“Where women are honored, there the Gods are
pleased. But where they are not honored, no sacred rites yield
rewards.”
- Manu Smriti 3.56
In light of the above
quoted statement from one of the oldest scriptures in India, one can easily
deduce the reason behind the most troubles our Country is facing of late. Women
belonging to a large section of the society are not safe in India. Crimes
against women are on a rise. The best example as well as the most perturbing
experience of harassment is faced by any woman during public transport. Crimes
against women are not merely being committed in the remote areas or behind
closed doors that one can not witness them; rather the crimes are now being
committed in public sphere, and in presence of people, in the densely populated
areas, where the perpetrators act as devils and the people as mute spectators.
We look
at the increasing rape cases just as other crimes. It is getting very
comfortable for us to read a couple of rape cases in the newspapers on a daily
basis. It doesn't shock us anymore to read of minor girls being brutally raped.
Are we turning into a society where compassion and empathy don't exist at all?
Is the humanity shrinking within ourselves?
Rapes
should not be seen as other crimes; for instance, theft. It is possible that a
person may move ahead after an incident of theft. He may start earning more and
possibly forget the incident eventually. But rape is not alike theft. A girl
who is raped can not move ahead from that incident. It is not 'just' a crime
against women. It is crushing the dignity, life and aspirations of a girl. The
incident is imprinted on her mind for the rest of her life. Physical pain
may diminish with passage of time, but the mental pain, the stress, the agony,
the helplessness, cumulatively bring her a feel of disgust that she can not
forget for the rest of her life. The girl raped in Delhi on the 16th of
December last year was a student of medicine and a doctor in the making. So,
the rapists have not just raped her body, they have raped her aspiration of
being a doctor and to serve the society. Had she been alive, I do not believe,
she would have been able to go out and profess medicine. If a girl does not die
after being raped, the life that awaits her is worse than death, where she has
to forego all her aspirations, plannings and dreams for no fault of her and sit
helplessly in a damp corner only hoping such incident had not happened.
It was almost
unanimously felt that the victim in the recent Delhi rape was just unlucky to
be there. It could have been anyone. People left hypocrisy and careless
attitude behind after the recent incident. There was a huge outrage and
public outcry in forms of candle marches and demonstrations all over India for
stricter rape laws where the death penalty for rapists was foremost among other
recommendations. But the outcry was too late. The girl still could not be
saved. After a long brave battle, she succumbed to death. That made the
prosecution case stronger, as the charges of homicide were added and the
accused looked at death penalty for homicide if not for rape. Hence the purpose
of the public outrage seemed to be served. But it can in truest sense be considered
to be served, had this been the only rape incident to have occurred in our
country. If not, there are thousands of other rapists who are still out there
in public domain, living their lives as usual, after squelching the lives of
thousands of innocent girls. Thousands of such incidents happen every year, and
I vow not to go into such painful statistics and be pained further by analyzing
such grossly insensate acts in terms of demographics and other negligible
considerations.
Rape laws in India must
change. The first change in rape law which is sought to be brought is enhancing
punishment. Section 376 of the Indian Penal Code provides punishment for rape,
where the maximum punishment is life imprisonment. The primary demand is to
enhance the maximum punishment to death penalty. This change is most important
and is imminently required. Most people and most political parties sans
Congress would agree to it. But the change can not be limited to merely
enhancing the punishment. The increase in punishment would be futile, if the
conviction ratio stays dismally low.
What needs to be done in
the first place is to ensure that the person accused, if proved to have
committed the crime, be convicted for the same. For this purpose, there must be
relaxations in 'standard of proof'. Criminal law in India requires the
prosecution to prove beyond all reasonable doubts that the accused had actually
committed the felony alleged. I reckon there can be some relaxations in the
standard of proof in such heinous crimes whilst ensuring that no innocent is
punished. It must be the duty of the Courts to ensure that the perpetrators do
not elude the process of law.
The next reform that is
required in the rape law is quick disposal of cases. There have been numerous
cases where either the accused dies a natural death while awaiting a death
sentence, or the poor victim does not survive to see the culprit being taken to
gallows. In Indian law, the procedural laws as well as judicial hierarchy
provide the criminals with a platform to live their lives in normal state until
the case is finally decided. There are provisions conferring pardoning power on
the State as well as Union Executive even after the Supreme Court finds the
accused guilty. The law does not take its course. The fast track court was set
up to dispose of the recent Delhi rape case. This is a positive step ahead and
such courts must be set up in every state to ensure that such cases are quickly
disposed of.
Finally, it comes to
punishment. Life imprisonment is certainly not sufficient for a person who has
made a poor girl's life miserable by committing such a repelling act. The
reformist theory can not be applied to such hardcore criminals who could ignore
the weeping and screaming of the girl while committing the crime. Such
criminals can not be sought to be reformed at the cost of life and dignity of
other women. A deterrent approach is the way ahead looking at the increasing
number of rape cases. Death penalty must be introduced for rapists at the
earliest. Criminal jurisprudence in India advocates for death penalty only in
the 'rarest of the rare' cases. Looking at the number of rapes, what case would
be considered as 'rarest of rare'? Is it not rare enough that a man has
committed such an insane and devilish act? Death penalty should be the law and
not an exception for rapists.
Whether addressing the
rapist as 'Bhaiya' would reduce such cases, or whether films and fashion have
an influence over such rapists is not the debate we should be looking forward
to. A rape is the most disgraceful and dastard act that a man commits and he
must pay the price for the same. A clear message must be conveyed that the
society doesn't need such people. Let us hope the Legislators play their part
by introducing the reforms, the executive by bringing rapists before the Courts
and finally the Judiciary by convicting them.
PS: I hope to live to see a day where our country is free from
such rapists; where a girl can move freely without being under fear of any kind
of violence.
Jay Hind
