RISING WOMEN CRIMES – SOCIAL ISSUE
News: Delhi
women’s panel chief molested and dragged by car; man held
What's in the news?
● Delhi
Commission of Women (DCW) chief Swati Maliwal was allegedly dragged by a car in
the early hours of January 19 near AIIMS Hospital in South Delhi.
Reasons for rise in crime against women in India:
1. No fear of law:
● Various
laws like Sexual harassment at workplace, Vishakha guidelines are in place.
Unfortunately, these laws have failed to protect women and punish the culprits.
Even law has a lot of loopholes.
● For
example, under Sexual harassment at
workplace act, the law states that there has to be an annual report that
needs to be filed by companies, but there is no clarity with the format or
filing procedure.
2. Lack of accountability and conviction:
● Lack
of accountability of the law and order institutions and lack of conviction of
culprit lead to increase in crimes against women.
● A
lack of centralized mechanism to
collect data on women harassment, makes it difficult to analyze patterns on
harassment that women face leading to poor law implementation.
3. Patriarchy:
● Despite
the increased education levels and various government efforts like Beto Bachao
Beti Padao, women's status has not
improved much.
● People
are not shedding their patriarchal mindset. Honour killing, domestic violence
are on rise due to increasing women’s voices that is challenging patriarchal
mindset.
4. Police failure:
● Indifferent attitude of
the police leads people to take law into their own
hands. Police delays and inability to catch the criminals lead to more crime
against women.
● The
state police attitude is not good in implementing laws against sexual crime.
Many cases of misbehaving with women by police have been reported.
5. Lack of public safety:
● Women
generally aren’t protected outside their homes. Many streets are poorly lit,
and there's a lack of women’s toilets.
● Women
who drink, smoke or go to pubs are widely seen in Indian society as morally
loose, and village clan councils have blamed a rise in women talking on
cellphones and going to the bazaar for an increase in the incidence of rape.
6. More reporting:
● A
recent report reveals that there is a 12% increase in sexual offences. With
women shedding their shyness and more women being educated, reporting of crimes
has increased.
● More
women are raising their voice as was seen in #MeToo movement. This has led to increased reported cases as
reflected in NCRB report.
7. Sluggish judicial system:
● India’s
court system is painfully slow, because of a shortage of judges. The country
has about 15 judges for every 1 million
people.
● This
leads to delay in justice. The Indian justice system has failed to investigate,
prosecute, and punish the perpetrators and failed to provide effective
redressal for victims.
Laws and Measures taken in India:
1. Legislations:
● Protection
of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005
● Dowry
Prohibition Act, 1961
● Indecent
Representation of Women (Prohibition) Act, 1986
● Sexual
Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act,
2013.
● Prohibition
of Child Marriage Act, 2006
● ‘Police’
and ‘Public Order’ are State subjects under the Seventh Schedule to the
Constitution of India. State Governments are thus responsible for safety and
security of the citizens including women and girls.
2. Government initiatives:
● Nirbhaya Fund
for projects for the safety and security of women.
● One-Stop Centre Scheme
to provide integrated support and assistance to women affected by violence,
both in private and public spaces under one roof.
● Scheme
of ‘Universalization0 of Women Helpline’.
● Scheme
of ‘Mahila Police Volunteers’.
● Online
analytic tool for police called “Investigation Tracking System for Sexual
Offences” to monitor and track time-bound investigation in sexual assault cases
in accordance with Criminal Law (Amendment) Act 2018.
● National
Database on Sexual Offenders (NDSO) to facilitate investigation and tracking of
sexual offenders across the country by law enforcement agencies
● In
order to coordinate various initiatives for women safety, MHA has set up a
Women Safety Division.
● The
Criminal Law (Amendment), Act 2013 was enacted for effective legal deterrence
against sexual offences.
● Further,
‘The Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2018’ has also been enacted making the
punishment for offences like rape more stringent by including death penalty for
rape of a girl below the age of 12 years.
● The
Act also mandates completion of investigation and trials within 2 months each.
● Emergency
Response Support System (ERSS), which provides a single emergency number (112)
based computer aided dispatch of field resources to the location of distress
has been operationalized in 20 States/ UTs in 2018-19.
