Crime and punishment

Every woman I know has her personal story of horror and sordid tales of violence and assault. Every single one has traumatic experiences of varying degrees to share; that's how rampant violence against women is in India and around the world. Globally, at least 1 in 3 women have been sexually violated and/or assaulted. This statistic from UN Women doesn't even include sexual harassment. I start with these numbers to highlight the seriousness of the issue of violence against women. As women, we can feel empathetic towards those that have been violated and can try to build more awareness and draw attention to this pressing matter. Women need to be protected, not by forcing them to stay indoors or remain in 'purdah' or made to fall out of the workforce. It's our most basic right to be able to live and move around with dignity and freedom. Unfortunately, no matter how loud the clamour around violence against women and steps taken to ensure greater safety, crimes against us continue unabated.

Violence against women is not just an Indian problem; women in many nations, including in the developed western world, have fallen prey to rapes and assaults. Clearly, we are unable to stop crimes but can we at least ensure that the redressal is speedy and just? The week gone by has punctured that hope in India. We had our Brock Turner moment when the Gauhati High Court granted bail to the accused in the IIT Guwahati rape case by calling him 'a talented young student and a future asset to the state' in spite of noting that there was 'a clear prima facie' case against him. Brock Turner was a Stanford student who had similarly received laurels on the basis of his academic record and gotten away with a lesser sentence in a case of sexual assault. If found guilty, should the perpetrator's academic performance dictate the punishment for the same crime that would rightfully incarcerate another accused for a minimum of 7 years? This prism of privilege is problematic at various levels but most significantly in the manner in which it threatens to thwart the hopes of justice to the rape survivor if the accused is found guilty.

Justice to victims and their families is becoming increasingly difficult with many such tragic incidents taking on a political colour. A 9-year-old girl in Delhi was allegedly gangraped and her mortal remains forcibly cremated. If we fail to give quick justice and book the accused, what have we achieved almost a decade after Nirbhaya's brutal gangrape, mutilation, and death?

Between 2018 and 2019, crimes against women increased 7.3 per cent in India, according to the annual National Crime Record Bureau's Crime in India 2019 report. The NCRB said in its report that "A total of 4,05,861 cases of crime against women were registered during 2019, showing an increase of 7.3% over 2018 (3,78,236 cases)". A majority of the cases were registered under 'cruelty by husband or his relatives' (30.9%), followed by 'assault on women with intent to outrage her modesty' (21.8%), 'kidnapping & abduction of women' (17.9%), and 'rape' (7.9%). Most cases of violence are perpetrated by current or former husbands or intimate partners, states UN Women. "More than 640 million women aged 15 and older have been subjected to intimate partner violence," it notes.

In spite of this, marital rape is not yet recognised as a crime in India unless the wife is below 18 years of age. And in another blow to our rights this week, the Chhattisgarh High Court has ruled that sexual intercourse or any sexual act by a man with his wife is not rape even if done by force. Though the Kerala High Court had said that sex against a woman's will can be called marital rape, this recent judgement exposes the division in the judicial view over what constitutes rape. It's quite easily being forgotten though that just being married doesn't expunge the rights of a woman. Therefore, it's high time Section 375 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) is amended accordingly.

The recent remarks join a slew of similar irrational statements such as Karnataka High Court's it's 'unbecoming' of an Indian woman to fall asleep after assault, Supreme Court's a woman's 'no' may mean 'yes', Bombay High Court's groping without 'skin to skin' contact isn't sexual assault, Rajasthan High Court's gem that upper caste men don't rape women from lower castes, etc. Our faith in the Indian judicial system totters every time such bizarre, regressive statements are passed. Justice must be meted out with a fair, unbiased filter. You can't stop the crime, at least let the accused pay for it.

The writer is an author and media entrepreneur. Views expressed are personal