India is a country with already high rates of Corruption. The harm brought unto another with such a
heinous violation as
rape, is not to be tolerated. It must be addressed, and those perpetrating such heinous violations be brought to the fullest extent of the law.
The trauma a person goes through such a violation as rape is traumatic. horrifying and in many cases can scare for ones lie. Some are left with shame and/or guilt for it taking place that even losse of life due to suicide happens.
Rape of another is a problem that should not be lightly addressed, nor somehow be allowed to find its way around law.
Bare in mind though, that there have been a multitude of claims of rape which in the end turn out to be one only seeking revenge or harm to the accused.
Such false claims make it only more difficult for those who truly fall victim to rape.
Stand firm against RAPE!
Michael Love, IIO
Below are articles of a most recent case of rape from different sources:
From
By The Associated Press | Associated Press – Wed, Dec 19, 2012
NEW DELHI -
Lawmakers, rights groups and citizens across India expressed outrage
Wednesday over the gang rape of a woman on a bus in New Delhi and are urging the government to crack down on crimes against women.
The outpouring of anger is unusual in a country where attacks against women are often ignored and rarely prosecuted.
Opposition lawmakers protested outside Parliament on Wednesday and called for the death penalty for the rapists.
Demonstrations erupted outside New Delhi's police headquarters demanding swift punishment for the rapists, and angry university students set up roadblocks across the city.
Police say six men raped the
23-year-old medical student, and beat her and her companion with iron
rods before throwing them off the bus Sunday.
The woman was in a critical condition in hospital and doctors said she has severe internal injuries.
Delhi police chief Neeraj Kumar said four men have been arrested and a search was underway for the two other men.
Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde told Parliament that he had ordered increased police patrols on the streets, especially at night.
Shinde said the government has
proposed amendments to criminal laws to increase the punishment for
rapes and other crimes against women. But they are still awaiting
discussion and passage in parliament.
Analysts and protesters said the
upsurge of anger was chiefly due to the increasing incidents of crime
against women and the seeming inability of the government and police to
ensure the safety of women.
& from
By NIRMALA GEORGE | Associated Press – Wed, Dec 19, 2012
 |
| Associated Press/Altaf Qadri - An Indian protester argues with a police
officer outside the Delhi Police headquarters as they block a main road
during a protest in New Delhi, India, Wednesday, Dec. 19, 2012.
The hours-long gang-rape and near fatal beating of a 23-year-old
student on a bus in New Delhi triggered outrage and anger across the
country Wednesday as Indians demanded action from authorities who have
long ignored persistent violence and harassment against women. (AP
Photo/Altaf Qadri) |
NEW DELHI (AP) — The hours-long gang-rape and near-fatal beating of a 23-year-old student on a bus in New Delhi
triggered outrage and anger across the country Wednesday as Indians
demanded action from authorities who have long ignored persistent
violence and harassment against women.
In the streets and in Parliament,
calls rose for stringent and swift punishment against those attacking
women, including a proposal to make rapists eligible for the death
penalty. As the calls for action grew louder, two more gang-rapes were
reported, including one in which the 10-year-old victim was killed.
"I feel it is sick what is
happening across the country. . It is totally sick, and it needs to
stop," said Smitha, a 32-year-old protester who goes by only one name.
Thousands of demonstrators
clogged the streets in front of New Delhi's police headquarters,
protested near Parliament and rallied outside a major university. Angry
university students set up roadblocks across the city, causing massive
traffic jams.
Hundreds rallied outside the home
of the city's top elected official before police dispersed them with
water cannons, a move that earned further condemnation from opposition
leaders, who accused the government of being insensitive.
"We want to jolt people awake from the cozy comfort of their cars. We
want people to feel the pain of what women go through every day," said
Aditi Roy, a Delhi University student.
As protests raged in cities across India, at least two girls were gang-raped, with one of them killed.
Police on Wednesday fished out the body of a 10-year old girl from a canal in Bihar state's Saharsa district. Police superintendent Ajit Kumar Satyarthi
said the girl had been gang-raped and killed and her body dumped in the
canal. Police were investigating and a breakthrough was expected soon,
Satyarthi said.
