On rising cases of violence against women

There have been several events recently, which I found profoundly disturbing and so I decided to pen down some of my thoughts. One such event took place in Uttar Pradesh, at a village near Hathras. Allegedly a group of men committed rape in broad daylight, which later resulted in the death of the victim. I was amazed to hear the two opposite narratives of the case. On one hand opposition parties, social activists, media persons etc were denied the ethical right to stand with the parents of the deceased teenager and sympathize with them. While on the other hand, the state seemed to dwell on targeted phrases such as - incitement to caste hatred, sedition, international conspiracy etc. The role of the police here is a reminder of the 'Nuremberg defence' - they were all just following orders from their superiors. All these make me wonder - why have we not been able to prevent sexual crimes against women? Are the laws not strict enough? What role should the state machinery play in preventing such crimes?

The Beatles Ashram, Rishikesh, 2018. Art by: @milestoland.

Status of the problem at hand:

The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) reports data on crimes against women annually. The data are compiled from records of reported and registered crimes in police stations all over the country. This covers crimes against women in some detail although reporting of crime tends to be incomplete. Nevertheless, they can be seen as projecting the lower bounds of the actual crime rates. The latest NCRB 2019 data shows a 7.3% rise in crime against women in 2019 as compared to 2018. Majority of the cases under crime against women are registered under ‘cruelty by husband or his relatives (30.9%)’ followed by ‘assault on women to outrage modesty (20.2%)’, ‘abduction of women (19.3%)’, ‘rape (7.3%)’. From the report, one could find that a woman in India- is raped every 16 minutes, dies due to dowry every hour, is subjected to cruelty at the hands of her in-laws or husband every four minutes, becomes a victim of acid attack almost every two days, is gang-raped and murdered every 30 hours. Now, let this sink in for a while...

The response of the administration:

The Union government issued an advisory, days after the Hathras incident, to the states and the Union Territories on mandatory action in cases of crimes against women. According to the advisory, the Central government said the probe into rape cases must be completed within two months as per law and that dying declaration of a victim can’t be discarded. The government also said there should be compulsory registration of a first information report (FIR) in case of a cognizable offence (offence in which the police officer as per the first schedule or under any other law for the time being in force, can arrest the convict without a warrant and can start an investigation without the permission of the court) under the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC). Section 154 of the CrPC states that when the complainant gives an application that discloses someone committing a cognizable offence, the Station House Officer (SHO) shall register a case. In Lalita Kumari vs Govt. of UP, the Supreme Court is clear that the case has to be registered. Based on recommendations of the Justice J.S. Verma Committee, which was set up by the government after the Nirbhaya rape case in Delhi in 2012, the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act was amended in 2013, bringing in changes to the Indian Penal Code among other laws making them more stringent.

What has gone wrong?

Despite these legal provisions, there are several instances when the FIRs were not filed on time. Police don't want to register the case since that would put them in a negative light, showcasing their inability to control crime. This way they could minimize the number of crimes and influence statistics. For instance, in the Hathras case, the police repeatedly stated that there was no case of gang rape.

Most crimes, especially rape, do not take place in public but home. The victims are raped by people who know them well (supported by the NCRB report). A large number of them never even make it to the statistics for the fear of character assassination, among other torments. Marital rape is a reality. Unfortunately, in India, it disguises itself as 'implied consent'. Former Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra in August 2019 said that marital rape should not be made a crime “because it will create absolute anarchy in families and our country is sustaining itself because of the family platform which upholds family values”.

What needs to be done?

Rape is more about power and less about sexual pleasure. Be it superiority of gender or caste, rape is about dominating and asserting authority. As a long term solution, we should first focus on prevention so that fewer crimes are committed. Since the family is the basic unit of society, women should be respected at home. Communication within the family is very important. Women should be encouraged to participate in family discussions. Parents should teach their children from a very young age that both girls and boys are equal, girls deserve respect and they are no less than others. They could do so by setting themselves as examples. This way the essence of true family values could be incorporated within the young minds. There should be a zero-tolerance policy at home and at school. Families need to stop defending and supporting their boys for their wrongdoings.

Police reforms and criminal justice reforms are the need of the hour. Cult of masculinity in the police department requires to be addressed. According to 'The Status of Policing in India report 2019', women barely constitute 7.3% of India's police force. Of these women, less than 1% hold supervisory positions while about 90% are constables. Police should be receptive and encouraging so that women do not fear approaching them to lodge any complaint. It is utmost important that police must step in and give the victim the benefit of the doubt. There needs to be better patrolling and surveillance. Community policing can be put in place by involving local people such as government teachers, village chowkidars, ASHA workers, fair price shop owners etc - who can be identified as investigators. There should be separate divisions for investigation and, maintaining law and order within the police system to make it more efficient and better equipped. Taking the methods of recruitment and postings, promotions and transfers away from the tight control of the executive forms part of the guidelines of the Supreme Court in 2006 regarding police reforms. In order to encourage fair policing, incentives could be given to the cop who does their job well. Section 166A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), introduced by the Verma Commission, deals with policemen who disobey the law by not doing their job of recording and/or investigating the crime. While I condemn extrajudicial killings (as seen recently in the Hyderabad rape case) in order to pacify spontaneous public outrage, it is a matter of fact that our criminal justice system is extremely slow. Despite the creation of fast-track courts, large number of cases of violence against women remain in files covered with dust. According to the NCRB report, the conviction rate in rape cases is abysmally low at just 27.2%, which is attributed to the lapses in criminal justice system. 

The onus of preventing such crimes, in the end, lies on the society at large. Gender sensitization at schools and community gatherings is extremely vital. We must have public conversation on such issues. Women should be made aware of their rights and how to exercise them. Women need to stand up for other women. Politics should be kept at bay while talking about atrocities on women. A holistic approach is needed to change the ecosystem itself. Every stakeholder needs to put their act together be it the police, the prosecutors, the judiciary, the NGOs, medical and health department, lawmakers, rehab centres etc. There should be a firm and united collective response to stand by the victim. 

References: While writing this piece, I referred to discussions by eminent panelists on violence against women on RSTV, articles and editorials in The Hindu, EPW and ToI.