The recommendation of a Madras High Court judge to the Centre to castrate child rapists flies in the face of logic. An inhuman punishment is no solution to a barbaric crime. The idea of castration, floated in an order against a British national concerning rape, is also unscientific as it has been proved by medical science that a man can be castrated and still experience erection since the male hormone testosterone comes not only from the testes but also from adrenal glands. In any case, reviving in the modern age the medieval idea of barbaric punishment fitting barbaric crime is too ridiculous to contemplate.
The reason for the judge’s angst — “When law is ineffective and incapable of addressing the menace, this court cannot keep its hands folded and remain a silent spectator, unmoved and oblivious of the recent happenings of horrible, blood-curdling gangrapes of children in various parts of India” — is clear. But the punishment thought of is too cavalier to be considered. Some unusual pronouncements, even orders, have come recently out of the Madras high court, especially with regard to rape. In one case, mediation was ordered along with the release of the rapist until the opprobrium it generated caused the judge to beat a hasty retreat.
Rape has become an intolerable phenomenon that is seen rising in statistical terms. Society has to tackle this on many fronts, including with deterrent punishment seen to be delivered in time, as this social disorder is about an expression of male power as much as a sexual perversion. The prejudice of ages cannot be conquered by ordering “eye for an eye” punishment.
