is what happened in just one week -- A young woman veterinarian was the victim of horrific violence, gang rape and murder on a national highway close to Hyderabad; the sexually brutalised and bloodied body of a six-year-old child was found in Rajasthan; a student of Class XI, returning from her birthday party, was abducted and gang raped in Coimbatore; and, a group of armed men abducted and gang raped an Adivasi law student in Ranchi. In 2002, a medical student while walking back from her college was raped in broad daylight at Delhi's Khooni Darwaza. These are manifestations of a rape culture embodied in the brutal power of male sexual entitlement and impunity ( https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/rape-impunity-and-state-of-denial/article30169803.ece ) . And read the news report below :
India is rated as the most dangerous country for women due to the high risk of sexual violence, according to a study by Thomson Reuters Foundation published ion 2018. British women have been victims of sexual assault in Goa, Delhi and Rajasthan. It's no wonder that USA and UK have issued safety advisory to their women who intend to visit India. So, it's not only 'Indian daughters' but also the women across the globe who feel unsafe in India.
All the same, we reflect upon our glorified past and boast of the respect we give to our women. But not a single day passes without the news of a woman being raped or a girl baby (born or yet to be born) being killed. Again, it happened on June 5, 2017. A 15-year-old girl in Omalur (Tamil Nadu) was gang-raped in a bus. A demonstration was organised in Salem to protest against this.
India is rated as the most dangerous country for women due to the high risk of sexual violence, according to a study by Thomson Reuters Foundation published ion 2018. British women have been victims of sexual assault in Goa, Delhi and Rajasthan. It's no wonder that USA and UK have issued safety advisory to their women who intend to visit India. So, it's not only 'Indian daughters' but also the women across the globe who feel unsafe in India.
All the same, we reflect upon our glorified past and boast of the respect we give to our women. But not a single day passes without the news of a woman being raped or a girl baby (born or yet to be born) being killed. Again, it happened on June 5, 2017. A 15-year-old girl in Omalur (Tamil Nadu) was gang-raped in a bus. A demonstration was organised in Salem to protest against this.
AFTER THE 2013 EPISODE
Precious little seems to have changed notwithstanding the introduction of tougher rape laws, including the death penalty, in 2013. New Delhi is dubbed as "India's Rape Capital".
, “Nine months later, at the conclusion of the trial of her killers, it is difficult to argue that X’s (Delhi rape victim) ordeal and death has made much difference in India, at least so far. … and redefining a range of offences may do some good, campaigners concede, if enforcement is simultaneously improved, but dozens of men accused of rape remain members of local and national parliamentary assemblies,” wrote Jason Burke, The Guardian’s South Asia correspondent. “It is a few weeks of outrage against hundreds of years of tradition,” said M.J. Akbar, a veteran commentator. For an in-depth analysis of this subject, you may read the article titled “LIFE, RAPE and DEATH in an Indian city” by a foreign correspondent, Jason Burke (http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/life-rape-and-death-in-an-indian-city/article5125290.ece ).
Not a day passes without newspapers bleeding and TVs howling -- one rape every ten minutes in India. The reports of abundant cases of rape in the following years (2013-18) indicate that even this legislation has not acted as a deterrent. This is evident from a recent (2015) suggestion by a disgusted justice of the Madras High Court that a barbaric punishment of castration should be given to the barbaric rapists (read under the heading “SEX, MATING and MARRIAGE” on thisblog).
HEIGHT OF BRUTALITY
A verdict was passed on October 30, 2015 to hang Sanap for committing the extremely barbaric brutality of raping a 23-year-old, killing her, burning the body and abandoning it to be eaten by animals. A Mumbai-based techie, she had fallen a victim just after returning to Mumbai for work from her native place, Machilipatnam, Andhra Pradesh. At Lokmanya Tilak terminus, Sanap, unknown to her, offered to drop her at her home in Andheri for Rs.300. On the way, the unbridled lust took over. Poor girl, she even gave her consent for marriage to be arranged by her parents, before her journey from her native place. The national shock created by this incident was just parallel to the one evoked by the “Nirbhaya incident” in Delhi.
Nothing seems to have deterred the rapists over the years that followed. In 2018, again, the horrific rape and murder of an eight-year-old girl in Kathua (J&K) had sparked nationwide uproar.
MOST DANGEROUS COUNTRY, India
Nothing seems to have deterred the rapists over the years that followed. In 2018, again, the horrific rape and murder of an eight-year-old girl in Kathua (J&K) had sparked nationwide uproar.
MOST DANGEROUS COUNTRY, India
Crime and violence are touching new heights in India. Thomson Reuters Foundation Survey (2011) adjudged India as the “fourth most dangerous country in the world for women to live in.” Women tourists abroad are sometimes advised against going to India as though they would promptly be set upon by gangs of priapic assailants as soon as they land !