Elsewhere, a 14 -year old schoolgirl was in critical condition in Banka district of Bihar after she was raped by four men, said Jyoti Kumar, the district education officer.
The men have been identified, but police were yet to make any arrests, Kumar said.
Meanwhile, the 23-year-old victim
of the first rape lay in critical condition in the hospital with severe
internal injuries, doctors said.
Police said six men raped the
woman and savagely beat her and her companion with iron rods on a bus
driving around the city — passing through several police checkpoints —
before stripping them and dumping them on the side of the road Sunday
night.
Delhi police chief Neeraj Kumar said four men have been arrested and a search was underway for the other two.
Sonia Gandhi, head of the ruling Congress Party, visited the victim,
promised swift action against the perpetrators and called for police to
be trained to deal with crimes against women.
"It is a matter of shame that
these incidents recur with painful regularity and that our daughters,
sisters and mothers are unsafe in our capital city," she wrote in a
letter to Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit.
In New Delhi and across India, the outpouring of anger is unusual in a
country where attacks against women are rarely prosecuted. The Times of
India newspaper dedicated four pages to the rape Wednesday, demanding
an example be made of the rapists, while television stations debated the
nation's treatment of its women.
Opposition lawmakers shouted slogans and protested outside Parliament
and called for making rape a capital crime. Cutting across party
affiliations, lawmakers demanded the government announce a plan to
safeguard women in the city.
Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde told Parliament he had ordered increased police patrols on the streets, especially at night.
Shinde said the government has introduced bills to increase the
punishment for rapes and other crimes against women, but they are bogged
down in Parliament.
Analysts and protesters said the upsurge of anger was chiefly due to
increasing incidents of crime against women and the seeming inability of
authorities to protect them.
"We have been screaming ourselves hoarse demanding greater security
for women and girls. But the government, the police, and others
responsible for public security have ignored the daily violence that
women face," said Sehba Farooqui, a women's rights activist.
Farooqui said women's groups were demanding fast-track courts to deal with rape and other crimes against women.
In India's painfully slow justice system, cases can languish for 10 to 15 years before reaching court.
"We have thousands of rape cases pending in different courts of the country. As a result, there is no fear of law," says Ranjana Kumari, a sociologist and head of the New Delhi-based Center for Social Research.
"We want this case to be dealt with within 30 days and not the go the
usual way when justice is denied to rape victims because of inordinate
delays and the rapists go scot-free," Farooqui said.
Analysts say crimes against women are on the rise as more young women
leave their homes to join the work force in India's booming economy,
even as deep-rooted social attitudes that women are inferior remain
unchanged. Many families look down on women, viewing the girl child as a
burden that forces them to pay a huge dowry to marry her off.
Kumari says a change can come about only when women are seen as equal to men.
Rapes in India remain drastically
underreported. In many cases, families do not report rapes due to the
stigma that follows the victim and her family. In other instances,
families may decide not to report a rape out of frustration with the
long delays in court and harassment at the hands of the police.
Police,
themselves are reluctant to register cases of rape and domestic violence
in order to keep down crime figures or to elicit a bribe from the
victim.
In a sign of the protesters'
fury, Khushi Pattanaik, a student, said death was too easy a punishment
for the rapists, they should instead be castrated and forced to suffer
as their victim did.
"It should be made public so that you see it, you feel it and you also live with it . the kind of shame and guilt," she said.
& from
By RAVI NESSMAN | Associated Press – 4 hrs ago
 |
| Associated Press - Activist of the All India Democratic Women’s
Association and Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA) students
shout slogans as they take part in a protest march from the Presidential
Palace
to India Gate in New Delhi, India, Friday, Dec. 21, 2012. The gang-rape
and beating of a 23-year-old student by six men on a bus in New Delhi
may have sparked days of protests and demands for authorities to take
tougher action, but for women in India it is just an extreme example of
what they have to live with. (AP Photo) |
NEW DELHI (AP) — Indian officials announced Friday a broad campaign to protect women in
New Delhi following the gang rape and brutal beating of a 23-year-old student on a moving bus in the capital.
