Rape: a social stigma

Now when the dust has settled up to large extent; the anger of people and reckless protests are doused by the government’s stringent measures. The widespread debate over death sentence for the rape convicts and stringent punishment seems to have taken backseat. Nothing new here. Government does it all the time. Media do bring lacunae to the fore and rabble rousers do assure of the actions but, in the end, much to the dismay, what people get generally is- only disappointment.

It all started about 10 days back when a 23- year old student was brutally raped and sexually assaulted in the moving bus and that too on the one of the busiest routes of the national capital. To demonstrate their anger against government’s inaction people came to the streets in large number and thronged the India gate. Clashes between policemen and protestors were the news headlines every day in the morning. People especially the girls wanted justice this time, they wanted the capital in particular and the nation in general a safe and secured place where girls have right to move freely, right to dress the way they want and the right of dignified life.

National crime records bureau data shown that most of the rapes happen in the capital. The surveys conducted show that girls and women don’t consider Delhi, a safe place to live in anymore.  Rape after rape, assaults after assaults have earned Delhi the status of crime capital.

Many reasons can be attributed for the increased rape instances which inter alia include:  

-          The poor conviction rate: Weak criminal justice system, pendency of cases, inordinate delays, and inefficient forensic agencies enable the culprits to go scot free. Had there been an efficient justice delivery system, the crimes like rape and sexual assaults might have curbed significantly. 

-          Lack of stringent laws and stringent punishment: There would not have been even a single day when you don’t find news related to rape or gang rape in the newspapers. However, such cases don’t draw our legislators’ attention towards the issue. They find themselves too busy rable-rousing most of the time and when the parliament is in session they are conspicuously busy thinking how to stall the day to day activities. Tearing the bills and crowding the floor of the parliament houses does show how concerned they are of their legislative mandate. Since parliament while in session most of the time remains suspended, much needed bills like sexual assault of women bill, the criminal law (amendment) bill and many others are not passed.    

-          Patriarchal society: The Indian society being patriarchal the rape incidents most of the times go unreported. The women fear that bringing the case to the light will undermine their as well as their families’ social status. 

-          Poor enforcement agencies: Though the laws to curb crimes against women hardly exist and in case there any such law, their poor implementation makes them worthy not more than a piece of paper. There have been many instances where cases of rape are not registered by the police. Even if they are registered, only in few cases proper action and investigation is carried out and convicts are brought behind the bars. And what if protector turns predator itself. There are many instances of custodial rapes and sexual assaults. According to the complaints registered by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), at least 45 custodial rapes took place between 2002 and 2010.    

-          Criminal background of MPs: A survey by National election watch showed that 1/3^rd of our MPs and MLAs are accused for charges for rape and murder. In such a situation you can expect from the legislators anything but a stringent law curbing the rape incidents.

-          Lack of women police stations: The central government has many times instructed the state governments to establish women police stations and recruit more women police officers. However much to the dismay, nothing has been done by the state governments. Let others alone, the so called crime capital, Delhi does not have women police stations.

The recent held protests and efforts by voluntary organisations have revealed the leadership vacuum in the government. In a fit of anger, protestors demanded the death penalty for the rapists. Few experts also advised for the chemical castration to curb the rape incidents. Whether death penalty or the castration for the crimes like rape is advisable? Probably not, for the following reasons:

-          The already low conviction rate can further deteriorate. The judiciary resort to death penalty only in rarest of the rare cases after the Bachan singh case. Proving the crime the rarest of the rare case has always been topic of debate and a bone of contention. Date after date and hearing after hearing delay the conviction. According to the Supreme Court, the rarest of the rare case is one which affects the large faction of the society. Whether rape of a woman affects society as a whole is again a debatable topic. And if it could not be proved that the incident has taken its toll over the society, the convict goes scot free which is highly condemnable.

-          Moreover, according to NCRB data, 94% of rape convicts are not the strangers. Therefore, it would be difficult to see our uncles, brothers and sometimes even father being hanged and people would dither while registering a case against them.

-          Fearing that once nabbed the convict will be given death penalty, the life of the victim will be further jeopardised.

