Rapes in India and Role of society in Rape Prevention

Rape is a forced sexual assault that primarily involves sexual intercourse by one or more than one person without the consent of the victim. The victim of this long established assault, have always been the women. Women have been assaulted, harassed and raped since a long time in the history of the nation. India is today has become a nation, where this kind of inhumane acts are at peak. Rape has now been spread like a plague in the society. Everyday there are hundreds of rapes being committed. A survey states; that there is a rape taking place after every twenty minutes. Life of women is no more secured and safe. Today a girl/lady never knows when she can be kidnapped and being raped! Rape is such a brutal and horrifying act which not only damages a girl physically but it just kills her soul. The trauma of being raped is like a deep wound on her soul which ironically can never be healed up. And it is off course understood that when a person is forcibly assaulted and raped, how much tough it is for that person to overcome that trauma. Having a sexual bonding is like a most beautiful feeling for a girl/lady, but when some men tries to create a forced sexual bonding with her, that very moment this beautiful feeling turns into a curse for a girl. A rape can be manifested in many ways. Whenever there is forced sexual involvement which is certainly without the consent of a girl; is a Rape.

“And then you not only, scratched my flesh and tore my clothes , You crushed my soul and left me dead as a whole”

In India, Delhi is having the highest number of rapes among the other metropolitan cities like Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai and Kolkata since 2007-2011:

• Delhi — 2,620
• Mumbai – 1033
• Bangalore – 383
• Chennai —  293
• Kolkata – 200

And in 2012 the condition of Delhi is at its worst with the recent incident of gang-rape of a 23 years old girl. This beastly and obscene act of those six monsters (males) have entirely outraged and sensitized this issue of Rape. It has actually shoved the long asleep wisdom and spirit of the society. For so many years this odious crime has been committed by numerous of insane and immature men but instead of its reduction, this crime has caught a rapid pace in the last few years. Where every twenty minutes a rape is committed, how horrendous that city and society is!! How people are managing to live into that society? Why there are no worth efforts, in fact no Social- Efforts being initiated by the civilised people of the society, so far? Are they waiting for their own daughters and sisters to be raped, and then only their eagerness to eradicate this crime would be pushed out? Well, this eagerness is almost projected after this recent gang-rape incident. Thousands of people protested and raised their voices to support that girl. People are strongly asking for death punishment for the rapists. But there are still many loopholes and drawbacks in many areas of the society which need to be modified and amended to eradicate this awful crime from the society. The present protest of people is a result of the long suppressed anger and frustration among them, perhaps the time has come to bring the change at large so that the city and the society can become the safest place for the women. Before looking towards the solution part of this issues it is really important to ponder over the major Causes of this crime. Why does this crime of rape, persist in society?

When a Girl is Raped ,It’s not only her , It’s a Rape of the society She Lives into

IT IS THE OVER-LOOKED PERCEPTION OF THE SOCIETY TOWARDS THE WOMEN :

it is basically the menial and negligent perception of the society for the women, which is responsible to make them the victim of rapes and sexual assaults. Women have always been perceived and projected as powerless and dependable entities in the society. In the male dominated Indian society women have always been struggling for proving their identities. Not much concern and attention have been paid on women rights, freedom and their independency. Unfortunately, women in India have always been framed as inferior to men and the one who does not necessarily need to be given; Respect. That is why the men, who are already immature, illiterate and lunatic, perceive women as mere objects and not even as a human being. They do not feel the need to give women their due respect and ultimately they find women as an object to satisfy their sexual urge, may it be by force. They do not feel any fear in using force on a woman because they already see them as forceless. They know a woman alone is helpless. There is so much of Gender discrimination in Indian society. In most of the families, girls are being taught every minute manner and way to sit, stand, eat, sleep, walk and talk, whereas a boy is a spoiled brat. Boy is given full freedom and liberty, their mistakes are easily forgotten but even a single mistake of a girl is taken as a blunder. There are so many restrictions on girls, their timing of moving out and coming back to home are already fixed and scheduled. They can’t move out freely they are made conscious about wearing right clothes while moving out. Rape is indirectly also a way of a man to show his Man-ism onto the weaker part (woman). By raping a girl/lady a man projects his subtle ego over the woman.  And this ideology has been served by the society only and further illiteracy and lack of values in society flare up the fire of this crime.

CARELESS POLICE AND TOO MUCH LENIENT JUDICIARY SYSTEM:

it is the biggest responsibility of the police to take care of the security and safety of the citizens. Whenever there is an emergency or any crisis of help, police must be present at the spot without delay. But the present condition of police force is truly terrible to explain. People feel no shame in calling the cops as sluggish, insensitive, and totally dysfunctional because there are so many crimes ‘repeatedly’ taking place in the city and states every day. There are rapes taking place so frequently and still there is no provision made for extra security in cities. One time crime is somewhere digestible but if the same crime is repeatedly committed, then whom shall the people of the society ask for the help? There is so much of laziness in execution of the investigation. Present police system is popular for its delay, most of the times police takes long hours to reach on the spot where the crime took place. And after that if it is not a big case then shows a least concern and advice the victim to resolve the matter silently. This attitude of police somewhere boost up the criminals to commit the crimes of rapes and others because they also know that the police is lazy in executing the investigation and they won’t be caught easily. The time span between the investigation of a rape case and its final result is too long, sometimes it takes years for the hearing of the rape cases and there were so many cases where even the victim had died before the final judgement on the case. There are so many cases of rape where the victim is fearful of filling a complaint against the rapist because the family of the girl think they are weak and the procedure is too long so, it is better to keep the mouth shut and carry the burden of being a victim forever. There is no Strict and Firm punishment for a rapist apart from the maximum 10 years imprisonment with a nominal fine. There is no terror or deterrence among the rapists for not committing a rape because they know they would easily be released. Sometimes the rapist is released even after 4-5 years imprisonment with nominal fine and if the culprit belongs to an established family then only a huge amount of money would do the wonders for him.