Police arrested a boy Thursday night, the fifth person detained in connection with the crime, Delhi Police Commissioner Neeraj Kumar
said. Authorities were hunting for the final assailant, he said.
Those
arrested were being charged with attempted murder in addition to
kidnapping and rape.
The government is seeking life sentences for the assailants, Home Secretary R.K. Singh told reporters Friday.
"This is an incident which has shocked all of us," he said.
The attack sparked days of protests across the country from women
demanding that authorities take tougher action to protect them against
the daily threat of harassment and violence. The government said it is
taking steps to address those concerns.
"There will not be any tolerance for crimes against women," Singh said.
Bus drivers in New Delhi will be required to display their
identification prominently in the vehicles, buses are now required to
remove tinting from their windows and plainclothes police are being
placed on buses to protect female passengers, he said. In addition,
chartered buses such as the one where the attack occurred will be
impounded if they illegally ply for fares on the streets, he said.
Authorities are also cracking down on drunk driving and on loitering gangs of drunken youths, he said.
The victim and a companion were attacked after getting a ride on a
chartered bus following a movie Sunday evening. Police said the men on
the bus gang-raped her and beat her and her companion with iron rods as
the bus drove through the city for hours, even passing through police
checkpoints. The assailants eventually stripped the pair and dumped them
on the side of a road.
Protesters marched Friday to the
presidential mansion and toward Parliament, while theater troupes
performed plays about women's safety in a park in central Delhi. A group blocked traffic near the hospital where the victim, who had severe internal injuries, was being treated.
Dr. B.D. Athani, the medical superintendent of Safdarjung Hospital,
told reporters the victim was "stable, alert and conscious," but
remained on a ventilator.
"We are ready to send the victim to anywhere in the world for
treatment," Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit said. "I have given that
assurance to the parents of the girl that we will give every kind of
help, no matter what it costs."
Parliamentarian M. Venkaiah Naidu said a special legislative committee would meet next week to take action to protect women.
The government, Singh said, was
proposing laws to make it easier for attacked women to come forward, to
ensure rape cases are dealt with swiftly in the nation's notoriously
slow court system and for increasing the punishment for the crime to a
possible death sentence.
"(The) people of Delhi will feel
safe moving through the streets of the city, at any point of time, day
or night. That is our objective," Singh said.
Related content:
 |
| Indian and a few foreign women shout slogans in front of India Gate
during a protest in New Delhi, India, Friday, Dec. 21, 2012. The
hours-long gang-rape and near-fatal beating of a 23-year-old student by
six men on a bus in New Delhi triggered outrage and anger across the
country for the fifth day in a row, as Indians demanded action from
authorities who have long ignored persistent violence and harassment
against women. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri) |
 |
Indian women shout slogans in
front of India Gate during a protest in New Delhi, India, Friday, Dec.
21, 2012. The hours-long gang-rape and near-fatal beating of a
23-year-old student by six-men on a bus in New Delhi triggered outrage
and anger across the country for the fifth day in a row, as Indians
demanded action from authorities who have long ignored persistent
violence and harassment against women. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)
|
 |
| Indian protesters hold placards as they block a major traffic
intersection during a protest in New Delhi, India, Wednesday, Dec. 19,
2012. The hours-long gang-rape and near fatal beating of a 23-year-old
student on a bus in New Delhi triggered outrage and anger across the
country Wednesday as Indians demanded action from authorities who have
long ignored persistent violence and harassment against women. The
placards read as, left, "Give harsh punishment to the culprits," second
from right, "Delhi government: Protect women." (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri) |
 |
| An Indian protester holds a placard as she sits on a sidewalk during a
protest in New Delhi, India, Wednesday, Dec. 19, 2012. The hours-long
gang-rape and near fatal beating of a 23-year-old student on a bus in
New Delhi triggered outrage and anger across the country Wednesday as
Indians demanded action from authorities who have long ignored
persistent violence and harassment against women. The placard reads "I
have the right to live in the country." (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri) |
By Annie Banerji | Reuters – 1 hr 36 mins ago
 |
| Reuters/Reuters - Women participate in a candlelight vigil to show
solidarity with a rape victim at India Gate in New Delhi December 21,
2012. REUTERS/Adnan Abidi |
NEW DELHI (Reuters) - The gang-rape of a young woman in New Delhi has sparked public outrage across India, bringing thousands of people onto city streets in protest against authorities' failure to ensure women's safety.
