This article is written by Sudarshan Shabadu , a 2nd year student of Dr B.R Ambedkar Law College , Hyderabad.
ABSTRACT:
From the beginning of this universe, the men and women are made for the complimentary to each other, and their freedom, equality, discrimination and dignities are inherent by nature and their rights are well placed in Indian constitution, the men develop physical strength naturally by birth where as women are not, it is a natural phenomenon, one cannot change it, when a man lacks this understanding, they exploit the situations and a person, and commit a rape, when we look from the angle of law of crimes, it is more of providing justice to the victim and punishing the convict, it means that law cannot address a question why rapes are happening in the first place, how the exploitation is taking place in the society but one needs to research from many dimensions. In today’s world, the discoveries and technological advancements are playing a vital role for the development of the country, however the bad side of it is being taken greater advantage to trouble the society, and the analytical and logical power of human mind is being used to such an extreme that even pleasures are being analyzed in various forms and attempting rapes to gain the maximum pleasure, though we are becoming advanced in developments of human life but we are not realizing the value of mental education on how our mind works, there have been many new educational programs that are developed based on research with cutting edge technologies of different areas of universal and human existence but man is forgetting to educate himself on his own mind which is the root cause of good and bad in the society, and that resulted into many crimes.
INTRODUCTION:
There is a saying that ‘prevention is better than cure’, one must understand this with strong conviction, when a rape is committed and giving punishment to a convict, and paying compensation to victim would that help? if so, how extent? we cannot bring back their dignity, the consequences of the rape victims that they face after the incident is really horrifying as society looks for a character, qualities, dignity and reputation of a person, and give respect and value accordingly, when it is injured and became a victim of the unusual incident, one cannot go through life simply rather they go through a lot of mental agony and sickness, and few of the rape victims went ahead and committed suicide, left their life because they cannot live in the standards set by the society after the rape incident, few people were murdered while being raped is a question of value of human life, we have a laws in place that how one should be protected, if failed to protect, one can become the victim for the circumstances, and seek justice from the same laws of the country, the after-effect on a person and whatever the actions that law takes to punish a convict and provide relief to a victim, does that equate or bring back the human dignity, character and reputation of a person which are essential to live in the society?
RESEARCH PROBLEM:
Whether the personal dignity or position of a rape victim remains as same as before and after the incident even after convict is punished?
RESEARCH OBJECTIVES:
- To study the dignity of the women in the universal existence.
- To study the role of IPC, punishments and protection of rape victims’ dignity.
- To study the dignity of the women after rape incident.
- To suggest some precautionary measures to prevent rape situations in society.
SIGNIFICNCE OF THE STUDY:
The significance of the study is to research deep into the position or dignity of women before and after the rape and suggest precautionary measures.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY:
This paper is based on doctrinal research that is collected and discussed on secondary data which includes textbooks by different authors, judicial precedents, public websites, law journals, existing articles, reports published by various surveys.
Following are the various headings that we can discuss the research objectives elaborately.
WOMEN AND DIGNITY IN THE UNIVERSAL EXISTANCE:
Laws of nature has created in such a way that we cannot choose our own gender and take life on this planet, it is decided by mystic nature of this universe, accepting that as a basis, human should think, understand and respect the laws of nature and stop exploiting one gender over other gender based on their weakness that has come naturally by birth, laws of nature has provided dignity to women by birth, and they play a vital role and contribute to the creation, the principles of nature has been taken care by female as part of their duty towards the developing family and adding generations to the society, today, the laws are developed one after another to punish the guilty since the love and belongingness lacking to each other that is creating unwanted situations in the society, when the word “Love” is uttered usually, the natural feeling arises immediately in one is love of a mother, its grace alone to women, however the increase in the rape cases over the decades became a question on women dignity, equality and respect towards their life.
In the Prosecutor v. Jean Paul Akayesu, talking about the dignity of women said that “recalling the painful experience and explaining details in graphical manner is as same as reconstituting the rape scene”, here the dignity of women is questioned again asking them to explain a situation in the court of law.
In another incident, an exercise given to judicial officers asking on how was their first sexual experience with their partner and explain to a colleague beside them, they were quite uncomfortable as they felt it is intrusion of their privacy, then a trainer said “If you cannot explain your pleasant sexual experience with your colleague without any inhibition, how one can expect a woman who is so scared by the incident would open up to speak in the court of law and in the presence of the hostile lawyers”.
