Rape by a Society

She must have laughed, chuckled, cracked jokes and played pranks. She must have partied and celebrated with smiles and loved ones. She must have also sobbed and cried. But all these elements that make life, finally decided to betray her when ‘we’ raped her. In this article, I talk about the different elements of this recent event, alluding to a few reports that have appeared in the media. Also, this aims at sensitizing people towards an unacceptable evil.

The protests...

Misplaced protests are at the heart of Indian democracy. While the intentions may be clearly noble, the kind of protests will fail to evoke any meaningful response. We live in an age of information. As youth, instead of just using our vocal cord to increase decibel levels, we should aim at providing effective ideas to the lawmakers and the judiciary so that we can be more effective as a society. Most of the protests that I saw were generated out of anger, which while completely understandable ignore the ‘solution’. Just saying “The accused should be punished at the earliest and given death penalty’’ is not the answer. One placard read “Pornography is a fantasy but Rape is a reality” – How in the world does that even make sense! That said, I have been involved myself with the protests, be it the demand for the Jan Lokpal or against these heinous crime of rapes. While we had effective points to be included in the Jan lokpal bill, I have some suggestions for effectively checking the incidents of rape which I have written at length in this article, as suggestion to the Justice Verma committee on improving safety and security of women.

...and when it drew the first blood

Our protests to obtain justice for that lady took away the life of a constable, and effectively, with that, that of his family, he being the only bread earner. Even if we take into consideration that the police were first to go against the mob, nothing justifies the death of the policeman. When asked around the many that got injured during the protests (and not in respect to the death of the policeman, just to be clear), the police commissioner was quick to suggest that ‘collateral damages’ do occur as a part of such protests. “Collateral damage” is a term for the war zone.  A police is placed precisely to prevent collateral damage. The inefficient police commissioner clearly read his police manuals wrong – so believes Dipankar Gupta who is one of the most well-known sociologists in the country.

The King with folded hands and a script

The Prime minister finally decided a few days later that the Nation demanded from him an act of article reading. Perhaps he misinterpreted the intentions. His miniature script included reading from a piece of paper and then (thanks to ANI) after reading , he remarked “theek hai?” (clearly for the press but the press people forgot to edit the last bit). This clearly shows  how manual his response and feelings are. We wanted him to stand with us, in our cause to build a nation secure for all of us, including the three daughters that he has. He has failed us, yet again. As a joke circulated suggested , he perhaps does not even open his mouth before the dentist. He should take leadership lessons from President Obama and study how the President tirelessly worked for the people during hurricane Sandy (so much so that New Jersey’s Republican governor was all praises for him)  or how he personally met the families of the recent gun

The Solution

Justice.verma@nic.in

That’s the email address where you can send in your suggestions for an effective law to be implemented. I have written to Mr. Verma suggesting a few changes and inclusion, alluding to a few instances I could recall. I would encourage all of you to please write in as well.

1. Provide statutorily mandated allocation of more budget to forensic sciences and establish more medical schools with good infrastructure so that such cases can be investigated into with utmost urgency.

2. Fast track the proceedings of such cases (and the above solution with aide this) and justice be meted out within 60 days or depending upon the complexity of the case, to an utmost of 90 days. ( A girl was raped and killed 2 years ago in Kerala in a moving train’s lady’s compartment and her family has not received any justice as yet.)

3. Section 375 of the Indian Penal Code that defines rape should be broadened to include both male and female rapes and include the rape through insertion of foreign objects (clearly accounting for ‘kisses’ and the likes to have different level of punishment under ‘molestation’). Include marital rape into purview as well(the law commission rejected considering forced sex with the wife as ‘rape’). In essence, any non-consensual sex should be included.

4. ‘Finger test’ should be done away with at the EARLIEST! In rape cases, when a woman goes to the police to file a complaint against rape, she undergoes a finger test, wherein a finger is inserted into the female’s primary reproductive part to ascertain whether she is habituated to sex. This is ridiculous! This is degrading, irrelevant and shameful!(The US and the UK have protocols on how the doctors should examine these cases and are observed nationwide).

5. Laws should have a provision so that there is no allusion to a woman’s past sexual history as a means to justify such act. Many a times past reference are used as a means to justify acts of rape or to diminish the severity of the crime.

6. Improve the policing specially at night. Install ‘functioning’ CCTV cameras in public transports and at crossroads duly monitored 24 x 7.

7. Social audits of the Police and Judiciary so that there is regular check-ins of the performance and provide for actions and rewards that are commensurate with their performance.

8. Death penalty for the people found ‘scientifically’ guilty with adequate evidences suggesting a rape irrespective of it fitting under the ‘rarest of rare’ category. Should not rape itself be a ‘rare’ act! Also, in case of wrong allegations, the girl should be harshly punished on the same pretext of ruining a person’s life.

9. Inform and educate kids at elementary school level about the harsh realities of rape, so as to sensitize the future generations on what are the consequences of such an act.

10. Enforce with conviction the laws to remove the tinted glasses used in the cars (the laws while has been in place since the 90s , rich and mighty easily get away with these). All India conviction rate is dismally low at 26%.

11. Bar people alleged of rapes from contesting election. The National Election Watch has revealed that in the last 5 years, 6 people have contested Lok sabha elections , 27 others have contested Vidhan Sabha elections after declaring themselves that they were charged of rape.

While the above is for Justice Verma to ponder upon, there are a few suggestions for my friends

Girls

We have betrayed you and no amount of apology will even come near sufficing. However unfortunate it may be, you have to take care of yourselves. Simple steps can go a long way in making life easier for you and your family.

• Check that the doors are locked when you sit in your car
• Carry a pepper spray and keep it very accessible to you
• Do not board shared cabs , specially where you are likely to be the only female
• Trust your boy-friends, but not blindly (there happened a case in  Delhi where the boy let a policeman rape his own gf )
• Learn self-defense mechanisms

Boys

Get up and yes, Grow up. As one placard suggested “skirt se unchi, soch hai”.

The moral and legal debate around this subject can be endless. What we need to do as a society is profound and clear. Let us teach ourselves the lessons that we have learnt out of these happenings and perhaps then, our moral Dharma will take care of inefficient laws and their substandard implementation. Let us not be the Dhritarashtras of the world, who sits taking pleasure when Draupadi was being robbed of her chastity. Let us be the divine lights that did not let her lose her honour.