Sexual violence against women
often goes unremarked and unreported in India, but on Friday hundreds
of students and activists blockaded roads in New Delhi and marched to
the president's palace, breaking through police barricades despite
water-canon fire to demand the culprits' execution.
The 23-year-old
woman is battling for her life in hospital after she was beaten,
gang-raped for almost an hour and thrown out of a moving bus on a busy
street of the capital last Sunday.
Five people accused of the attack have been arrested.
"No amount of
pepper spray, tazers or 'decent dressing' will protect women. I can't
let my little girl grow up in a society where men pounce on and rape women," said Bharat Kapur, whose 5-year-old daughter clung to his leg as hundreds shouted with clenched fists at a protest in New Delhi.
The public verbal
and physical sexual harassment of women, known as "eve-teasing", is
routine in New Delhi, which has come to be known as India's "rape capital".
Last week's case - covered intensively by TV news
networks - provoked uproar in both houses of parliament earlier this
week, prompting the authorities to announce measures to make the capital
safer for women. These include increased policing and fast-tracking
court hearings for rape.
New Delhi, home to about 16 million people, has the
highest number of sex crimes among India's mega cities. Police figures
show rape is reported on average every 18 hours and some other form of
sexual attack every 14 hours in the capital.
Marches, demonstrations and candlelight vigils have
spread during the week to cities in states from the north of the country
to the south.
"The system that is
supposed to protect women is not doing enough, whether it is the police
or the judicial system," said Tapas Praharaj, secretary of the All
India Democratic Women's Association in Odisha state, where a protest is
planned for Saturday.
In the northeastern
state of Assam, hundreds of women and girls marched through the city of
Guwahati, carrying placards and shouting "Hang Rapists" and "Stop
Violence Against Women".
Related content:
 |
Outrage grows over the gang rape of a 23-year-old woman on a moving bus in New Delhi, with India's congress vowing swifter justice for victims of rape. Sarah Sheffer reports.
|
& from
Dawn.com
Via
INDIA
Late last night while flipping television channels I saw TV Mohandas
Pai, a former CFO and HR Head of Infosys, advocating ‘chemical
castration’ for rapists. A leading television anchor also ran his show
yesterday around the theme and instigated his celebrity panellists in
trying to get them to advocate chemical castration for rapists in India.
My heart is also thinking along similar lines. It even goes to the
extent of telling me that the rapists should be stoned to death. But my
head tells me even that won’t make a difference.
Any solution is as good as the system that executes it. In a country
like India if anything like chemical castration for committing rapes
becomes the order of the day and the police are pushed to solve rape
cases faster, what are they likely to do? More often than not they will
get hold of some random guy (the homeless, the slum dweller or probably
just about the first person they can get their eyes on) beat the shit
out of him and get him to confess to it. How do we ensure something like
that does not happen? There is absolutely no way to do that.
The other point here is that the police and the judiciary the way
they have evolved in India cater more to the rich and powerful rather
than to those who ‘need’ the system to work for them. How do we ensure
that solutions like ‘chemical castration’ will not be abused by the rich
and the powerful?
 |
| Reuters |
Someone very close to me for the last two years has been caught up
fighting a false case registered against him in New Delhi. All it takes
is a bribe of Rs 15,000-20,000 to the local thanedar to get a false
first information report (FIR) registered. And it takes Rs 500-1000 to
the babu at the court to ensure that the case does not come up for
hearing, every time it is scheduled it. And this in a place like Delhi,
which is the capital of the country. Imagine what must be happening in
small towns and villages across India? The police in this country have
sold out lock, stock and barrel and they shouldn’t be given any further
ways of creating more problems for the citizens of this country.
What is interesting is the speed with which Delhi Police has acted in
this case and managed to round up most of the rapists. The Delhi High
Court has taken suo motu cognizance of the gang-rape and asked the Delhi
Police to explain how the offence remained undetected.
