Bring ‘Him’ to justice!

 

# Hathras has once again saddened souls and reminded us of the Nirbhaya case in 2012 that shook the nation’s consciousness. There seems to have been no stopping. Every day is the same day when it comes to ‘rape’ cases being reported across the nation.

People's hopes were high after the Nirbhaya case. Stringent policies were framed to bring to justice the culprits of the heinous crime of rape and sexual assault cases. Criminal laws were tightened to punish the perpetrators. The hanging of all the accused in the 2012 Delhi Nirbhaya case was an example of the ‘zero tolerance’ policy that has been set. Nirbhaya fund was created to deal with welfare of the victims of such cases. This case had made rape and sexual violence against women ‘a national crime’ and brought law and order machinery on their toes, but years gone by there has been no sign that such crimes against women are abating.

Continuing ‘everyday cases’ of rape and sexual abuse atrocities are clearly an indicator of how it has not proved to be a deterrent to the perpetrators of the crime. Sexual crimes against girl or women have been on the rise. Official data indicates the crime is still taking place in all parts of country. Reportedly, according to the latest data released by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), the nation recorded 88 rape cases every day in 2019. During the period 2010-2019, a total of 3,13,289 cases were reported across the country. In the last 10 years, the rape vulnerability of a girl or woman has increased up to 44 per cent.

NCRB’s Crimes in India -2019 report shows that crimes against women have gone up by 7.3 per cent last year. The crime rate registered per lakh women population is 62.4 per cent in 2019, up from the 58.8 per cent figure of 2018. Reportedly, out of the total 32,033 reported rape cases in the year, 11 per cent were from the Dalit community.

What is more worrying is the rise of case of crimes against children. NCRB figures show an upward trend in cases in spite of full implementation of the amended Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act. Reportedly, in 2019, 1.48 lakh cases of crime against children were registered in 2019, of which 35.3 per cent cases were related to sexual offences.

Another revealing truth is about possible perpetrators of the crime. Reportedly, NCRB data for 2019 showed that 30.9 per cent of these cases under the Indian Penal Code were registered under 'cruelty by husband or his relatives', 21.8 per cent under 'Assault on women with intent to outrage her modesty' (21.8 per cent), 17.9 per cent under 'kidnapping and abduction of women'.

Enough is enough. How do we stop this ‘rape culture’?

Bring him to justice!

- Singh Rakesh Ranjan, Freelance Journalist