DEATH PENALTY IS NOT THE ANSWER
Why has this issue cropped up ?
Amid belligerent demands for capital punishment for rapists, the President signed an ordinance that introduces the death penalty for those convicted of raping girls below the age of 12.
Is death penalty the solution ?
• There are numerous instances of the perpetrators killing their victims, so stringent anti-rape laws are perceived not to be deterrents but measures that further instigate rapists to attack the victims.
• The assumption that the severity of law is an adequate deterrent to crime being committed is a highly contested one, given that brutal rapes in India have not decreased despite enforcement of the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2013.
• Women’s movements across the world have consistently criticised knee-jerk, populist “solutions” to curbing sexual violence. Such “solutions” are seen as undermining the need to address the essential question of the rehabilitation of rape survivors, as well as the question of the complicit role played by state agencies in denying justice to survivors.
Hurdles in way of justice
• It is well known that right from the moment the criminal justice system is supposed to kick in, there is unwarranted delay by the police in filing missing person complaints and registering written complaints of sexual assault survivors.
• The reason for such police inaction is a debate within itself, but often enough, such inaction is connected to prevailing biases of class, caste, religion and gender.
• The huge difficulty rape survivors face in police stations and hospitals where medical examinations are carried out is another pertinent issue which is continually sidestepped.
• Further, insensitive methods of police investigation, tardy filing of charge sheets, delayed forensic reports, insensitive counselling, uneven disbursement of compensation to rape survivors, aggressive cross-examination of the survivor and her witnesses by defence lawyers, inadequate witness protection, and cumbersome court proceedings have together disempowered rape complainants.
• Instead of harping on the quantum and severity of punishment, we have to highlight the issue of a low conviction rate for rape. The dismal conviction rate for rape in India is a consequence of complicity of state agencies. It is precisely this which contributes to the culpability of rapists and nurtures the growing impunity with which sexual crimes are committed.
Way forward
• For the wheels of justice to start turning, it is essential to recognise that the crisis lies in the precise manner in which the existing criminal justice system unfolds.
• India’s growing rape culture is best reversed by enhancing conviction rates through reforms in the police and judicial systems, and by augmenting measures to rehabilitate and empower rape survivors.
• We require nothing short of the following: greater allocation of state resources towards the setting up of fast-track courts; more one-stop crisis centres; proper witness protection; more expansive compensation for rape survivors, and an overhaul of existing child protection services. Until these issues are addressed, little will change on the ground.
Relevance : GS 2