ROLE OF IPC, PUNISHMENTS AND PROTECTION OF RAPE VICTIM’S DIGNITY:
Section 375 of IPC defined that a man is said to commit a rape in the following cases
- Against her will
- Against her consent
- Creating fear of death or hurt to her interested
- Consent taken by the reason of her unsounded mind
- Consent given under false belief
- Consent taken or not taken from a minor
- Could not communicate consent
In a case Ram Kripal S/o. Shyam Lal Charmakar v. State of Madhya Pradesh, the woman went to collect grass on field, on her way back home, she was obstructed by an accused and proposed for sexual intercourse, when she refused the proposal, an accused forcibly committed rape against her will and consent, the evidence of victim and medical confirmed the fact of penetration of male organ in female organ is a sine qua non which was satisfied in this case, hence offense of rape of the accused is proven and punished the accused for the rape.
Let us analyze this case further by extracting the sequence of events in the above case is:
- A woman went to collect grass on field:
A woman can walk freely anywhere to anywhere within territory of India as part of work for their survival, however what extent it is safe for any given situations for their inability to physically defend man from exploiting them.
- On her way home, she was obstructed:
If a man obstructs a woman going in her direction is a sign taking advantage on the woman’s incapability and her physical weakness.
- Proposed for sexual intercourse
Knowing that proposing for sexual intercourse is not acceptable in the civilized society until and unless they are legally married and permitted for sexual intercourse, still went on proposing for sexual intercourse is violation of ignorantia facti excusati ignorantia juris non excusat.
- Refused the proposal:
Today, the women have all rights as equal as men, and they can take decisions according to their will and law protects the same, however refusal of proposal is not well respected by an accused is lack of dignity towards women.
- Forcibly committed rape against woman.
Without her will and consent, an accused taken full advantage of her physical inability to defend herself against him and forcibly committed rape.
- Punishing the accused.
With the evidence of victim and medical evidence, an accused is given punishment under the various grounds of IPC in the court of law.
If we can take a cognizable notice on every sequence of the events happened during the entire episode of rape is a fully ignorant on women dignity and violation of women rights that is provided in constitution of India. punishment given by court of law to the convict pass a sign of satisfaction and victim’s rights are protected as per law, however the dignity of a woman is reversible as before the incident is a debatable question on the existence of law and wholesomeness of justice to the rape victim.
DIGNITY OF WOMEN AFTER RAPE INCIDENT:
There are many questions come on to everyone’s mind that giving punishment and paying compensation can restore women dignity after rape, certainly not, the rape victim goes through process of a trail which may run for months or years is as same as justice delayed is justice denied, and living becomes tough for women to face the society and being put so many questions during the trail to collect evidence and asking the rape victim to reconstruct the rape incident on how it was done is as same as loosing herself dignity again, the matter is very sensitive and very private cannot be explained in such an easy manner, not just her, it impacts the reputation of her family in the society, and the parents, the siblings that they need go through tough times waiting for verdict to punish convict or whether convict may be punished or not punished could be another concern since the arguments going from time to time may make them loose hope in the court of law, and while it is being happening, the sympathy and future of rape victim in the eyes of the parents look jeopardy.
The position of rape victims after the rape incident though the convict is punished cannot be decided based on favorable judgment and compensation provided, the life and dignity of a person is more valuable than anything else since human being is social animal and they live by the dignity, character and reputation in the society, when these are injured, they go through certain mental agony and sickness, and spirit of living life is killed, and facing the society with all sorts blame and insults is tough, and becomes detrimental to their marriage life or people may not come forward to marry them.
In another scenario Ram Lal and others Vs. State of M.P , rape victim might go to such a serious depressing condition that they can commit a suicide to lose their life as they could feel they cannot live their dignity of life any further.
Looking at Mukesh v. State (NCT of Delhi), also known as Nirbhaya case, the incident happened on December 16, 2012 and the final verdict came on the March 20,2020, almost 8 years of time went into the trail to decide on verdict, and to give death sentence for 4 convicts of rape and murder of Nirbhaya, though rape victim was dead during the rape itself but her family went through 8 years of tough life seeking justice for their daughter.
At this juncture of our country, though rape convicts are being punished but the traumatic experiences, mental sickness and social stigma are taking over the life of a rape victim, it looks like the dignity of women is restored as per law only some extent but not fully as it is difficult to remove the disgrace of a person though punishments and compensation.
The crime cases under rape during 2021 as per NCRB report is 7.4%, and below (Table 1) from NCRB report has all the attempt to rape cases happened during 2021 by state/UT wise with respect to women who are greater than 18 years of age and girls below 18 years of age.
Another report (Table 2) from NCRB shows the rape cases data happened during 2021 in more detail as per the age classifications under 18 years of age and above 18 years of age.