Yes the citizens of this country are up in arms against what has
happened but that I don’t believe is the real reason why the police and
the judiciary have acted with such speed. The only reason for showing
the speed that the system has is that the rapists come from the lower
strata of the society. They are the ordinary citizens of this country.
As The Times of India reports “The accused have been
identified as Ram Singh (33), resident of Ravidas Camp at Sector 3, R K
Puram (driver of the bus, DL1PB-0149), his brother Mukesh, 24, (who was
driving during the gang rape), Vinay Sharma, 20, (an assistant gym
instructor in the area), Pawan Gupta, 18, (fruit seller), Akshay Thakur,
26, (bus cleaner) and another cleaner, Raju, 25.”
If the accused had been the sons of the rich and powerful the entire
administration would have by now been working towards getting their
names cleared.
The molestation charges against SPS Rathore, an inspector general of
police were never proved. He got away with more than a little help from
his friends in the government. Manu Sharma, son of Congress politician
Venod Sharma, was first acquitted for the murder of model Jessica Lal.
With the hue and cry that followed the judgement was overturned and
Sharma was sentenced to life imprisonment.
In 2009, Sharma was allowed a parole of 30 days to attend to his sick
mother and other matters. His mother was later found attending public
functions and Sharma was found partying at a nightclub in Delhi. Matinee
idol Salman Khan had rammed his Toyota Land Cruiser into a bakery in
Bandra on September 28,2002, killing one person and injuring four
others. The case has dragged on for ten years now.
Recently, cop turned lawyer-activist YP Singh revealed that the
“Police had deliberately not taken the job of issuing summons seriously.
Also, Salman was absent 82 times when summoned by the court.” This is
what the rich and powerful in this country can do. The police is at
their beck and call. Loads of rape cases go nowhere because the rich and
the powerful who are the accused simply bribe their way through the
system. When the accused go unpunished or justice takes a long time to
be delivered, it makes rape a way of life for Indian men.
That brings me to my final point, the male:female sex ratio in India.
As Vivek Dehejia and Rupa Subramanya write in Indianomix – Making Sense
of Modern India “In 2011, the Census estimates that there were 914
girls for every 1,000 boys for the ages 0-6. This is even worse than in
2001, when there were 927 girls for every 1,000 boys. More pointedly,
this ratio is the worst ever since the country’s independence in 1947…In
nature, with no sex selection the observed sex ratio is approximately
1,020 males for every 1,000 females.”
What this tells us is that as a country we have a ‘son’ preference.
And that leads us to sex-selective abortion and even female infanticide.
In simple English we kill our girls before and just after they are
born. Delhi and the neigbouring state Haryana have among the lowest sex
ratios in the country. And it just doesn’t end there. Debraj Ray and
Siwan Anderson have carried out research to suggest that most women who
go missing in India do so as adults than at birth or as children. That
explains India’s highly skewed sex ratio in favour of men.
Dehejia and Subramanya talk about the research of Ray and Anderson in
their book. As they write “They show that about 12 per cent of women in
India are missing at birth: they are probably missing due to sex
selective abortion or infanticide. Another 25 per cent perish in
childbirth. But that’s only a little more than a third of the total.
Another 18 per cent go missing during their reproductive period, which
picks up among other things deaths during childbirth. But a massive 45
per cent of the total number of missing women go missing in adulthood,
something which by definition cannot have anything to do with sex
selection.”
Anderson and Ray come up with some more information. “They find that
it’s only in Punjab where the majority of missing women are at birth: in
fact it’s as high as 60 per cent of the excess female mortality in the
state…Two other states show up as having a majority of of their women
missing at birth or in childhood (before the age of 15) and it shouldn’t
surprise you to learn that they’re Haryana and Rajasthan.”
Hence, we kill our women before birth, after birth and keep killing
them as they grow up. In a society like this it is not surprising that
men grow up with terribly demented minds and commit heinous rapes like
the one in Delhi.
People are appalled. And they want instant justice. Chemical
castration. Public hanging. Stoned to death. Anything will do. But what
has happened is sheer reflection of the way India has evolved. Women
being raped day in and day out is a story of Indian evolution.