That was in 2011 ... In 2018, five years after the "Nirbhaya incident" in Delhi, the same Survey after conducting a 'Global Poll', declared that "India is the most dangerous country for women with sexual violence rife, the second and the third being the war-torn Afghanistan and Syria, respectively." Of course, the Indian Government has promptly rejected the conclusion, saying the conclusion is not based on any data but solely on subjective opinion. In the same issue of the newspaper (The Times Of India, June 29, 2018) which reported the government's rejection, there is the report of a Canadian woman raped by a hotel Manager in Delhi !!! Go through the following links for more information: http://news.trust.org/item/20180612134519-cxz54/ and http://poll2018.trust.org/stories/item/?id=187204f6-0e20-478b-8f87-5cfe2e82392e
That was in 2011 ... In 2018, five years after the "Nirbhaya incident" in Delhi, the same Survey after conducting a 'Global Poll', declared that "India is the most dangerous country for women with sexual violence rife, the second and the third being the war-torn Afghanistan and Syria, respectively." Of course, the Indian Government has promptly rejected the conclusion, saying the conclusion is not based on any data but solely on subjective opinion. In the same issue of the newspaper (The Times Of India, June 29, 2018) which reported the government's rejection, there is the report of a Canadian woman raped by a hotel Manager in Delhi !!! Go through the following links for more information: http://news.trust.org/item/20180612134519-cxz54/ and http://poll2018.trust.org/stories/item/?id=187204f6-0e20-478b-8f87-5cfe2e82392e
ORDINANCE
There is no dearth of laws to ensure the safety of the citizen. Only their implementation leaves much to be desired. Responsibility is scattered and the punishment for violation of norms takes too long and is too mild to be a deterrent. As an exceptional outcome, the horrific ‘Delhi gang rape cum murder’ episode (December, 2012) got the national fury and international attention. It shook the nation’s conscience, and the self-flagellating stentorian chorus extracted an ‘Ordinance’ from the government enhancing punishment up to death penalty. Irrespective of ideological labels and political brownie points, different people rallied together for a just cause.
BIGGEST CRIME
Rape is the biggest crime in India with 24,206 cases ‘registered’ in 2011 in India, according to the National Crime Records Bureau (imagine the number of ‘unregistered’ cases, as most of the victims do not lodge a complaint, for obvious reasons). And it is a laughable matter that only 26 per cent were convicted between 2008 and 2011 ! Even according to the report titled “Children in India : A Statistical Appraisal” released by the Ministry of Statistics and programme Implementation (MoSPI) crime against children has gone up by 24 per cent since 2011 and that 48,338 rape cases were registered between 2001 and 2011. And it doubled between 2012 and 2014. Early 90,000 such crimes were registered in 2014, of which over 37,000 involved kidnap and abduction, and nearly 14,000 involved rape. The statistics hammer down the ugly truth.
PATRIARCHAL PREJUDICES
Why is this repeatedly happening even after the law relating to sexual violence was bolstered by a series of penal measures, including death penalty? Our womenfolk have traditionally occupied the lower perches on the social totem. The medieval social attitudes, male-dominated India, patriarchal prejudices and unconscionable customs that confer social sanction to insult and bulldoze women seem to be the root cause for these unpardonable acts. We seem to have a primeval instinct to gang up on the weaker sex and enjoy a fleeting sense of power. Girls and women are devalued and blamed in India which is also a cause for the rapes.
There is no dearth of even highly placed individuals willing to blame rape on anything and everyone other than the rapist. They blame girls and women wearing ‘modern sexy’ dresses for provoking boys and men to indulge in eve-teasing and rape. A poll conducted in India found that 68 per cent of judges believed that “provocative attire” amounts to “an invitation to rape” ( http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-opinion/cracking-a-taboo/article5584607.ece ). A CBI head made a patently insensitive remark at a conference that “if you can’t prevent rape, you should enjoy it” !
More shockingly, the chief of a political party said at a ‘general elections rally’ (April 2014) that “boys will be boys” and they should not be hanged for “mistakes” (of raping)and that if he came to power he would have the rape law amended to do away with death penalty for rape. Making light of such a heinous crime, such patriarchal and chauvinistic utterances expose the flip side of our open electoral system and our universal suffrage. Another leader of the party said that the rape victims are also to be hanged (The Hindu, April 12, 2014). And, in 2018, a new deputy chief minister chose to describe the horrific rape and murder of an eight-year-old girl in Kathua that had sparked a nationwide uproar, as a
STAINED MORAL FIBRE
It seems that our society is full of ruffians whose leitmotif of cruelty descends on the weaker group of women and children mercilessly. As a society, we need to introspect on our repeated failure to prevent such criminal depravity which stained our moral fibre and standing. Legislation alone does not seem to curb the recurring barbaric and heinous acts which continue to hang our heads in shame and deprive our claim to be called a civilised progressive society.
In August 2012, the national figure and the activist against corruption, Kiran Bedi, attracted a lot of criticism when she said that media make a big fuss when a police officer commits a small rape but they do not expose much about the huge corrupt practices of the ministers of the country ! Later, she made an amendment saying that she meant small police officers, not small rape. All the same, it can’t absolve her of belittling the crime of rape. Her remarks and the later clarification, which sound so flippant and frivolous, raise doubts about her concern for her own gender.
NO DEARTH OF LAWS
And what is the deterrent effect of the women specific legislations like the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, the Dowry Prohibition Act, the Indecent Representation of Women (Prevention) Act, the Commission of Sati (Prevention) Act, the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, the Sexual Harassment of Women at the Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act 2013, etc. ? The business goes on as usual. Perhaps, the decadent patriarchal mindset that considers women as creations to serve, subserve and entertain man (who philanders more nowadays) is the cause for the malady.
EDUCATION
Psychologists say that Indians, in general, are too much insulated from sex-knowledge and activity which makes them prone to aberrant behaviour -- eve-teasing, misbehaviour, rape, etc. Not in many societies abroad do we see such ‘rape-activity’ as in India.
The following quote tells what volumes cannot. Education is not just to get marks, it is to inculcate moral values.
“We have never stopped sin by passing laws; and in the same way we are not going to take a great moral ideal and achieve it merely by law.”
-- Dwight Eisenhower
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