Why rape is not a crime in India

 

Treat rape on par with murder not just in punishment but also in the procedure of its investigation and the pursuit of the perpetrator. Make our roads and neighbourhoods safer. We will figure out how to make our homes safer and hearts larger, says Hemanth Kumar G.

A rape is occupying the centre stage of our consciousness all over again. Given the hullabaloo, one would think that the gap between the unfortunate gangrape of the paramedical student in a Delhi [ Images ] bus and that of this hapless five-year-old in an East Delhi neighbourhood is like that of terror returning to America, 12 years after 9/11. But alas, the gap between these two shameful incidents is only four months.

It is not as though there have been no rapes in between. It is just that our media will take their collective prime-time or first-page notice only when such incidents happen in Delhi. The rest of India [ Images ] simply does not exist for many of the media houses. Even as we speak there have been gruesome rapes of children in Madhya Pradesh [ Images ] and Assam after this incident. There has been no coverage of that by our mainstream media except for passing reports. Come on, have a heart, how do you move OB vans to remote states!

The protests are also largely confined to political parties and some NGOs this time. Middle-class Delhi has gone missing. You really cannot blame them. The summer temperature in Delhi can be stifling and come on, for heaven’s sake there is an IPL season going on! Sarcasm apart, how many times can citizens come out to protest!

We have heard the prime minister say that collective efforts must be taken for the depravity to end and the home minister say that rapes happen all over India. Thank you sirs, we did not know. You truly enlighten us. Sorry sirs, make that entertain us. If the situation were not tragic, your comments would certainly qualify as comic.

What the PM and HM are saying albeit subtly is that they are not responsible. What they are not saying but implying is that since it is the society that needs to change, it is ultimately us who are responsible for these rapes! Go figure!

It is not just the PM and the HM who feel this way. Many respected commentators are expanding the scope saying that the attitude of society to women is the reason for rape. Their reasoning is that we do not respect women for many female foetuses do not see the outside of a womb, many female children are fed less than male children, many female children drop out of school earlier and so on. Ergo you have to change society before attempting to do something about reducing rapes. Start respecting women and rapes will come down is their line of thought.

Frankly, they put the cart before the horse. A rape is a crime, period.

Rape is being confused with abuse. The abuse of a child or a woman is systemic and done by someone known to them and it happens inside the home or at work.

But rape is similar to abduction. The child in this case was taken out of its home. Why should the approach of the police be any different than what it would have been for a kidnapping?

The problem in India is that rape is not a crime.

Yes, you read that right. It is not a crime.

Think about it. We have learnt that the accused in this instance actually raped his wife before their marriage. What was the punishment? And to whom was it given? The hapless girl was married off! To him!

The law is like the lock. No lock on this earth can prevent a criminal. The hardened criminal will break open a lock. But a lock certainly ensures that an otherwise honest passerby will not be tempted to steal.

The problem with rape in India is that there are no consequences to breaking open this lock. Quite simply, the law against rape is not enforced.

In most cases, the victim or her family hushes up a rape. And in some cases where it is not hushed up, the punishment is marriage between the victim and her violator!

And this story repeats itself everywhere in India. Try telling a good friend that someone known to you has been raped. You will get solicitous and well-meaning advice that you should count your blessings that the victim is alive and move on. That is exactly what the police allegedly did in this case. They requested the parents to hush up the crime even offering them comfort money.

What are the people asking for? We are not asking the establishment to change our hearts and minds so that we will abuse our womenfolk less. That is for social activists to do. There was a time when only social activists went on to become political activists. Sigh! But then, I digress.

We are asking the establishment to pursue rape like it pursues murder. When there is a murder, the law enforcement makes a fundamental assumption — that the murderer is armed and will harm more citizens if not hunted down post haste.

That is precisely what the Delhi police establishment did not do in this case. They tried to fob off the parents from registering an FIR, they tried to counsel the parents to move on and one senior official even got so irate that he ended up assaulting a lady who was protesting the fact that the FIR was not registered in time.

And that is why the Delhi police commissioner is in the dock and that is why his head should roll. Not because the rape itself happened but because of what did not happen after the rape.

