RAPE: THE INHUMANE NATURE OF A HUMAN

                          

There is growing concern among the government and society regarding the increasing number of rape cases which puts a question on the efficiency of the administration, governance and judiciary also.

It seems that these criminals do not have any kind of fear for the law and these results in repeat offenders

Who is to blame and how this changes the future life of these women?  

There are many area of concern to look upon among which I would like to pin point the core areas where minor improvement or reform can subsequently improve the conditions. These are

–  The Police

–  The Judiciary System

–  The Medical department

–  Government

ROLE OF POLICE AND RELATED ISSUES

The police of a country play a vital role in maintaining the law and order with in a country. It is their responsibility towards the safety of the people.

The police are the public and the public are the police; the police being only members of the public who are paid to give full time attention to duties which are incumbent on every citizen in the interests of community welfare and existence.

But when the police become irresponsible, then the crime rate are bound to increase, the people will suffer and ultimately they will lose faith in police and it’s functioning and will start giving can punishment to the criminals on their own, which I hope no country will want as it will create social unrest and toppled the economy as a whole.

Police station is a place where the victim first goes to file a complaint but many research have shown that the initial handling of cases are not up to the level especially in the rural and backward areas

In many cases it has been found the police are not reluctant to file an F.I.R when the victim comes to the police station for the first time. If an immediate action is taken, there is more possibility of preventing the crime from being happening.

Another major issue within the police department is the dearth of police officials and female police officers in particular. According to the Times of India, there is 1 officer for every 200 citizens and about 20 officers for every VIP.

Studies show that rape victims are more likely to report sex crimes if female police officers are available. Lack of female police further aggravates the problem.

There aren’t enough police dedicated to protecting ordinary citizens, rather than elites and the officers that are available often lack basic evidence-gathering and investigative training and equipment

Delhi, for example, is home to one of the largest metropolitan police forces in the world with some 84,000 officers. But only one-third are involved in any kind of actual “policing” at any given time, while the rest provide protection services to various politicians, senior bureaucrats, diplomats and other elites

Key Points/Suggestions:

–  F.I.R should be lodged immediately

–  Government should provide with adequate infrastructure facilities to the police officers

–  Reducing the number of police officers for the security of bureaucrats, politicians and indulging them for safety of the general public

–  Review the current requirement of police officials from time to time and recruiting more, if necessary

–  More recruitment of female police officers

–  Most important, Police officials need to change their attitude

ROLE OF JUDICIAL SYSTEM AND RELATED ISSUES

The constitution of India has provided adequate freedom to the Judiciary system in order to take an impartial decision/judgment by keeping it separate from the executives.

No one can refute from the fact that the India’s Judiciary system is among one on the strongest and unbiased system in the world. But one of the major problems has been the delayed/ late hearing of the cases which increases the anxiety of the victim wanting justice and the conditions become more severe when the cases are not heard for more than 10 years adding to the anxiety of the victim waiting for the justice. There is no meaning of justice even if it comes after 10 years. Either they have to live with it or opt for violence to do justice by punishing the culprit/criminal on their own. The reason for this is the few numbers of judges available to hear the cases.

Not only from the judiciaries side, there has also been delay in decision (almost 8-10 years) by the Central Government against the mercy plea which led to commutation of death sentence to life time imprisonment in high profile cases (Recently criminals of Rajiv Gandhi assassination and 1993 Delhi bomb blast case convict Devinderpal Singh Bhullar)

Another concern is that the convicts easily get bail and once the date for hearing the case comes, he is not present in the court because he ran away after getting bail. Since no judgment can be given in the absence of the convict, the victim has to wait for the next hearing but the problems is when we will be next hearing of the case? In year 2012, over one Lakh cases of rape and sexual harassment were received out of which only 3563 cases were heard (3.5% convicts got the punishment). Again the problem is “few judges, many cases”

The women who has already gone through so much pain and humiliation has to answer the vulgar questions asked by defending advocate which he deliberately ask to make her feel more embarrassed so that she will take the charges back against his client or not to come again in the court keeping the case pending for the entire life and in many cases it does happen especially with rural people.

