National Shame!

The scope of criminal law is not only to punish for transgressions but also to prevent commission of transgressions. In its consultation with the experts, the Committee was surprised to find out that offences such as stalking, voyeurism, ‘eve-teasing’ etc., are perceived as ‘minor’ offences, even though they are capable of depriving not only a girl child but frail children of their right to education and their freedom of expression and movement. We are thus of the view that it is not sufficient for the State to legislate and establish machinery of prosecution, but conscious and well thought out attempts will have to be made to ensure the culture of mutual respect is fostered in India’s children” – Justice J. S. Verma Committee Report on Amendment to Criminal Law, January 23, 2013

In a landmark judgement in the Rafique Vs State of UP, 1981 case, the eminent jurist VR Krishna Iyer passed a very stringent comment, “Judicial response to human rights cannot be blunted by legal bigotry.” The judgement was crucial as it nullified the corroborative evidence for a testimony given by a raped woman. Since then we have travelled a lot on the legal front; the Vishakha guidelines and Criminal Law Amendment of 2013 are significant steps to ensure woman safety and justice in case of crime against her.

After horrific incidents of Nirbhaya case of Delhi and Shakti Mills case of Mumbai, we have Disha, a case of brutal rape and burning of a veterinary doctor in Hyderabad. In between there were many and followed by many cases where our innocent mothers and sisters are being perpetrated with what is called in the same judgement as ‘deathless shame’. Unnao case where the culprit on bail burnt the victim is still haunting us. The counting of per-capita rape rate in itself is a shameful proposition, but just to understand the gravity, the rape-rate in Bharat is 4.4 per lakh. The worst part is in more than 92 per cent of cases, the known person is a rapist. What is even worrisome is that the conviction rate is a meagre 32 per cent. From elderly women to minor girls nobody is spared by heinous criminals. Though there are demands for speedy justice for the rape victims and death penalty to rapists, such shameful mindset of raping a woman is gaining ground in our society and despite various legal provisions we are not able to create enough deterrent, is a reality.

Besides the usually discussed causes and solutions such as low conviction rate, insensitive machinery, patriarchal structure and therefore, legal reforms and speedy justice, we need to address the fundamental degeneration happening in the society. Yes, the legal machinery is apathetic and medical facilities are not enough to support the investigation. The Nirbhaya fund created for supporting the victims of crime against women is barely 20 per cent used by the States. We cannot forget that all these systems are also run by the people like us, from our own society. We often talk of sensitising and empowering women or girls but no one talks of taming the brutal force of timid men. We need a special training programme right from the family level to entry level in the employment to ensure the culture of mutual respect irrespective of gender.

The mindless development and urbanisation is breaking the family bonds. The liberal understanding of personal relationships is depicting the values imparted by Ramayana of seeing any other lady that own wife as mother or sister as regressive and laughable. The uncontrolled use of internet and pornographic content are damaging our thought processes. In general, we are getting impatient, aggressive and lonely, ultimately affecting our social behaviour.

We have completed twenty five years with the process of globalisation. Generally we talk about the material and technological progress but not the societal impact. The way and the speed with which our social structures are getting transformed, not just rapes, but many other ills like suicides and addictions are hollowing out the inherent mental and spiritual strength of our society.

With the changing times, we need change in laws. Severe punishment for shameful crime is also must. All these things will work only when not just the Government machinery but we as a society understand and analyse the behavioural changes and take rectifying measures. Political blame-games will not work now. If we want to continue as a civic society with certain values then such acts should be seen as national shame and should be dealt nationally and collectively.