-          There has been no evidence to prove that death penalty can reduce the crimes such as rape and sexual assault.

-          When most of the countries except few middle eastern states are mulling of ending the capital punishment, increasing the ambit for the death penalty may be criticised by the human rights organisations. The recent held UN general assembly to stop capital punishment was accepted by 110 countries out of about 150 countries.

-          As far as chemical castration is concerned, it does reduce the sexual urge of the convict and experts consider it to be a panacea to curb the rape incidents. But rape is not about the manifestation of extreme sexual urge. Rape is about power, violence, intimidation and humiliation. Attempts to reduce the incidence of rape by controlling the sexual urge of men are bound to be ineffective because they invoke a very shallow and inadequate understanding of rape.  

What should be done then?

-          As early as possible the government should pass the stringent laws to curb such heinous crimes.

-          Women police stations should be established and women personnel should be recruited. A separate women cell in each police station is quite feasible idea.

-          CCTV supervision and patrolling in the black spots (where such crimes are committed generally) and public places should be increased.

-          Police personnel should be rewarded for actions taken to curb crimes against women. Even their annual confidential reports should include a separate column for noteworthy actions undertaken by him against rapists or such other perpetrators.

-          During police training they should be made sensitized towards women rights.

-          Fast track courts should be established for speedy trial of convicts.

-          Removal of the prior sanction required for prosecution of public servants in the cases of custodial rapes. In the cases of custodial rapes the law enforcement personnel enjoy virtual immunity as prior sanction is required for their prosecution even in cases of custodial rape.

-          Amendment in the Criminal Procedure Code and Indian Penal Code. Amendment in the Section 375 of the Indian Penal Code (rape) and Section 354 (outraging modesty of women) to include a broad offence of sexual assault graded based on harm and to provide for punishment commensurate with the sexual assault.

There are many cases of atrocities and brutalities against women but they go unreported and unnoticed. With the help of media when such cases surface, people demonstrate anger against government and government to please and tranquilise the protests do announce its policies, however, most of the time their worlds never materialise into the laws.

Rape and sexual assault breach the dignity and bodily integrity of the women and forces her to live a life with agony and anguish. Since independence we are talking of empowering the women, in every budget we allocate resources for empowerment of them. All these efforts are in vain if women in the country are not provided with a safe and secure environment to live in.  The need of the hour is imposition of stringent laws and speedy trials which can act as deterrent to the perpetrators before commencing any such act.

Curious case of Indian sports

Past few days must have given nightmares to sports lovers and athletes as well. The period did not go well for any faction of the sports. From cricket to Olympics, from archery to boxing, all were bewildered over the events happening around. In cricket, India could not make advantage of home grounds loosing the 3rd test series to England and paving the way to lead series 2-1; international Olympic committee (IOC) suspended Indian Olympic association (IOA) and Archery association of India (AAI) and Indian amateur boxing federation (IABF) met the same fate by their respective authorities.

Forget about cricket, it is a never ending drama by our beloved Indian cricket team. Performing fantastically and then at the next moment so dismally, only give newspapers the material to hog the headlines next day in the morning newspaper while praising them for their emphatic win and criticising them for their unexpectedly low performances. It also does serve as the ‘masala’ for the numerous news channels to broadcast for one whole day or till the time they get another masala news to resort to.

Sports associations are suspended on the grounds of non-compliance and misbehaviour with their concerned international bodies. On the one hand, where IOA did not comply with IOC’s Olympic charter viz-a-viz election process, following good governance principles etc. while on the other hand both AAI and IABF were suspended for almost similar reasons.

No doubt, the act has brought shame to the nation. Though the issue of politicians sticking to the top chairs in the concerned associations have been brought forward many times by media or by sportspersons, less has been done to address to the needs and demands of the disgruntled athletes. Indian sports in the hands of non sports men in general and politicians in particular, have been at the lowest ebb for the decades and have continued performing not to the expectations at the recently held mega events like Olympics and Asian games.  