And evolution cannot be undone. So we might take to the streets to
protest. Have candle night vigils. Protest on Twitter and Facebook. Call
for chemical castration. Face water cannons from the police. Sing
ballads against the government. Breakdown and cry while speaking in the
Rajya Sabha.
But things won’t change.
As Arvind Kejriwal keeps reminding us “poore system ko badalna padega”. And that of course is easier said than done.
And in a day or two when our conscience is more at peace with itself,
we will go back to living our lives like we always have. Because we are
like this only. Meanwhile, women will continue to be raped.
Vivek Kaul is a writer. He can be reached at vivek.kaul@gmail.com
&
Yesterday’s post
on the Delhi rape case generated a lot of heat among the readers and I
got a lot of response for it. The responses make my belief even stronger
that women will continue to be raped in India. In this piece I will
address some of the responses that I got and make a case for what I said
yesterday and what I am reiterating today.
Why do you have to be so negative?
This was by far the most common response from the emails I got and
the comments that I read on the first piece. Well, how can I be
positive? A 23-year- old-girl who had her whole life before her has been
raped. Doctors who are treating her have said that they haven’t seen a
worse case of sexual assault in all their lives. And one of the rapists
has said they did what they did to her because she was resisting rape
and biting them. Her intestines have been taken out and if she lives she
won’t be able to eat again.
 |
| A rally demanding exemplary punishment for the Delhi gang-rape accused. AP. |
As the poet Sahir Ludhianvi wrote in
Pyasa: “Hum gamzada hai, laaye kahan se khushi ke geet. Denge wahi, jo paayenge iss zindagi se hum.”
Loosely translated this means that “I am unhappy, where do I get
songs of happiness from? I can only give what I get from this life.”
Those looking for more positivity can go and watch Salman Khan’s
Dabanng 2 which releases today.
And as they watch and enjoy Bhai (as his fans like to call Salman)
bashing up the baddies one more time, they should remember that this
reel life superstar is accused of ramming his Toyota Land Cruiser into a
bakery in Bandra on September 28,2002, killing one person and injuring
four others. Salman has been summoned by the court 82 times till now.
And he has not been present there even once. People like him are a
symbol of the rich and famous in this country who systematically abuse
the system of justice, take it for a ride and ensure that it does not
work.
Girls get raped because they wear sexy clothes
This is by far the most appalling thing that I have ever heard. One
gentleman who wrote to me had this to say. “Don’t you think girls are
misusing their freedom… our education doesn’t teaches culture it teaches
only history and tradition. When the freedom is given to women…they
should use it n the fruitful way. Wearing jeans below belly proves they
wants(sic) some attraction from opposite genders(sic) of society.”
Another man wrote in saying, “The simple reason is foreign influence.
we have forgotten our tradational (sic) wearings (sic) and jumping to
foreign culture particularly ladies and young girls of different ages
working or studying wearing very very less cloths(sic) and showing their
figure in a very nasty way. We used to see this type of body showing in
the movies but now a days in every
gulli or street you can see a live show. If this type of life style previles (sic) no one can prevent or control rape cases.”
So these men want us to believe that women are getting raped because
they want to get raped. If this is the attitude prevails even among some
men, then god help us! Let me try and flip this argument around and
explain why this is nonsense of the highest order.
I see all around me, bare chested men in just their striped shorts, bermudas and pyjamas with long
naadas
dangling, and no woman that I know has actually ever expressed the
desire to mob these barely clad men and publically pull their naadas
down. So much for sexually arousing exposure!
Delhi is a very safe place
Another gentleman who claimed to be a CEO of a company wrote to me to
say that he had been living in Delhi for the last seven years and he
found it to be a very safe place. His 21 year old son whenever he came
to India for his holidays from the US where he is studying partied till
very late in the night and came back home only at around 4am in the
morning and hence that proved that Delhi is a safe place.
When I asked him what about the girl friends of his son? Did they
party till 4am as well? Pat came the reply. No, they had 11pm deadlines.
Sons can party till 4am because sons don’t get raped.