After a long time the civilised people of India are asking for a change. They want to remove this taboo of rape from the society but impulsiveness and agitation would not help them to land up on a rational solution neither it would help the government to execute any of the amendment or solution with ease and patience. It is like a revolution now which demands many things all together that includes; Safety, Freedom and Justice for women and victims. This revolution is now not only the battle of the victim and her family; it is the battle of the whole society with the heinous crime of rape. The society and its people have to be remained enlightened now. They now must not let the fire of courage be cool down. One thing is for clear neither any cops nor any politician can eradicate this social problem of rape rather it is the society itself can take the lead to bring the change. This revolution asks for few major changes to be done at different levels and those are as following:

TIME TO REFORMULATE A NEW FOUNDATION OF NEW BELIEFS:

a) Society is a fundamental part of the country and the growth and development of the same depends upon a better and sophisticated society. The taboo of rape can be eradicated only when the society at first amends its perception towards women. There is a desperate need to lay down a fresh foundation of ideologies and ethos in the present scenario. Society should now totally condemn the old and long established ideologies which project the women as weaker part of the society.

b) Awareness, education and values should now be wide spread. There is a lack of inculcation of right values in the families, parents sometimes knowingly or unknowingly forget to give their son right knowledge. They forget to teach their son to respect the women and hence the boys fail to understand the importance the value of a woman in the life. Parenting should not be gender-biased. It may take a little pain to re-create and reshuffle the old belief system of the society but this is the foremost prime solution of this revolution. Families, groups, communities, clans and the youth all should come forward now to form a New Foundation of fresh beliefs which believe in respecting and giving dignified life to a woman, which assures a safe home, city and a country to a woman.

c)  Protest, fights, arguments will have a temporary solution and rather they would take the solution far away. Hence, the time has come to think and act wisely. There is deliberate need to reformulate an agenda for the present society which works to eradicate that each idea, thinking and vision which is related to this crime of rape. Once the thinking of the people especially of the men, is changed half the success is already achieved.

d)      There is no need of politicization of the issue rather it is the time of bringing a social revolution. The politicians need burning topics to criticize the opponents but here the youth and the society should not follow the politician’s formula rather they should become the Representatives of the victim in front of the government. The moment, society is sensitized with the thought of seeing the victim as own daughter and sister no one can stop the people to bring forth an accurate Law and judgement for the victims through their honest efforts.

AMENDMENT IN LAW FOR RAPE :

a)  With the recent incident of gang-rape of 23 years old girl which was certainly horrifying and brutal, everyone is asking for a Death penalty for a rapist but death punishment will not be so much preventive since a criminal is bold enough to face any kind of punishment and in case of death punishment he might become over possessed with the thought of committing as many crimes as he can and then die once for all. Rather there should be life imprisonment without any bail provision and also with heavy capital punishment which should be given to the victim by the criminal or his family. Punishment should be strictly followed and must be executed immediately after the final decision of the court. There should also be fast-track courts for the quick hearing of rape cases. The time span of investigation and final judgement must be reduced so that the victim and her family may be content to see the criminal being punished for his crime at the right time. A victim and her family only wish for Justice and the sooner the culprit is punished, it makes the victim somewhere justified. The punishment for a rapist must not be decided with leniency but there must be such amendments that terrorize the criminal and make him think twice before he dares to commit a rape.

b) The investigation must be fair enough and should not be handed over in the hands of corrupted cops. It is the question of Justice for an innocent, it is a big responsibility of the Judiciary and Police to take the right decision and punish the criminal strictly so that he realizes his mistake for the rest of his life and others do not dare to attempt such crimes. Police security should be increased around schools, colleges and isolated areas.

SELF DEFENCE IS THE BEST HELP :

a)  In such an unsafe atmosphere, women must become bold and brave. India is a great country that has given birth of great warriors and courageous women like Rani Laxmi Bai, Bhikaiji Cama, Sucheta Kriplani, Kiran Bedi and many others who are an example of courage, wisdom and boldness. Every girl should pay attention towards learning self defence techniques. Never under-estimate self-defensive techniques because these techniques may help the girl a lot to rescue or to defend herself when she doubts something wrong may happen to her. According to a survey on rape criminals, a rapist never dares to rape a girl/lady when he realizes that the girl is showing force and power. And especially he would back out when he knows that the girl would save herself. Hence, every parent should allow and encourage their girls to learn self-defence. In schools and even colleges it should be mandatory to learn self defensive tools for the girl. And girl should feel safe and brave whenever she walks alone on the roads.

b) Girl should always be alert while she is out and also where she is regularly visiting. Someone may be watching her and keeping an eye on her. Whenever she doubts anyone like this, she should immediately contact the women helpline and should discuss this matter. Sometimes girls simply ignore such idiotic looks and gazes but still when someone is doing it on regular basis, he should be complaint immediately. Girls should have all the emergency numbers in her speed dials so that she can contact the numbers without any delay. Girl should be alert for her own security and safety.

The whole concern in this issue is to think like a Human about this inhumane act. Raping a girl without her consent doesn’t show the ego/courage of the man, it shows how coward and suppressed his mental state is, which sees a human being (female) as a toy or something like that. Whole responsibility is now on the civilised people of the society, the flame has been ignited now. All there is a need to behave wisely and practically. Society and its members cannot run away from this burning issue. India soon wishes to welcome a new society of the women where she can feel free, where there are no rapists, no evil eyes, and no intruders. All she has an open sky to look upon and can say aloud; “yes! I am truly safe in my country”!