Due to absence of well constructed sports policy, with a focus on training and coaching for the athletes, the Indians could not prove their mettle at the supranational games. Not much concerned with what brings shame to the nation, politicians holding top positions for the aeons, instead of doing for welfare of the Indian sports, have always sought for the autonomy and security of their chair.

During this course the most affected people are- the athletes. They will be deprived of the pride and dignity with which they carry the Indian flag to the sports meet. Much to the consolation, according to IOC, the athletes can still participate in the event but independently, not under the banner of India. On the part of sportspersons, it would be advisable not to participate in the event with such a condition. After all there would be hardly any player who fights for himself and not for the nation. What matters at such an event is the patriotic feeling you carry for your mother country and the overwhelming praise and admiration it brings to you when you win a medal.

Proving to be blessings in the disguise, the suspension has indeed provided an opportunity to cleanse the sports bodies, remove the politicians and tainted officials and appoint eminent sportspersons and athletes to the top most positions. They should be mandated to frame the policies and take the decisions with regard to proliferation of the sports. Policies should focus more on training and funding of the athletes. Like China, India can resort to abstaining from Olympics, tighten their loose ends and prepare itself to stand against big guns like USA and China at multination events.

The short term shame and blot to dignity, if taken as lessons and needed homework is done, can prove to be silver lining. If it is so, such events are much welcome, however, every individual be it politicians, sportspersons and athletes must work together and find the way to make India flourish rather further undermining its dignity. With a co-ordinated and focused team the dream of topping the Olympic tally would not be far from reality. 

Whether India is shining?

There won’t be many occasions when I woke up before the sun. Luckily, it was one of such days. Reason- I had to board the train to Karnal for attending my cousin’s wedding. It was not very good experience with Indian railways on that particular day. Why? No, No, No, don’t start accusing railways of being late against their schedule. This time it was me who is to be accused and blamed for. The train left the station just on time and had I been late by a whisker, would have definitely cursed railways for being on schedule first time in my life.

On the way, at the outskirts of Delhi were few villages which took my attention where the scourge of open defecation was clearly visible. Though Indian government has shown keen interest to eradicate the problem of open defecation and associated health problems from the country completely and despite the huge funds infusion through the various central government schemes, the dream of making India open defecation free seems far distant from reality. This was the situation in areas nearby the national capital, let others alone.

Despite the efforts at such a large scale, people defecating in open constitutes a large fraction of population due partly to unavailability of individual household latrines and partly to being unaware of the health hazards being associated with the problem. According to survey, poor families’ health and medicines expenditure accounts for 74% of out-of-pocket expenditure which ultimately forces them further towards BPL category.

Indian government had come up with well articulated, incentive based programmes such as ‘total sanitation campaign’ which is now rechristened as ‘Nirmal Bharat Abhiyaan’ to make rural areas flourish in healthy and clean environment where people especially women can lead a life with dignity. To give a fillip to the TSC, GoI came up with ‘Nirmal Gram Puraskar’ to recognise the efforts of the villages in the field of sanitation.

Under NBA, financial assistance to the BPL families for construction of individual household latrines is provided. The programme has more focus on information, education and communication and capacity building activities to increase awareness among rural people and generation for demand of sanitary facilities. 

The schemes announced by Indian government seem utopic and impeccable; nevertheless the success on sanitation front has been dismal. Where does the problem lie? Do the infallible seeming schemes have gaping holes? Or is it the implementation of scheme which needs to be pondered upon?

There are many instances where people own a latrine in the house still they prefer to defecate openly. The need of the hour is to create awareness among people about the health problems associated with the problem. Government and concerned ministry are doing its part by either announcing the much needed schemes or at many times by creating awareness through voluntary organisations and NGOs.

When government is so dedicatedly involved to eradicate this problem, the responsibility now lies upon people of this country to cooperate with the government. With the combined and cooperated effort only can bring an end to the shameful tag of being the country, host to the largest open defecating population. Be the loopholes in the implementation of the schemes or with the schemes itself, the panacea for the serious problem of sanitation must be sought as soon as possible and the country must done away with the scourge of open defecation.  Then only India can be ‘Shining India’ in true sense.