● A
cyber-crime portal has been launched
for citizens to report obscene content.
● Cyber
Crime Forensic Labs have been set up in several States, and training of over
3,664 personnel, including 410 Public Prosecutors and Judicial Officers in
identifying, detecting and resolving cyber-crimes against women and children
has been imparted.
● In
order to improve investigation, steps have been taken to strengthen DNA
analysis units in Central and State Forensic Science Laboratories.
● Setting-up
and upgrading of DNA Analysis units in State Forensic Science Laboratories in
13 States/ UTs has also been sanctioned under Nirbhaya Fund.
● Guidelines
have been notified for collection of forensic evidence in sexual assault.
Challenges:
1. Unreported Cases:
● Crimes
against Women remain mostly unreported globally.
● Fear
of societal shame is a big reason for under-reporting.
● NFHS
4 showed that 1 in every 3 women faced some kind of violence but only 1.5% of
them have reported it to Police
2. Less Sensitized Police Personnel:
Police are the first person to encounter the Victim or accused.
3. Pending Cases:
Cases relating to crimes against women have the most backlog, close to 89.6%.
Conviction rate is also very low.
4. Time Bound Investigations:
Laid back behavior of the investigating authorities in a time bound way is a
major roadblock.
5. Making Laws without proper implementation:
● Just
making the laws will not work, needs to be checked for its proper
implementation.
● Unnao
case proves that making laws is not sufficient, its proper implementation is
necessary
6. Gender Disparity:
Discriminatory gender norms and stereotypes coupled with prevalent patriarchy
leads to crimes against women.
7. Female infanticide and Sex selective Abortions:
Even in Modern India, daughters are still considered an economic burden.
8. Trafficking and forced prostitution
- People are trafficked to different states and even country in bait of jobs
and later are forced to do manual work or even worse prostitution.
9. Online Abuse and harassment:
● As
the internet becomes an increasingly important part of human existence to make
their voices heard, a woman’s inability to feel safe online is an impediment to
her freedom.
● Women
are regularly subject to online rape threats, online harassment,
cyber-stalking, blackmail, trolling, slut-shaming and more.
10. Data and statistics:
● Proper
statistics and data are missing to reach the exact numbers.
● Even
the numbers already present are not enough to have a stringent policy with
effective implementation.
● Harassment
at the workplace.
WAY FORWARD:
1. Civil society participation:
The role of community and state has increased to stop such crimes. Active
participation of civil society against such crimes and helping state and law
enforcement agencies in nabbing the criminal is critical.
2. State action:
State should be more proactive in police reforms. Strict action should be taken
against any police officials who do not record such incidents in criminal
records.
3. Police reforms:
The government should carry a recruitment drive for women and should focus on
gender focused training in police and judiciary. There is a need to create
women police stations and more women should be taken as judges.
4. Judicial reforms:
Women harassment cases must be resolved in a time frame. The court dealing with
rape cases should be sensitive towards the conditions of rape victims and award
punishments to rapists with great seriousness towards women conditions in the
Indian society.
5. Compensation:
The need of the hour is the creation of state sponsored victim compensatory
fund particularly for heinous offences including rape. This award should be
totally free from the result of the prosecution that is conviction or acquittal
and should come into action the moment FIR is registered or cognizance is taken
of a complaint.
6. Media: The media must be
sensitive to the plight of the rape victim and must not highlight the name or
any inference leading to the identification of the victim, as it will be
counterproductive. The media must invariably highlight those cases where the
offender has been convicted, as it will infuse the feeling of deterrence among
the people.
7. Crisis center:
Rape Crisis Centers are set up in countries like Australia, Canada, America,
United Kingdom, etc. These centers provide their help through their telephonic
help lines also. These centers provide the rape victims with medical help,
counselling, and financial help by way of providing job opportunities etc. Such
centers should be set up in India to provide for medical aid and counselling to
the rape victims.
Thus,
women’s crime needs to be tackled at all levels with involvement of community
and whole society. Everyday women are dealing with harassment from mild to
extreme forms on our streets, workplaces, public transportation, and even in
homes. This needs to be stopped by active vigil in society. Women’s issues need
to be tackled with strong political will and government efforts.