India Raises its Voice Against Rape Yet Again – but is it Enough?

On December 1, India woke up to the news of a young woman from Hyderabad raped on the outskirts of the city. The victim was identified as a 27-year-old veterinary doctor, who was on her way back from work when the four accused – Mohammed, Jollu Naveen Kumar, Chintakunta Chenna Kesavulu and Jollu Shiva – spotted her near a toll booth.

As per the remand report filed by the Shadnagar Police Station, one of the accused punctured the rear tyre of the victim’s scooter when it was parked. Then, under the pretext of helping her, the four abducted and raped her. The police reported that the women died because her nose and mouth were covered during the assault. The accused then took her corpse to Shadnagar and burnt it. Her partially burnt body was later found by a resident of the Chatanpally village under the road bridge of NH44.

The fact that nothing has changed for women over the years, that women are unsafe in every nook and cranny of the country, set off a series of protests. In Delhi, a young woman, Anu Dubey, sat in front of the Parliament alone to protest and seek justice for the victim. Anu Dubey later accused the Delhi police of harassing her. The Delhi police were immediately served with a notice from The National Commission of Women.

Soon, protests spread to universities as several student organisations like JNUSU (Jawaharlal Nehru Student’s Union) called for protests on the university campus asking students to join the demonstration in solidarity with the victim and her family.

The incident sparked anger at the Indian Parliament too. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh condemned the incident, saying that the “act has brought shame to the entire country.” However, no official statement has been made from the Prime Minister or his office.

Changing the narrative

Questions on the state of women safety in the country have been raised both towards the Central Government and the TRS-led Telangana state government.

The Hyderabad Police released a 14-point directive post the incident, which was met with widespread criticism. The directives mostly put the onus of safety and prevention of rape on women instead of changing the narrative when it comes to perpetrators.

Hashtags like #StopTellingWomen has started trending on Twitter as well. Sangeeta Maity, an IT professional based out of Pune, says, “Women do not need to be told what is right and what is wrong and how one needs to conduct themselves to not get raped or assaulted. The police force must prevent these incidents and not ask women to act in a certain way.”

Actor and Rajya Sabha MP Jaya Bachchan, in her speech at the Parliament, has asked the government to give “a proper answer and a very definite answer (to) what has happened, how they have tackled it, and how far the justice has been done”.

Shaubhik Ghosh, a Pune-based media student, says “Gender sensitisation should be made more important for police personnel so that they can handle such cases better.” Prathamesh Kesarkar, a Bengaluru-based engineer, adds that its not just the police department that needs gender sensitisation. “Gender sensitisation should be made mandatory in schools, colleges, and all educational and professional institutions,” he says.

However, the larger point is that even after the horrific Delhi gang-rape case of 2012, a rise in fast track courts, setting up of a Nirbhaya Fund and the Verma Committee, not much has been done in terms of implementation.

A closer look at the Nirbhaya Fund and its utilisation would reveal that most states haven’t used the total funds allocated to them. The Fund has allocated money for states to implement policies, rules, and regulations to prevent crimes against women.

Telangana, where this incident has taken place, was allocated a total fund size of Rs 10,351.88 lakh. However, only a meagre Rs 419 lakh have been used. States like Maharashtra, Sikkim, and Meghalaya have not used any of the allocated funds. On the other hand, several states used a very minimal amount of funds only to set up of universal Women Helpline Scheme.

Justice delayed is justice denied

Along with the slow implementation of policies, a slow movement of cases in courts has delayed justice for the victims. Ravi Shankar Prasad, Minister of Law and Justice of India, in a written reply to Rajya Sabha, said that there were more than 4.3 million pending cases in the court out of which over 8,00,000 cases were over a decade old. The tedious process to justice has made it worse for the victims. It leads to both mental and financial repercussions.

In some cases, the perpetrator is from a rich and powerful background, often threatening the victim to retract a case. In the Unnao rape case, one of the accused was a sitting BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar. The victim’s family, in a letter to the then Chief Justice Of India Ranjan Gogoi, stated that the MLA’s kin threatened the family, asking them to pull back the case or face dire consequences. Post this letter, the victim and her family were hit by a truck while they were travelling. The CJI then sought a report from the local police on the letter.

Delayed justice makes it difficult for citizens to trust the legal and the police system. Every time a rape case is reported, people outrage on social media, take to the streets to protest and call for the death penalty for the perpetrators. This time, it did not remain in the streets but reached even the Parliament.

The nation outrages, the Parliament raises questions, and the government condemns, but little is being done to prevent further incidents from happening. Every rape and sexual assault is met with the same immediate reaction, followed by almost no action or improvement, leading to no change.

This outrage needs to convert into definite action on the ground. In an interview with news agency ANI, the mother of the victim of the Delhi gangrape of 2012 said, “The rape and murder of the rape veterinarian is barbaric. Unlike us, who had to wait for seven years, she should get justice soon. The administration should reflect on why such incidents re-occur. The accused persons in both the rape cases should be hanged to death.”

Her biggest grief is that the Supreme Court’s order to hang the main convict in the case, Vinay Sharma, has not been followed yet.

According to the last available government data, 32,559 cases of rape were registered across the country under Section 376 of IPC in 2017. According to a global poll by Thomson Reuters Foundation, India is the most dangerous place for women, having topped the list when it comes to ‘Sexual Violence.’