“Rapes in India”.
Some Statements to remind of the insensibility and apathy shown by some eminent personalities of India for one of the most heinous crimes in the mankind.
Statements below mentioned also aim to tell as to how this society looks at co-inhabitants and whether they even try or not try to Change the situation in which women live today in our country.
There is a saying that when rape is inevitable, lie down and enjoy it. That is exactly the position which you are in," KR Ramesh Kumar said on Thursday.
In April 2014, while opposing death penalty to three men convicted in a gangrape case, Samajwadi Party Chief Mulayam Singh Yadav had said, "boys will be boys, they commit mistakes."
He even blamed the girls for rape saying that girls get friendly with boys and when they fight and have differences, they term it as rape.
In 2013, Mohan Bhagwat, chief of the right-wing RSS or Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) said, “You go to villages and forests of the country and there will be no such incidents of gang-rape or sex crimes.”
He added, "Where "Bharat" becomes "India" with the influence of western culture, such incidents happen. The actual Indian values and culture should be established at every stratum of society where women are treated as 'mother'."
Former Andhra Pradesh Congress chief Botsa Satyanarayana said, "Just because India achieved freedom at midnight does not mean that women can venture out after dark. They should ensure that they do not board buses with few passengers."
"Boys and girls should be married by the time they turn 16-year-old, so that they do not stray... this will decrease the incidents of rape," Sube Singh, a Khap (village Council) representative, had said earlier.
To which Haryana's former C.M Om Prakash Chautala said, "People used to marry their girls to save them from Mughal atrocities and currently a similar situation is arising in the state. I think that's the reason khap has taken such a decision and I support it."
Actor and TMC MP Tapas Pal said, "If anyone from opposition or their wives and sisters are here, then listen up, if any one of your people touch anyone from TMC I will destroy you, I will not spare them. I will send my boys and they will rape people."
After the horrific Badaun rapes in 2014 home minister of MP Babulal Gaur said, "This is a social crime which depends on men and women. Sometimes it's right, sometimes it's wrong."
Former home minister RR Patil & NCP leader said, "When I spoke to people here (Sangli), they said they supported me. When I asked why, they said because our candidate from the MNS is in jail because he has been accused of rape." To which, Patil replied, "If he wanted to contest from this seat and become an MLA, he should have committed the crime after the elections."
After a series of 19 rapes within 30 days, Haryana Khap Panchayat Leader Chhatar said, "Chowmein leads to hormonal imbalance, evoking an urge to indulge in acts such as rape and sex. You also know the impact of chowmein, which is a spicy food, on our body. Hence, our elders too advised to eat light and nutritious food."
The leader of a khap panchayat in Haryana explained to the New York Times that "the mobile plays a main role," in sexual assaults because "a girl sits on a bus, she calls a male friend, asks him to put money on her mobile. Is he going to put money on her mobile for free? No. He will meet her at a certain place, with five of his friends, and they will call it rape."
In 2011, Dinesh Reddy, former police chief of Andhra Pradesh said, "Now, wealth has increased, corporate styles have seeped into the villages bringing in liquor and other cosmopolitan cultures."
"These modern women are more vulnerable to rapes”.
In September 2020, a 19-year-old was gang-raped and brutalized by four upper caste men in Hathras, Uttar Pradesh. The woman’s body was then forcibly cremated by the Uttar Pradesh police without the consent and knowledge of her family.
Inevitability, boys, western culture, midnight, age, threat, doubts, hormones, mobile phone, modernity & what not!!!!
“Some Figures.”
According to the latest data released by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB),
1. India recorded 88 rape cases every day in 2019.
2. India reported a total 32,033 rape cases in 2019,
3. Every fourth rape victim in India is a child,
4. For Dalit women rapes rose by nearly 160 percent from 1,346 cases to 3,486 cases
5. The rape vulnerability of a girl or woman has increased up to 44 per cent in the last 10 years.
The real numbers may be much higher as reporting of sexual violence remains low – an estimated 99 percent of sexual assault cases in India go unreported.
“India's Daughter”, documentary by the BBC records Mukesh Singh, one of the six rapists convicted in the 2012 attack saying
Such statements from a convict of rape signify a deep rooted misogynistic & Chauvinistic attitude toward women as well as Extreme disregard for women as Co-inhabitants of this Earth whose Pain, Dignity, Choice, Autonomy or even Consent can be taken for granted at the whims of such men.
But why?
01. A 2012 investigation by the magazine Tehelka revealed a widespread belief among police officers that "genuine rape victims never approach the police and those who do are basically extortionists or have loose moral values."
02. Few female police:Studies show that women are more likely to report sex crimes if female police officers are available.
03. Low conviction rate: As per ToI, the conviction rate for rape cases stands at 28% across the country.
04. Blaming provocative clothing:There's a tendency to assume the victims of sexual violence somehow brought it on themselves. In a 1996 survey of judges in India, 68 percent of the respondents said that provocative clothing is an invitation to rape.
05. Acceptance of domestic violence: A 2012 report by UNICEF found that 57 percent of Indian boys and 53 percent of girls between the ages of 15 and 19 think wife-beating is justified.
06. Encouraging rape victims to compromise: There’s a tendency in the Indian society today that it doesn’t treat crime as something unacceptable but they refer to it as a Mistake that demands a repair & not punishment. Now whatever that translates into, whether privilege to men or aversity to women’s dignity.
07. Low status of women: Indian society is a deep-rooted patriarchal society where male domination and choices are the universal truth whether right or wrong. In such a situation where women don’t even get the due of whatever she does for her own family either being a daughter or a daughter-in-law & is always pushed into subjugation of various sorts, It is difficult for them to break all that at once and turn into an autonomous personality.
08. A lack of public safety: India lacks basic facilities that are important in view with the security of its people such as Street lamps, CCTV cameras etc. In such a situation the chances of such incidents get higher.
Verma Commission, a three-person committee chaired by former Supreme Court chief justice J.S. Verma, to investigate ways in which India’s laws should be improved in order to better combat sexual assault.
Many of the Verma Commission’s recommendations to address this were adopted into law, but several of the Commission’s recommendations were rejected & one among them was Prohibition on marital rape.
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