Looking at the data from last 3 years(Table 4) in the above table, one can easily understand that the decrease in rape cases from year to year is minimal or fluctuating from year to year, however, the % of disposal of cases are minimal (Table 3) from the courts because of various reasons, due to the case is pending for long time, the position of the rape victim waiting for the convict to be punished put them in hopeless situations and live through life with societal conditions is tough for a victim, this gives entire picture on how a rape victim needs to be courageous to go through a trail which may happen for years, one cannot neither say that a position of rape victim and her dignity is restored after a successful trail in favor of her nor one cannot say that rape victim is not provided justice, this is long lasting debate since most of things cannot be addressed neither by police nor through courts, and here system of democracy plays a vital role in it, and how stringently we are following the provisions in the constitution of India to address citizens problems, welfare, safety and their rights is one should deeply to think about.
Table 1:
Table 2:
Table 3:
Disposal of rape cases througn police and court:
If we see disposal of rape cases through police and courts as of 2021 is 3,368 case are convicted out of total trail 1,85,836 cases.
Table 4:
Rape cases data from last 3 years:
RECOMMENDATIONS OR PRECAUTIONARY MESAURES TO PREVENT RAPES:
The position of the rape victims under IPC might give some satisfaction to the victim or gain some sympathy from society, however, the dignity of women does not come from punishing the convict or providing some compensation to victim or both, a person dignity is more of qualitative characteristic not quantitative characteristic, when this is understood and deeply realized by the society, law makers, protecting the dignity of women lies in the taking precautionary measures that prevent from rapes in first place, we will further discuss the safety measures under different headings that society or government can think of to reduce rape rate from year to year.
FEAR OF PUNISHMENT ON MINDS OF PEOPLE
It should be there, one of the natural inherent qualities of the human being from birth is fear, when a convict is punished by giving some imprisonment or some compensation, the law of court sends some fearful signal to the society that if done such wrong act by anyone will have to face such punishment, however, though it looks as one of the preventing measures from protecting women from rape. But is it really working? If it is working, why rapes are happening again and again, people know that doing wrong act is punishable by court of law, however the courage they show to commit rape is making us one way to understand that the law of court and punishments cannot control or reduce 100% of rape rate, and it cannot be possible when we see in another dimension of democratic angle, in the democratic country, rights, duties are correlated to each other, and law makers need to keep them in balanced manner, they cannot highly impose certain duties on citizens of the country, if done, it will be threaten to the fundamental rights, for example, if a government impose a rule on citizens saying that they should not come out after 8PM as part of safety measure to avoid rapes since most of the rapes happen in night time, now the citizens feel suffocating with this restriction and goes to court of law asking to protect their fundamental right that they can move freely anywhere to anywhere throughout the country with out being any restrictions, now court of law again to look into this matter to protect right of the citizens and they may ask government to withdraw that restriction since it is violation of their right, in this manner, whatever the action the government takes, there is one way or other way it looks forcible imposition on the fundamental rights of the citizens, and law of court should help to restore their rights, these conflicts continue to arise and it is never ending problem that has 100% solution for the given objective of protecting women from rapes.
IMPORTANCE OF SEXUAL EDUCATION
Today, the rights, duties and freedoms are part of the constitution is due to the creation of the human being under universal phenomenon and sex or union is the cause of this existence, however, the rapes have become vulnerable over the decades and bringing shame and disrespect to union of human being out of lust or feverishness gripping to minds of rape convicts, sex is a natural urge or phenomenon of the creation one gets developed naturally as they grow to puberty, but a person is not aware or having education on this biological phenomenon happening in their body, and they would naturally try to react when they do not have awareness on why it is happening, it is again part of the biological growth of human nature, when a person have this sexual education or awareness, they realize that what is they are going through and they seek help or counselling from elders or doctors rather than they attempt to commit a rape, it may not reduce rape cases completely but giving or providing sexual education will definitely contribute some percentage of reduction in rape cases or works as a preventive measure, our government should bring such policies to educate citizens across all walks of life or having part of academic curriculum as a mandatory may certainly help prevent from rapes in future.
STUDYING THE DEVELOPMENT OF UNNATURAL URGE
The human beings are not programmed by natural phenomena that they do not develop any unnatural tendency from what is being created that called as normal, they tend to move abnormal in their tendencies such as from low to high or high to low, when normalcy is not maintained with the awareness, they get into extremes such as unnatural urge to have sex, unnatural urge do not get naturally developed most of the cases rather than what a person is indulged into or feverishness that gripped on his mind over a long period of time, there could be many sources that may develop unnatural urge to the human being such as watching pornography continuously that develops unnatural urge and compels a person to satisfy that urge, that’s why the nature and behavior of rape convict during rape is as equal as animal who wanted to satisfy his urge in any manner and do not care the person’s emotions and dignity and react violently, and other reason could be watching adult movies may trigger unnatural urge in the person, today, there have been many scientific discoveries happening through a lot of research, and there have been many such discoveries with facts says that education of human mind is a need of hour, and mental health and emotional health are to be checked upon each individual from time to time, if government can bring up such policies on how human mind develops impressions on mind, and how emotions work can make human react violently will definitely plays vital role for the reductions of rape crimes.
