Despite its colonial bias,
the Indian Penal Code enacted in 1861 by the British who ruled us then, is
still serving us far better than the entire gamut of post-independence
legislation, especially the laws enacted ostensibly for protecting or
strengthening women’s rights. But every time a law fails to deliver its
promised results, instead of taking a cool headed review, a small but
volatile and media savvy coterie of NGO’s starts a hysterical campaign for
making the law more stringent. The government of the day willingly obliges by
adding a few draconian provisions to the existing law—increase the term of
imprisonment, make the crime non-bailable, shift the burden of proof on the
accused and brush aside due process to placate the hysterical NGOs and their
allies in the media for the simple reason that it helps deflect attention from
its failure in getting the existing laws implemented with honesty.
Since most of these laws are
passed as knee jerk reactions their “use-by date” is over even before women for
whose benefit the law has been passed get to know of its provisions or intent.
But that does not stop zealous reformers from baying for more amendments, more
stringent punishments to be added to the much amended law, as they did with
laws to combat dowry, domestic violence, obscene portrayal of women in the
media, foeticide and so on. They are often enacted even before law makers have
had the time to define the crime with clarity and accuracy.
Take the example of
anti-rape law. It was amended in 1983 under pressure from women’s rights
activists after the rape of young Mathura in a Hyderabad police station. It
enhanced the minimum jail term for rape to 7 years with 10 years for custodial
rape. In case of death due to brutal rape, there is provision for life
imprisonment as well as death sentence. But none of these provisions proved
effective in curbing sexual crimes against women which appear to have actually
become more rampant and more gruesome. Leave alone curbing incidents of rape in
secluded places or in privacy of homes, government machinery has failed to curb
even custodial rapes in thanas and hospitals.
Last year the excessively
zealous Women and Child Development Minister, Krishnna Tirath raised the age of
consent for consensual sex from 16 to 18—thereby treating a 17 year old male
who has consensual sex with another 17 year old as a “rapist”. She was
then brimming with confidence that the law would act as a magic wand for
persuading or frightening teenage girls from having sex before they turned 18.
But this pious measure also failed to produce the desired result.
In the meantime, the police
made it merry by harassing young lovers looking for some private lovey -dovey
moments in parks or other secluded places. The police also make a kill by
implicating men on the basis of motivated, trumped up charges or absolutely absurd
allegations of rape under the existing supposedly “lenient” provisions. For
example, in recent years there have been a spate of cases of women getting
their lovers and/or live-in partners arrested on the charge of “raping them
continually for X number of years” by making a false promise of marriage or a
film role or a particular job. These men surely deserve condemnation for
breach of promise. But to charge them of rape is making a mockery of women who
actually suffer gruesome assaults on their bodies.
But for the media expose, we
could well have had a case filed by the woman lawyer who was caught on camera
with Abhishek Manu Singhvi alleging rape, had he failed to make her a judge of
the High Court—a job she demanded in return for sexual favours!
To say that a man is legally
obliged to marry a woman or give a promised job to a woman he has had sex with
and failure to do so will mean a prison term for 10-20 years is to play with
fire. Are we willing to extend the same logic to women and have them arrested
and jailed if they change their mind about marrying a man with whom they have
had an affair? Can women demand such one sided laws in the name of
equality without making themselves objects of disdain?
Predictably, the only people
who benefit from such fierce laws are corrupt policemen and unscrupulous
lawyers. Just as the police bribe rate goes up for helping criminals in cases
of non bailable offences, so also the lawyers’ fee rises astronomically if the
offence invites draconian provisions. Genuine victims rarely get the kind of
support our police gives to those who have committed crimes against women. Most
genuine victims can’t afford to hire lawyers who charge a bomb for arguing
their case.
All this would have gone on
for ever without any one in the Government losing any sleep if a few gruesome
cases of rape in the heart of Delhi had not mesmerized TV channels into making
rape into a cause célèbre last year. Therefore, in sheer panic the Government
appointed a special Commission headed by legal luminaries who too in sheer
panic submitted a humongous report in record 30 days’ time and then pressed
more panic buttons to demand that their recommendations be turned into an
Ordinance in order avoid delays in passing a new rape law. Never mind that the
public hearings of the Commission held just 48 hours before they were to submit
the voluminous report were a mere formality because the feminists who wanted
certain law changes had already supplied all the ammunition to the Commission
before it carried out the formality of public hearings.
So now we have a situation
where even before there is consensus on whether to call the crime ‘rape’ or
“sexual assault”, whether to raise or decrease the age of consent, how to
define ‘voyeurism” or “stalking” it has been decided to make it a non bailable
offence—meaning the moment a woman makes this charge, police are duty bound to
arrest the person and send him to jail because only court can give him bail. It
has also been decided in the draft law that the minimum punishment for rape
will be raised from 10-years to 20. Now that the BJP has decided to beat the
feminists at their own game, it is going to support a “tough” law simply to get
one-up on the Congress party!
Since I am actually feeling
sorry for the UPA government for having to act under siege, I have a humble
suggestion to help it overcome future embarrassments. Along with the new rape
law, the UPA government should enact another law that mandates that EVERY woman
must at ALL times carry copies of ALL the laws ( along with their numerous
amendments) enacted for protection of women on her person. These copies
should be duly certified by the area magistrate so that she can waive the
appropriate law with utmost confidence about its authenticity at whoever comes
to harm her, beat her up, rape her, violate her dignity, and sense of pride as
a woman! This could be called the “The Duty to Waive Appropriate Laws before
Offenders”. This could be a drunkard husband come with a knife to kill her or
break her skull or a gang of sadists come to rape and tear her body apart or a
leery boss wanting sexual favours in lieu of allowing her leave when her child
is sick or a pervert carrying a can of acid to disfigure her for having dared
snub his advances.
Failure to carry any or all
of these laws on her person should invite strict action against the woman or at
the very least disqualify her for seeking the help of the police in booking the
said criminal because failure to wave the law with a confident flourish is
indisputable evidence of “contempt and mistrust of government” and ‘lack of
trust” in the magical power of the said law. This simple measure will help curb
if not crimes against women, it will surely bring a radical decline in the
number of women who will walk into police stations to report and register
crimes.
After all, a woman who does
not feel strengthened by the sheer ferocity of draconian provisions written
into law made especially for her protection, needs “consciousness raising” by
duly certified feminist NGOs. For this purpose, the Government should allocate
a corpus fund of 50,000 crores with 10% additional yearly increase to provide
handsome grants in perpetuity to feminists of the correct political persuasion
to conduct legal literacy classes, psychiatric counseling and the art of waving
laws with speed and flourish whenever they feel endangered. Grants emanating
from this may be used for going on global tours to hold workshops, prepare
training modules, audio visual material, films and explore all manners of new
consciousness raising techniques with the help of best international experts on
the subject.
Once government makes high
voltage feminists become “partners in woman’s empowerment” they will be able to
protect it from disgruntled citizens far better than the government knows how
to.
If this too does not work,
let us please request the British to come back for a specified period and
update all our laws to sit the requirements of a 21st century democracy in
India, since we have failed to do the job on our own steam.
Published
in Dainik Bhaskar, March 2013
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