Another gentleman wrote to me that Delhi is safe for 99.994% of
females and backed up with some statistical mumbo jumbo. “The media
needs stories to carry on with their TRP’s & viewership so that they
can make more mullah. And we are happy reading the craps which they
serve changing the flavors every now and then so that we don’t get
bored. Killing the girl child is not something new, its there for
centuries in India. Kings wanted their heirs again a male & so had
multiple queens. And so had a male sooner or later, the same is followed
for generation’s. That’s why a
Rahul Gandhi leads Congress & not a Priyanka,” he added.
Delhi (572) has
more
rapes than Mumbai (221), Kolkata (46), Chennai (76), Bangalore (97) and
Hyderabad (59), the next five biggest cities in India, put together.
Guess that makes Delhi a very safe city! There is this small cottage
industry that seems to have sprung up almost overnight trying to defend
Delhi as being safe, as not being the rape capital of India and so on.
If we are not even ready to acknowledge that Delhi is an unsafe city
(and frankly it gives me the creeps) how can we even start addressing
its fascination for raping its women.
It was not your sister/mother/wife who was raped.
One woman wrote in saying this: “Just read your article and I am
speechless reading that. Not in a good sense mind you. Though the facts
that you have mentioned are correct. But as you have said that stoning
these scums is not a solution. Would you have said this if this had
happened to your sister, mother or wife? Would you? try and understand
the pain that girl has gone through. The accused is saying that they
inserted metal rod inside her and when removed that rod some rope was
sticking to it.. that was her intestine man… can you even barely imagine
what she had gone through those 40 mins. keep your loved one in her
shoe and then tell us killing them will not stop this. What will ? I
find you sick who is taking this issue to some other extent.”
A few other people wrote in along similar lines talking about a rape
in Tamil Nadu and the rapists being killed in an encounter after that.
“This may be ruthless but these kind of punishment will tell others to
be cautious… i would like to recall the Coimbatore incident were a 10
year old girl was raped by two of the car drivers in 2010. The next day
there was a huge cry out in the state , understanding the pulse of
people police immediately swing in to action and he was encountered, the
whole tamil nadu know that this was planned execution by law
enforcement agencies but all people of tamil nadu welcomed it.”
If we as a society want to stone people to death, kill them in
encounters etc, how does that make us any different from the Taliban?
And as I said in my piece yesterday any solution is as good as the
system that will execute it. In a country like India if anything like
chemical castration and encounter killings for committing rapes becomes
the order of the day and the police are pushed to solve rape cases
faster, what are they likely to do? More often than not they will get
hold of some random guy (the homeless, the slum dweller or probably just
about the first person they can get their eyes on) beat the shit out of
him and get him to confess to it. How do we ensure something like that
does not happen? There is absolutely no way to do that.
Why can’t we make karate compulsory for women
This was another major thought that came across that
women should learn karate/martial arts/boxing for their security
against men. Great idea! But what will a woman do when four men pounce
upon her! Another idea along similar lines was that buses shouldn’t have
filmed window panes. As one gentleman wrote in, “Mr.Harish salve in
NDTV, insisted that the busses (sic) should not be allowed to have
filmed window panes.” Yes, but women are raped in auto-rickshaws, cars,
go-downs, homes, everywhere. What do we do about that?
But, like all the other writers, you are also just addressing the problem, without any solution.
I got loads of emails asking me for a solution. One woman wrote in
saying “You are the ambassador of media and you should educate the
Janta, by writing about the Laws as to what a layman can ask from the
Government as a form of justice for such miseries.”
What solution are we talking about? It isn’t rocket science here. We
are not talking about how to get an Indian man on the moon. The solution
is better policing. But the police in this country have sold themselves
out lock, stock and barrel for money. And other than that their
attitude towards rape leads me to believe that women will continue to be
raped.