Another concern is the provision of government prosecutor/advocate to the women in rape cases. Once the F.I.R. is lodged by the women, the case automatically becomes the “Government case”. The Judiciary provides an advocate to the woman who represents the case on her behalf. But the problem is that there is only one advocate in each court. More surprisingly, the victim meets the government advocate only at the time of hearing of case in the court. All the documents related to cases are with him only. It is not mentioned in the constitution to give documents to the woman. Since no copy of F.I.R. is given to her, she doesn’t know what the police has written in the statement given by her and when she go to court after 2-3 years she doesn’t know what she said to the police at that time. Questions are asked in the court on the basis of the statement and if the answers don’t match with what the victim answered at the time of F.I.R., advocate might say that she is disagreeing with her own statement and this only helps the convicts getting released from the jail. In all this process, the victim is only evidence for them and from here only the difference starts

For very small reasons adjournment has been is given for example advocate is not well, forensic report not available, sometimes the advocate say that we have to hear some other case today.

The lesser importance thing in life for example a student of class eight not able to reach the exam hall due to some reason never gets another date then how could dates be postponed in cases of justice which is very important as well as fundamental right of the citizen.

Key Points/Suggestions:

–  Fast track court for rape cases

–  No bail should be given to the convict in such cases with only few exception

–  Maintaining the dignity of the women by asking question in an appropriate manner

–  Increasing the number of government advocates in the each court

–  A copy of F.I.R/statement should be given to the victim after being approved by her

–  No adjournment for small reason and strict warning accompanied with punishment for future

ROLE OF HOSPITALS/ DOCTORS AND RELATED ISSUES

The condition becomes grim for the women when they go to hospital for examination. The procedure of treatment that these doctors follow puts a serious question on the training that they have undergone while doing MBBS as well as the ethics and integrity that everyone is supposed to follow. There is no confidentiality while handling rape cases, not even a separate designated room for such victims. Declaring the practicing of “Two-Finger Test” in any hospital as illegal is a laudable step taken by the Central Government but this practice is still prevalent in many hospitals.

Secondly, the senior doctor use these victims as a medium to give practical information on how to figure test is done and then these under trainee doctors try to practice this test on the same girl or women. This is against the dignity of the women who is already in a trauma.

Many times, doctors try to avoid handling Medico-legal cases (Any case of Injury or ailment where some criminality is involved is called a Medico-Legal Case (MLC)) because they don’t want to appear in front of the court. This led to further delay in the examination of the victim who is dearth need of treatment.

It seems that there is no proper procedure developed for examining the rape cases and I think it’s not totally their fault. No focus has been put during the MBBS on how to handle the case of rape. It is only a matter of 4 or 6 marks question in exams.

There is no Performa that include all the steps to be followed while examining a victim. All these evidence that are collected during examination of victim helps her in getting justice. If there examination is not done correctly or in a manner required, then many evidences are likely to be missed which could have been proved to be fruitful in the justice in the court.

Not only this, the doctors only take the rape cases as the police cases but there are many other serious danger like HIV, pregnancy, mental fatigue and other infections which needs to be given priority. Many times, doctors skip all this important steps and this is all because of not having a standard Performa to be followed by the doctors.

Since class biasness is very much prevalent in our country it is not shocking if anyone experience the same in the hospital as well. Sometimes doctors deny any action without the police but according to law, neither public nor private hospitals can deny any treatment to the victim.

Key Points/Suggestions:

–  Ensure that Two Finger test is not in use in any hospital

–  Separate Designated room for such cases/Maintaining the confidentiality

–  A proper steps/procedure to be listed out while examining the victim

ROLE OF GOVERNMENT AND RELATED ISSUES

Although Central Government has promptly reacted after the year 2011 case of Delhi, and enacted tougher laws but many females on the subcontinent feel that little has changed for better despite endless speeches, promises by politicians of all stripes.

Trial in a newly installed “fast-track” court as well as moves by the national government to enact tougher laws against rape and steps by Delhi police to hire more female police officers and create more telephone helplines for victims can be seen as Government trying to address the issue in right manner but the rate of rape cases has not slowed down.

Last year, some horrified rape cases happened all over India like Mumbai Photojournalist gang rape, tribal women who was raped on order of panchayat.

This all clearly shows the inhumane character of the people which they develop from their upbringings. No matter how many laws a Government formulates, it will be not effective to the expected level until we as a human being start respecting the women who brings us in this world.

Key Points/Suggestions:

–  One stop rape crisis center be opened in every district

–  It should have a nurse, a gynaecologist, a police inspector, a forensic expert & a counsellor

–  Inclusion of gender sensitization in the schools syllabus and awareness in the society to treat women as equals

–  Strict punishments to the repeat offenders