STUDY THE STIMULATORS SUCH AS ALCOHOL, DRUGS, ETC
While we look for peace and harmony in the society from day to day, encouraging alcohol and drugs in the country indirectly or directly has become another source of reason for committing rapes, when a person is intoxicated by alcohol and drugs, they loose their normal behavior and react violently to the situations in the society, some are intentionally drinking to develop such violent behavior and take revenge on people, and rape is one of such crimes happening due to alcohol or drug abuse. In this case R. v. Daviault, the facts of the cases were horrifying that the complainant is 65 year old woman, paralyzed and runs her life with the aid of wheelchair daily, the accused who drunk whole day went to her home, and she drunk a bit and fell on sleep, the accused taken advantage of situation without his awareness, and raped her, when he asked to recall a situation, he said he has no clue and denied sexually assaulting her, the pharmacologist called to testify the blood-alcohol ratio of an accused, it is said that due to heavy alcohol consumption , accused might have suffered from blackout, in such a state, the brain is temporarily disassociated from normal functioning, and he did not have any awareness of his own actions and committed a crime, and likely will not have memory next day, however the accused has been acquitted, allowed for a appeal, this case entirely gives every possible detail how intoxication or alcohol make a human abnormal and act violently, when alcoholism and drug abuse are not encouraged in the society and if government stop providing licenses to alcohol shops, there will be good amount of crime rate come down including rape cases.
STUDY THE NEW POSSIBILITIES OF TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCEMENT:
The more technological advancement that we are becoming from time to time, the more we need to be vigilant on the consequences of advancements on the human life, in recent years, there are crime happened due to the advantage taken on technological developments in the country, today, if a person goes from home, he attends his daily commitments and come back home, with the new possibilities in developing technologies, one can track his every movement, does it not look like violation of person’s privacy? and the same is taken advantage to track girl or women movements and attempting rapes, there have been few such incidents happened in recent developments across India and globe, even the mobile that one carry certainly gives info of whereabouts of that person so that it helps tracking for the conspiracy of rape of crime, there are phishing and malware websites or pop ups that the cyber criminals throw at users during the usage of internet, when clicked on it, they start getting track of movement of person so that they can hatch on different crimes against a person, and rape is one of best possibilities against girls or women, our government should take necessary precautions or safety measures before such advancement technologies are released for public usage to prevent from misuse of the cyber criminals otherwise, we are impliedly encouraging the new possibilities to the criminals that could increase rape crimes in future in this country.
CONCLUSION
There is no doubt that the provisions under IPC of judiciary system of India gives various punishments or compensation or both for the victim to restore their dignity to certain extent, however, the law makers and judiciary cannot help to wipe of criminal rape cases completely, the law makers and judiciary works under the supremacy of this land, that is constitution of India, and judiciary job is to provide the balance between citizens of this country and government stopping one is encroaching upon each other rights, keeping this view on mind, one cannot rule out completely that judiciary system of India and our criminal law cannot help to justify rape victims, definitely it is, but law can only be applied seeking for the punishment when an incident actually happened but not before, when this is understood properly and realize deeply, the arguments on position of rape victim in India comes to a certain limit, and we cannot restore the dignity of women completely as before incident through the courts but by taking safety measure to prevent them happening, it is duty of citizens that they should be vigilant and take necessary precautions to protect their women with co-operative hand, and the government should chalk out all the possibilities on how the women are being trapped or taken advantage to commit a crime, bring stringent rules and educative policies so that crimes of rape certainly come down to a good percentage. Now times are that we are moving into the new developments of the country by adopting all necessary technological advancements, it is a need of hour to use the same to protect our women yet prevent from misusing the same.
If a citizen or government can keep the view on mind that ‘prevention is better than cure’, and they keep doing their duties vigilantly, we move to a stature of protecting women from rapes and can truly be established equality of law in this country.
BIBILOGRAPHY
Books:
- Indian Penal Code by Prof.S.N. Mishra, 22nd edition, central law publications.
Reports:
- Crime in India 2021 fetched from https://ncrb.gov.in/, Government of India.
References:
- https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/lead/dignity-is-her-birthright/article3207094.ece
- https://www.internationalcrimesdatabase.org/Case/50/Akayesu/
- https://blog.ipleaders.in/indian-rape-laws-nutshell/
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3777344/
