Indian Criminal Justice System: Punishment for Sexual Violence

The Nirbhaya Rape Case

The Nirbhaya case is a rape case that took place in India back in 2012 and brought the country’s already flawed justice system, especially with regard to women, into question. Rape is a crime second only to murder in terms of severity, yet there was a lot of controversy when it came to punishing the men responsible for the crime. The case took place in Delhi on a bus where the victim was brutally raped by six men and then left to die. Four of the offenders were hanged in accordance to the law. The victim was termed “Nirbhaya” which translates into fearless, to give her the respect she deserved despite dying because of the ordeal. The fifth committed suicide in jail in 2013 and the last man was spared the hanging since he was underage at the time of the rape. The seventeen-year-old was released from juvenile detention after serving three years which is the maximum sentence that can be given to a juvenile in India and he was also given a “sewing machine” to start a new life. Although this is the case, the four men in question were just recently hanged on March 20, 2020 finally bringing the case to a close. This case was the first of its kind to have sparked massive awareness against the violence that takes place against women on a daily basis in India.

Following this case, the initial response of the government was to be indifferent. However, the government finally responded to public outrage by introducing new laws and legislatures against rape in 2013. The laws included overall harsher punishments for the crime and included crimes specific to India like throwing acid on women. The law also stated that the absence of struggle from the victim does not equal consent. Also, repeat offenders or rape sever enough to cause the victim to fall into a coma or die can result in capital punishment (death penalty).

My Opinion

India is a country that needs to change its policies at a grass root level regarding many things, violence against women being one of the most important. Even after the above-mentioned changes in the law, statistics show that a woman is raped every twenty minutes in India which is extremely sad. Considering the population of 1.3 billion and counting, this is quite an unfavorable statistic. Despite the changes in the law, the Indian justice system is still inept at dealing with sexual assault/rape cases. More than 100,000 rape cases are still in courts going nowhere or just end up being deemed unfounded (the crime did not take place) due to lack of supposed evidence. There are no initiatives to secure even some form of safety measures in the rural parts of India where rape is more common. Also, capital punishment is clearly not a deterrent to rapists seeing as the statistics are quite consistent to what they were before the Nirbhaya case. The “eye for an eye” (retribution) thinking is rampant in Indian society, which is why crimes such as rape have no real procedures to be followed except killing the offenders responsible in a public setting in the name of capital punishment. However, a good majority of India’s population is illiterate and does not get the point of deterrence, which is why sexual assault numbers show no sign of decreasing. Things cannot change until India’s highly patriarchal norms are tackled through campaigns that support women. To begin with, Indians should stop the need to want a son, more than a daughter, which would result in ending the discrimination right in the womb and also stop the gruesome act of female infanticide, which is quite common in all strata of the Indian society. Second and more importantly, it is an unfortunate reality that most sexual assault cases in India are dragged in courts for years and years before reaching a final decision or judgement call. The Nirbhaya case is a good example of this since it took the Supreme Court eight years to punish the offenders through the death penalty. Third, like in the Nirbhaya case where one of the offenders was allowed to go free since he was a juvenile, should not be allowed. In my personal opinion, if you are old enough to commit such an horrendous criminal act, you are definitely old enough to take the punishment that is associated with the crime. Fourth, the victim, should be given the reassurance that she will be treated with respect when she is asked questions and her integrity is not compromised. Next, she should not be treated like a criminal and interrogated like a common criminal but seen as a victim and addressed sympathetically by the society in general and her loved ones in particular. Finally, it should not be assumed that the victim’s promiscuity, if any in the past are reason enough for her current state.

In conclusion, even though I have no sympathy for sexual assault offenders, I do not think that capital punishment is the way to go. It is clearly not working which means that the Indian justice system needs to change. All in all, in my opinion, the best way to give justice to a rape victim is a two step process, one to accommodate severe life sentences as a response to rape cases/crimes and two, the ruling should be quick, since I sincerely believe that: justice delayed is justice denied.

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References

Ellis-Petersen, H. (2020, March 20). India hangings bring end to gang-rape case, but no real justice. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/20/india-hangings-bring-end-gang-rape-case-no-real-justice

India court blames 'promiscuous' rape survivor. (2017, September 26). Retrieved from https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-41383459

Nirbhaya case: Four Indian men executed for 2012 Delhi bus rape and murder. (2020, March 20). Retrieved from https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-51969961

Pandey, G. (2020, March 20). Delhi Nirbhaya rape death penalty: What do hangings mean for India's women? Retrieved from https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-50812776