The recent heinous rape incident in Delhi stirred the consciousness of the masses in India. Men and women alike are out on the roads, protesting and asking for answers from those who are in charge of maintaining law and order. The answers have been sought from time to time as rape, sexual assaults continue to be perpetrated. Low conviction rates and slow trials are often non-deterrent. In addition, very often in these cases the first question mark is put on the morality of the victim discouraging women from reporting such cases.
The solutions are not one-shot and neither one-dimensional nor one-time. They require huge effort in various quarters over a period of time, but they are worth it. This post will go into the premises of underlying problems, ongoing efforts in solving them and further efforts needed.
Solutions to any real world situation are of two types - preventive and curative. Or in other words pro-active solutions(before any such situation occurs) and reactive solutions(after the situation). Both are not unrelated though. Pro-active solutions are the best. Reactive solutions suddenly come into face when pro-active solutions were not thought of and sometimes become necessary as situations evolve with time.The Delhi incident has given us the blow to think of both in comprehensive way.
Preventive solutions are as much intricately related to the social thinking pattern about gender equality, respect for women and so on as to the laws of the country. If a society thinks in regressive way about women, debases their rights as equal human beings such heinous crimes as rape and assault will be taken as another symbol of male jingoism/domination. Further, weak laws in this regard make such perpetrators of crime even bolder.
Changing the social thinking pattern can not be done in one day. It requires huge effort. Other crimes like female foeticide, dowry deaths etc are an offshoot of the same thinking pattern. The effort requires sensitization of the society on these issues. Initiative in this regard has to be taken by the leaders of our country, our intellectuals, media, NGOs, civil society, schools, colleges and so on. A generation as well as their parents need to be sensitized right from their school texts about these issues. In India, unlike West, even now family is the smallest unit of society and so efforts are needed at family level. Equal need is to sensitize the police system.
Coming to the laws in this regard, IPC 375, 376 have been present since beginning but have not proved to be deterrent. Maximum sentence is life imprisonment. In other countries for instance in Singapore, strict laws in this regard automatically imbue a sense of security to women who don't feel unsafe on road even at 2 in the night.
A rape is an attack on the very consciousness of a soul. Strictest punishment can't bring back a piece of soul lost. No wonder, government is also considering death penalty in 'rarest of rare' rape cases.
However, tough rape laws are on the anvil. There have been some bills in this regard pending in the Parliament. Once passed in right format they can help to be effective deterrents. These bills are - Criminal Law Amendment Bill, 2012, Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace(Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Amendment Bill, 2010 etc.
Strict punishments as chemical castration are in place in countries such as USA, UK, South Korea, Israel etc.Death penalties are are also not uncommon, though being opposed by activists the world over for being inhuman. It is high time that we take a leaf out of the laws of the countries where women have sense of security and apply them here.
However, they are good to be deterrents, for a real turnaround first we need to change our thinking in society about women.
However, they are good to be deterrents, for a real turnaround first we need to change our thinking in society about women.
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