Treat rape on par with murder not just in punishment but also in the procedure of its investigation and the pursuit of the perpetrator.

Make our roads and neighbourhoods safer. We will figure out how to make our homes safer and hearts larger.

336% spurt in child rape cases between 2001 and 2011

NEW DELHI: Even as the national Capital protests against the heinous nature of the five-year-old child’s rape, an independent report, based on National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) figures, shows that India is no country for children. The report says a total of 48,338 child rape cases was recorded between 2001 and 2011, and the nation saw an increase of 336% of such cases from 2001 (2,113) to 2011 (7,112).

The report by the Asian Centre for Human Rights (ACHR), however, warns that this is only the “tip of the iceberg” as the large majority of child rape cases are not reported to police while children regularly become victims of other forms of sexual assault too.

Madhya Pradesh recorded the highest number of child rape cases with 9,465 cases between 2001 and 2011, followed by Maharashtra (6,868), Uttar Pradesh (5,949) and Andhra Pradesh (3,977). Delhi, which reported 2,909 cases, ranked sixth on the list.

The report, “India’s Hell Holes: Child Sexual Assault in Juvenile Justice Homes”, which has been submitted to the UN Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women, says that many of the cases take place in juvenile homes.

“It will not be an understatement to state that juvenile justice homes, established to provide care and protection as well as reintegration, rehabilitation and restoration of the juveniles in conflict with law and children in need of care and protection, have become India’s hell holes where inmates are subjected to sexual assault and exploitation, torture and ill-treatment apart from being forced to live in inhuman conditions. The girls remain the most vulnerable. It matters little whether the juvenile justice homes are situated in Delhi or in mofussil towns,” said Suhas Chakma, director, ACHR.

The 56-page report also highlights 39 cases of systematic and often repeated sexual assault on children in juvenile justice homes. Out of the 39 cases, 11 were reported from government-run juvenile justice homes, while in one case a CWC member was accused of sexual harassment during counselling sessions. The remaining 27 cases were reported from private or NGO-run juvenile justice homes.

CRIME AGAINST WOMEN IN INDIA

Over 32000 murders, 19,000 rapes, 7500 dowry deaths and 36500 molestation cases are the violent crimes reported in India in 2006 against women. There are many instances of crime especially against women go unreported in India. These are figures released by the National Crime Records Bureau recently. While Madhya Pradesh is worst off among the states, the national capital New Delhi continues to hold on to its reputation of being the most unsafe city in India. Delhi takes the top slot for crimes ranging from murders and rapes to dowry deaths and abductions.

It reflects country’s law and order situation when its capital is a cauldron of crime. Instead of leading the way in tackling crime, Delhi only seems to do worse year after year. For instance while the national crime rate declined negligibly by .02 % in 2006; Delhi’s rate grew to 357.2more than double the national average of 167.7.

Rape is the fastest growing crime in the country today and as many as 18 women are assaulted in some form or the other every hour across India. Over the last few months cases of rapes and assault have made it to the headlines with alarming frequency. Mumbai watched with shame as an ugly mob attacked women on New Year’s Eve. In Latur a 14 year old was raped and killed by four young men. In Konark four men were charged with dragging a woman out of a bus and gang raping her. It is an ordeal simply to file a police report and the investigations thereafter have been stories of apathy and down right humiliation meted out to the victims. Where convicted, punishments have ranged from capital punishments to a day in jail.

Equally horrific are news reports of foreign tourists being sexually assaulted. Recently an American was molested in Pushkar, a British journalist raped in Goa, Canadian girls attacked in Kumarakom to list the few instances. It looks like that India as a nation has ceased to know how to treat women as human beings who have a right to dignity and safety. The crime against tourists is against our culture of “atithi devo bhava’ Government has decided to meet and discuss with the state government the safety of women tourists as a reaction from the fear that such incidents will impact India’s image.

Despite the trauma women across all classes are reporting crimes such as rape and assault and do not feel helpless or abandoned by family or society as was the prevalent case before. Society is changing and government is forced to take action as it has run out of excuses such as society’s mindset or class divide.