As an
earlier piece
on this website reported, “Satbir Singh, Additional SHO of Sector 31
Police Station, Faridabad, puts it: “Ladkiya jo hai unko yahan tak yahan
tak (he gestures to mean that women should cover their entire body,
then carries on speaking)…Skirt pehenti hai. Blouse dalti hai; poora
nahi dalti hai. Dupatta nahi dalti. Apne aapko dikhawa karti hai. Baccha
uske taraf akarshit hota hai.” (Girls should be covered from here to
here… They wear skirts, blouses, that don’t cover them fully. Don’t wear
a dupatta. They display themselves. A kid will naturally be attracted
to her.)”
“Sub-Inspector Arjun Singh, SHO of Surajpur Police Station, Greater
Noida, clarifies the position further: “She is dressed in a manner that
people get attracted to her. In fact, she wants them to do something to
her.””
And why blame the lowly Sub-Inspectors when even the first citizen of
this country does not take rape seriously. As an earlier piece on this
website pointed out, “It is also worth recalling that before demitting
office as President,
Pratibha Patil commuted the death sentences of several rapists.
A record 30 pardons were granted in double-quick time. Among them was
Santosh Yadav, who was already serving a jail sentence for rape. In
jail, as gardener of the jailer, he and a fellow convict raped the
jailer’s own daughter. He was pardoned by Patil. Dharmender Singh and
Narendra Yadav killed a family of five when their minor daughter
resisted rape. They, too, were pardoned.”
A women President pardoning rapists. Do I need to say anything more on why I remain pessimistic!
(Vivek Kaul is a writer. He can be reached at vivek.kaul@gmail.com)
& from
India
is considering a fast-track court process to expedite rape cases and
step up punishment for sexual violence on the heels of the bus rape
incident that spurred outrage across India.
By Rebecca Byerly | Christian Science Monitor
The gang-rape and beating of a 23-year-old woman on a private bus as it cruised around
Delhi Sunday could be the turning point for improvements in the country’s
rape laws.
After nearly a week of massive
protests across the capital demanding tougher punishments for rapists
and better protection of women, the parliamentary standing committee
will meet next week to discuss creating fast-track courts for those accused of rape.
Proposals for changes in the law
come at a critical time. Many people say there is little deterrent for
rapists: Because of social stigma, few females come forward to report
the crime. Those that do often have to wait years for their cases to be
heard. And even then, the conviction rate is just 34.6 percent,
according to the National Crimes Record Bureau. Delhi
has the highest number of rapes in the country, with 572 rapes reported
last year. While Section 376 of the Indian Penal Code lists punishments
of up to a life sentence for rape, those convicted are often let off
after serving only a few months or years.
But fast-track courts could change how people think about such crimes
by expediting the trial period. Proposed amendments would also provide
better privacy for women with in-camera trials, which would keep them
from being in the same room as the accused.
While politicians and activists are encouraged that the public
outrage could push parliament to reform laws, Anil Bairwa of the
Association for Democratic Reforms says fast track courts will not solve
the problem.
He points to a report released this week that found as many as 27 Indian politicians in senior positions have rape or molestation cases pending against them.
“When the politicians passing the legislation and governering states across
India
have themselves been accused of rape and molesting women, it really
shows where this country is in its nascent laws to protect women.
Hopefully fast-track courts and stiffer penalties will start bringing
some of these people to task.”
Leaders
from all political walks of life have pledged their support to improve
the safety of women in Delhi and across the country. That these normally
polarized politicians could come together on this issue, says Nirmala
Sitharaman, the national spokeswoman for the Baratiya Janta Party (BJP),
shows that politicians are united in their pledge to improve the laws.
Ms. Sitharaman says the gruesome
case that propelled the issue into the national spotlight shows how
little perpetrators fear punishment: In the Delhi bus gang rape,
both the woman and her friend who tried to protect her were thrown out
of the moving bus – on a highway on the outskirts of the city, according
to court testimony.
“Though the government may move slow in many areas, the commitment
members of parliament have made to pass new legislation to protect women
is real,” she says. “This terrible act has shaken the policymakers in
this city to their core.”
But not everyone is convinced
change is on the way. The pressure people across the city have been
putting on the government this week must continue, says Dr. Vandana
Prasad of the Ministry of Women and Child Development. “Announcements
for changes in a law can mean something happening in one week or 10
years.”
Become AWARE
and
Stay ALERT!
