According to National Crime Records Bureau in Uttar Pradesh, inhabited by about 200 million people, 25,000 reported cases of rapes are committed on an average every year.
NCRB’s 2013 annual report mentions the national average in 2012 at 24,923 reported cases, of which 24,470 cases were committed by a relative or neighbor or that the alleged rapists were known to the victims. Based on the report’s figures, the national capital, New Delhi, can be adjudged as the rape capital of the land.
Though the NCRB also states a rape rate of 2 per 100,000 people for India which is 8.1, 14.7 and 40.2 for Western Europe, Latin America and Southern Africa respectively, this singular point may lead one far from the truth as the report clearly talks of a dramatic rise in rape incidents since 2010 which is by 7.1 percent, and that one in three rape victims fall under the age of 18, and one in 10, under 14 years.
Reasons for this dismal show in statistics are engendered from a patriarchal cultural mindset that sees women as personal property, leading to a sense of male entitlement and marital rape as a non-questionable behavior.
Accelerating the victims’ woes are the facts that especially in rural villages the female victims are usually subjected to shaming and labelled ‘unfit for marriage,’ and face fear of life and livelihood, and an administration tacit with the offenders so much so that that victims and their families either do not report or withdraw their cases.
Spoiling the milieu further are the boorish politicians whose sexist and misogynist remarks that intertwine debates around gender violence.
Leading the pack are Abu Azmi, a Samajwadi Party leader from Maharashtra, who infamously said, “Under Islam, rape is punishable … any woman if, whether married or unmarried, goes along with a man, with or without consent, should be hanged,” and his party chief, Mulayam Singh Yadav who during election times defended rapists saying, “Rapes will happen … boys will be boys … they cannot be hanged!”
Not surprisingly it is Mulayam’s son Akhilesh Yadav who is the current Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh where there was an alleged attempt to rape a judge in Aligarh.
Unaffected by the countrywide heavy criticism on his failure to check the causes of these crimes, Akhilesh told media to “google-search” for such incidents in other states when he was questioned on the deplorable law and order of Uttar Pradesh, and that if they felt unsafe in Lucknow, the state capital, then they would do well to stay put in New Delhi.
With equal brazenness, his Minister Naresh Aggarwal came up with his insensitive, “No one can be dragged out of their homes and raped. Not even an animal.”
While it cannot be missed that twenty one percent of the newly elected parliamentarians have serious criminal cases, including those against women, against them, the new Prime Minister Narendra Modi could not hold his chagrin over the falling levels of discourse around the subject and he reiterated his stand for protection and due respect being accorded to women.
However Modi’s true intentions will be established once he deals with matter of an alleged rape committed by one of his Cabinet ministers, Nihal Chand Meghwal from Sriganganagar constituency of Rajasthan, in 2011.
The rape survivor has gone to the press on her hopes for justice from the Prime Minister and about the constant threats and inducements being made to her to keep her silent.
Starting 2012, when a physiotherapist Nirbhaya’s gang rape and murder in Delhi based subsequent mass protests, there has been a sharpening of scrutiny of sexual violence.
The Justice Verma Committee formed to review rape laws in that incident’s aftermath has also made several important recommendations which include police reforms, rehabilitative measures for survivors, need for gender sensitization of the police ranks, primarily dominated by male officers, and governed by archaic colonial laws, and for deployment of more women officers in the front line of these forces.
Very recently, the government also announced instituting of a “rape crisis cell” for fast response times to such attacks but then as rightly put by activists and women, success in delivery will be determined by non-interference by the political-socio-administrative apparatus that has been a cause for rape becoming the fourth commonest crimes in the country.
New Delhi based activist and philanthropist, Sumedha Jha quotes official records that note a 12 percent increase in total number of rape cases registered between 2010 and 2012, and a fall from 17.1 percent to 14.3 percent in conviction rates in the same period, which led to lesser convictions in 2012.
These trends explain why India ranks at 132 out of 187 countries, even below Pakistan, on gender inequality in the UNDP’s Human Development Report.
Similarly a 2014 report by a Mumbai-based philanthropic foundation, Dasra, also pegs the percentage of women facing one or the other form of domestic violence at 70.
Though women numbers have risen in the workforce, negative cultural mindsets and caste issues make it difficult for them to step out of home or family arenas.
In Haryana, September 2012, when a dalit (lower caste) woman dared to report her rape at the hands of upper caste men in her village, the upper caste council ordered an economic boycott of her family who are employed as agricultural laborers and in following month of April, the police put her in jail for ten days on grounds of perjury.
The NCRB admits that a rape survivor has not much of an option than to suffer in silence or face a never ending battle as the paltry amount of up to Rs. 200,000 ($3,350) stipulated for each survivor within a period of one year of filing a police report comes as too little too late and after much running from pillar to post.
While the epidemic of sexual violence against women is also tinged with a heightened frustration and angst amongst young men facing limited options in life, sheer blatant disregard for female welfare and tolerance of sexual violence is the order of the day and taking cognizance of this is the United Nations that has expressed alarm over the rape and abuse cases of women and children and pulled up Indian authorities for failure in dereliction in duty.
The UN Resident Coordinator for India, Liz Grande asserted, “Violence against women is not a women’s issue, it’s a human rights issue. Unless India addresses the issues of class hierarchies and tolerance of sexual violence, it will fail to progress.”
As the din around gender-based violence gains, the case of alleged molestation, outraging of modesty and criminal intimidation of a top Bollywood actress (Preity Zinta) by her ex-boyfriend (Ness Wadia), a high profile businessman, has spilled into the public domain and is seen to be unfolding as many twists and turns as in a movie thriller!
While investigations are still underway the social media has also lined up for or against both sides, with some denouncing the actress for attributing criminal overtones to a “lovers’ tiff” and others dwelling on what should determine an act of molestation, as also women’s groups bearing pressure on the police to act against the alleged offender.
Though there may be an over emphasis on cases involving public figures it would serve well to remember that the rule of law cannot abandon fairness and equality and therefore cannot rule out a woman, rich or poor, from knocking on the doors of justice.
Also, there cannot be one answer to the problem as some suggest that building of home plumbing or sanitation would address the issue as the girls who had been brutally hung from trees fell prey to rapists when they had gone outside to relieve themselves.
To ensure guarantee of freedom of women in public spaces, solutions will lie in integrating social, medical and police services for women-victims, ensuring fast delivery of justice by these institutions, removal of social and institutional barriers, bringing women in forefront of justice delivery systems to drive change, make a difference, and initiate groundbreaking, pioneering and strategic litigation to broaden access to justice in all regions.
India’s population is 1.27 billion, of which women are about 614.4 million, and for the country to progress it will need to ensure an urgent check on the crimes against women.
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Priyanka Bhardwaj is a reporter with Siliconeer. She is based in New Delhi.
