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| Need to tackle crimes against women | | | Sunita Vakil | 7/1/2011 12:40:57 AM |
| Sexual crimes will continue unless the judiciary, civil societies and the media become proactive.
Our politicians may continue to argue that a lot has been done for women empowerment but they must think twice in view of the rising cases of crimes against women, less than 10% strength of women in legislature and the prevalence of gender disparity in the society. Despite our tall claims, safety of women in India has always been a cause for great concern. We must recall the words of late Jawahar Lal Nehru " You can tell the condition of a nation by looking at the status of its women." Indeed, India as a nation does not know how to treat its women as human beings who have a right to dignity and safety. Women are victims of rape, incest and domestic voilence that often lead to trauma, physical handicap or death. Rapes, murders and molestation are crimes repeatedly committed against women in India. More than often, rape is no longer enough. There has to be voilence following it, sometimes fatal and at other times crippling. With our women being safe neither within nor outside their homes, India has earned the dubious distinction of being the fourthmost dangerous place for women in the world. Infact, we need not feel surprised at all.
It is ironic that in India where women are worshipped as goddesess, atrocities against them continue unabated. We make a show of devotion during Durga Puja and Navratri. We also undertake pilgrimages to shrines of goddesess like Vaishno Devi to seek blessings. But at the same time we do not question our conscience before killing a girl child. A recently released global survey reveals that female foeticide and infanticide is believed to have led to the disappearance of 50 million unborn girls. Even when parents do not show any mercy when they kill their daughters in mothers womb, how can one expect their well being in the society at large? Comparisions do no serve for much but we are a little behing Afghanistan where the Taliban treat their women in a medieval fashion. Incidents of rape show little signs of abating. Infact, the menace is showing an alarmingly upward trend with unfortunate incidents of young girls being raped, hanged and mutilated. With five cases of rape taking place within 48 hours, Uttar Pradesh is earning notoriety for its high rate of crimes against women. According to figures released by the National Crime Record Bureau, every hour as many as 18 women are raped in India, though most cases of this nature remain unreported. The number of rape cases have increased nearly 700% since 1971. It has grown from 7 rapes a day to 53. Even more shocking is the fact that out of 3 million prostitutes in India, 40% are children. These figures should shake the conscience of our political leaders and make them take a serious note of the ground reality instead of making tall claims about women empowerment.
Although India is a democracy known for its growing economic prowess, we still have a spiralling rate of dowry deaths, honour killings, traffickings and other crimes against women. It is also a fact that women occupy the posts of President, Speaker, Leader of the ruling party and Leader of the opposition. Yet, is the women given the right place, respect and honour which she deserves in the society. The answer is a definite no. In a society where economy and hunger drive most decisions, girls in India seem to be the lesser children of god. In many families they are attended to after the boys and in many others they are not wanted at all. Indeed, the discrimination starts from home with the average Indian family being preoccupied with the male child. The birth of a son is greeted with jubilation while a daughter is considered a burden. Infact, in our aggressively materialistic and patriarchal milieu, a girl child becomes a dispensible commodity. Further, the financial pressure put on the parents at the time of a girl's marriage only adds to their woes. First and foremost, this feudal mindset against girls needs to be broken. Concrete action like education, jobs and legal rights alone will make a genuine difference to the girl's status.
It needs no reiteration that politics today has become an end in itself. It does not help matters that such crimes are politicised to berate the opponents with especially when elections are emminent.
But there the matter normally ends. The case in point is the sudden spurt in violence in UP, where an alarming law and order situation is being converted into a political blame game with congress and samajwadi party trying to corner Mayawati. Though the deterioration of law and order in UP is a worrying factor, there is no point in blaming any single party for failing to provide protection to women. This malaise is not confined to UP alone. Same is the case with many cities in all corners of India. Infact, Delhi, where a rape occurs every 18 hours, is considered the rape capital of the world. The panacea therefore lies in dealing with the larger issue of crimes against women by combining society and law to break the mould.
The human rights commission, the National Commission for Women and the Chief Minister have expressed concern over the fast growing cases of rape. But merely making the right kind of noises is not enough. Despite the fact that India has some substantial laws to check crimes against women but the proof of the pudding lies in the implementation and that is where we have fallen so woefully short. Strict implementation of the existing laws is the need of the hour to pave way for women emancipation. It is also shameful that convictions in cases of rape have always remained low as certain cases remain unregistered. Indifference of the police is also a grave area of concern. Even if it manages to nab a few suspects, shoddy investigations work to the advantage of criminals who either get off lightly or walk free. Also the lengthy judicial process does little to help the cause of victims. Drastic changes in the legal system are required as almost all judicial cases drag for years. People who are rich or have a political clout are almost never brought to justice. The need of the hour is to initiate time bound probes in reported cases, punishing the guilty and undertaking drastic reforms in the police.
But can laws and palliative policies address the root cause of the malaise? The answer is no. The best way out is to stop the discrimination against the girl child at home and give right place to her in society. Awareness programmes aimed at altering attitudes towards the girl child will drive the turnaround. Also, authorities should focus on empowerment of women and strengthening women's rights to uplift their social status. It is good that the women's reservation bill is set to be introduced in the monsoon session of the parliament. Let's hope it will change things for the better.
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