Three years after the brutal, gruesome gangrape and murder of a 23-year-old paramedic, not much has changed to make women feel safer anywhere in India. Despite the national outcry, despite changes in the law, similar horrors continue to be perpetrated across the country, particularly in Bengaluru.
Three years have passed after a 23-year-old paramedical student was raped and brutally attacked by a gang of six men, including a juvenile, in a moving bus in Delhi. Thirteen days after the incident, the victim succumbed to her injuries. The incident sent shock waves across the country and protests were held demanding more stringent punishment for accused in cases of crimes against women.
A judicial committee headed by Justice J. S. Verma, a former Chief Justice of India, was set up to suggest amendments to criminal laws pertaining to sexual assault. The committee had made several recommendations but only a few of the recommendations have been adopted by the state government.
Activists opine that though there is no significant change in the approach of the government, some steps like setting up of fast track courts to try rape cases and setting up a Committee on Preventing Sexual Violence Against Women and Children have brought small changes.
Read | ‘Just locking up an offender is not the answer’
K.S. Vimala, of Janavadi Mahila Sanghatane, says that there are a more things that need to be changed. “Unless the government works out the minute details that lead to sexual assault, such incidents would not stop. It should begin from the syllabus in primary schools and later show on till how a traffic cop checks vehicles during odd hours.”
The three key factors that could make a big difference, according to Mrs. Vimala, are safe modes of transportation, sensitising the police about such issues and gender awareness at primary school level.
“The agencies like women and child welfare department, home department and transport department should hold meetings periodically. Ministers just giving statements and not doing anything will not help. Once a guideline is set, strict action should be taken against those who do not adhere to it,” she said. She also stresses that the teachers in primary schools need special training to create gender awareness amongst children.
Recent incidents
- October 3: A 22-year-old BPO staffer was kidnapped from Madivala, in a Tempo Traveller and was gang raped by two drivers near Kaadubeesanahalli. The police arrested Suneel and Yogesh in this connection. The Sulibele incident comes exactly a month after the Madivala kidnap and gang rape case.
- October 6: A 54-year-old female dengue patient, was allegedly molested by a male medical attendant at Fortis Hospital, Cunningham Road. Accused Shivakumar, 32, was arrested in this case.
- October 13: A 14-year-old girl was allegedly raped by her 45-year-old step-father for a period of six months to a year at her house in Byatarayanapura within police station limits.
- November 5: A 19-year-old girl was raped by a 21-year-old driver of a mini-bus she boarded in Sulibele, on the outskirts of the city. The girl, who works in a nursing home in Hoskote, boarded the bus and its driver, Ravi, who asked the cleaner, Manjunath, to drive the bus, allegedly closed the windows of the bus and raped the girl in the moving bus for about
- 15 minutes.
- November 4: It was reported that a 19-year-old B.Com student, was raped by a 41-year-old man in his car in Mahalakshmi Layout, within police station limits. The girl approached the police and lodged a complaint of rape after she became pregnant. The accused Eshwar, was arrested in and it was revealed the he had sexually assaulted the girl a few times over the last few months.
Can’t put the juvenile back in jail now: Experts
One of the accused in the heinous December 16 Delhi rape case is all set to walk free on December 20, solely because he was a juvenile when he took part in the crime. Hot debates are raging over juveniles close to their adulthood committing heinous crimes like that of Delhi rape and being left off the hook.
Legal experts feel that nothing has changed in the last three years since the Delhi rape, as the bill of amendment for the Juvenile Justice Act 2000 is pending before Parliament. “It has not been an important issue for our parliamentarians all these years. For our MPs, quarrelling within Parliament is more important than taking up this important piece of legislation which is meant to give justice to the Delhi rape victim.” said Ms Pramila Nesargi, a women’s activist and a senior advocate. “Alarmingly, crimes by juveniles have increased four times in these three years,” she pointed out.
“Even if the law is amended now, the juvenile involved in the Delhi rape will walk out free on December 20 after serving his sentence of three years, as the Constitution puts a specific ban on passing criminal laws with retrospective effect,” said Mr K.V. Dhananjay, a senior Supreme Court advocate. “If someone wishes to keep him in custody longer, it is impossible as no court in the country will hear the case further. All that can be done now is that the police can shadow him and take him into custody only if they come to know that he was planning to commit a crime,” he said.
A number of states have laws that allow the police to take people, who are potential menace to society, into preventive detention, but that is only for a few days. Even if that law is applied here, he would be in detention for not more than three weeks, Mr Dhananjay said.
“Under Section 6 of the Juvenile Justice Act, he can be kept under observation or supervision for two years under an NGO. But that is done with the hope of reforming or improving a person and absorbing him into society. But here is a person who cannot be reformed, because there is not even slightest remorse in him from the day he committed the crime. Where is the guarantee that he will reform,” asks Ms Nesargi.
“The punishment should be commensurate with the crime committed and not with the age of a criminal. For this crime especially, the person had to be punished in accordance with law, that is death sentence, because it was one of the most heinous and rarest of rare cases,” Ms Nesargi said.
“The existing punishment is not deterrent enough for potential criminals. They feel that even if they go to jail, they can walk out after a certain period of time. Even life sentence does not matter to some. The punishment should be severe enough to create fear in the minds of the people. For a rape, castration should be made mandatory,” she said.
