While we have been concentrating on the rape of Adultwomen in India and had an Ordinance passed by The President on Rape, the silent malaise is the sexual abuse of the Child.
Child sexual abuse is disturbingly common in homes, schools, and residential care facilities inIndia. A government-appointed committee set up after the New Delhi attack to recommend legal and policy reform has found that child protection schemes “have clearly failed to achieve their avowed objective.”
The 82-page report, “Breaking the Silence: Child Sexual Abuse in India,” examines how current government responses are falling short, both in protecting children from sexual abuse and treating victims. Many children are effectively mistreated a second time by traumatic medical examinations and by police and other authorities who do not want to hear or believe their accounts. Government efforts to tackle the problem, including new legislation to protect children from sexual abuse, will also fail unless protection mechanisms are properly implemented and the justice system reformed to ensure that abuse is reported and fully prosecuted, Human Rights Watch said..
Even the quality of women Police available is disheartening.
I have found the women Police to be more heartless than a Policeman in terms of character and humane approach to family issues brought into Police Stations.
These women Police ensure that they get a good bribe to settle the issue even if what is agreed upon is totally unjustifiable.
Very mature and professional amidst mass hysteria.
Jyoti Singh Pandey, the Delhi gang rape victim
“Take, for example, the recent case, where the rape happened in a bus, the group of men was in a surrounding that was familiar to them, and hence had a sense of security. Rapists also attempt to take total control of the victim, physical and psychological, through physical violations or threats or both.
When I did the study initially, it was very difficult to get them to talk about the act. They would not acknowledge that they had committed the crime. There was a widespread belief among the offenders that they were going to get away; they thought they would be able to circumvent the system. It was usually their third or fourth crime, and their confidence level that they would be able to get away was very high. Any behavioral psychologist would tell you that this does not come with the first crime.
There was also almost no sense of guilt or remorse. The general feeling even among the convicted was that they would still manage to get away. Many of them told me that they had appealed to the higher courts, or said they had been framed, or said they had not been careful enough.
On the Influences for Rape.
I would say the instances of gang rape have increased in the past five to six years. When a group of men come together, say, for a celebration, their threshold would go down. A lot of these crimes were also committed under the influence of alcohol, which further reduces their discretionary powers. The sense of collective responsibility takes hold, which makes it possible for the individual to do things which he may not ever do alone.
When they are in a group, they feel a sense of security. For example, if they get caught on the way, let’s say by a policeman, they think they can always pay a bribe and get away. This is possible when the system is corrupt and there is no fear of the rule of law in the criminal mind.
The decision-making mechanism is also different in a group. There is always someone taking the leadership role and others following. There is usually someone in the group who resists the course of action suggested by the leader, but whose voice is suppressed. Again in the recent case, the reports suggest that the driver of the bus was the one who made the decision and the rest followed.
Unfortunately, there is very little awareness among the police force in India about the functioning and control of such elements. For example, in a city like Hong Kong, if a group of men are seen driving around in an inebriated state, or are seen on the road behaving in an inappropriate manner, a police vehicle would immediately start trailing them, and they would be made to take an alcohol test and be booked if they had already committed any minor offenses, which could be a step towards preventing a bigger crime. The police are on an active lookout to prevent such situations before they occur.
Q.
One of the reasons cited in the rise in the occurrence of these crimes is the empowerment of women, which leads to a backlash from the men. Would you agree?
A.
I don’t agree with people who say revenge against women, who are seen as more empowered, now can be seen as a valid reason. It is based on a very patriarchal reasoning which absolves men of any responsibility.
It is also a subtle way of influencing the criminal justice system, by portraying the women to be somewhat responsible for the crime.
Q.
News reports also suggest that most rape victims know their attackers.
A.
This understanding of the relationship between the victim and the perpetrator is misleading. How would you say that the woman knows the man? For example, if a man lives in the neighborhood and the women is aware that he lives there, or if they have interacted on some occasions, would you say that they know each other? This is another way of making the crime seem to be of a social-familial nature, or to confine it to the limits of the community and not see a role for the criminal justice system in its redressal.Do you support calls for the death penalty for rapists?
A.
I am a bit worried about the protests and the direction they are taking right now. Though I support them, I feel that asking for more severe punishment would not help if we are not ensuring the certainty of punishment. By doing this, on the contrary, we would be loading a criminal justice system which is already falling apart.
I have testified in nearly 150 such cases in Delhi. I find that there is great impunity and very little fear of rule of law. Most of these types of crimes are preventable.
I think that maintaining a database is a good idea, but the whole “name and shame” campaign may not work. It is an antiquated medieval belief, which leads to loss of objectivity. In fact, shaming may not work as a deterrent. It may do exactly the opposite.
I distinctly remember when the police superintendents attended the group meetings I conducted with the sex offenders in the jail. They would adopt a very moralizing approach to them, and pass statements which are often heard in India, like: Sharam nahi aati? Ghar pe maa behen nahi hai kya? (Aren’t you ashamed of yourself? Do you not have mothers and sisters at your home?) And I remember looking at the offenders themselves, and there would be a gleam in their eyes.
Which is why this demand for shaming scares me. It has not worked in any part of the world. What we really need is an overhauling of the criminal justice system.
This requires a lot of inner strength from a bleeding heart.
Jyoti Singh Pandey a.k.a.Nirbhaya Delhi Gang Rape victim
The Delhi Gang Rape Timeline.
RAGE AND PROTESTS: HOW THE INDIA RAPE CASE HAS UNFOLDED
December 16 - The woman is gang-raped and attacked on a bus in Delhi
December 18 - Angry protestors begin to take to the streets to call for a government crackdown on rape. Protests last for days
December 19 - Three of the men accused of raping the young woman – Vinay Sharma, Pawan Gupta and Mukesh Singh – appear in court for the first time
December 22 - 72 people are hurt as protestors clash with police in Delhi
December 23 - Indian Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinate orders a review of rape laws
December 23 - Three of the accused appear at court with an angry mob calling for the death penalty outside
December 25 - A policeman allegedly trampled during anti-rape protests dies. Eight people are charged with his murder
December 27 - The injured student is flown to Singapore for treatment as her condition worsens
December 29 - She dies after suffering a heart attack and organ failure
January 4 - The attack’s other victim Awindra Pandey claims that police took two hours to take him and his companion to hospital following the attack
January 7 - 150 people attempt to cram into a courtroom as all five of the accused appear to face charges for the first time
January 8 - Guru Asaram Bapu sparks outrage by claiming that the victim was as much to blame as the attackers for not being more friendly to them
Father Speaks:.
Heartbreak: Badri Singh, father of the woman who was gang-raped and murdered in India, has said that he had been hopeful that his daughter would make a full recovery from her horrific injuries
‘Speaking to ITV1′s Daybreak, Mr Singh said: ’When we went to Singapore she was not conscious but she had tears in her eyes. Then I realised she was in a really bad state.
‘I couldn’t think what to do at that time, I was like a bird without wings, I was neither here nor there.
‘So when I thought she might get better, I used to get filled with some hope. When I was told that she might not get well and might have to have an operation I felt uncomfortable.
‘It was difficult for me, but when she was put on a ventilator it gave me some hope that she would get better. I thought she might get better and she would live.’
Mr Singh said that his daughter’s death 13 days after the horrific attack has ‘brought an awakening’ to Indian society and called for his country to no longer turn a blind eye to attacks on women.
He added that he would like to see a new law or a hospital named after his daughter.
Describing his daughter, Mr Singh said: ‘When she was born my aunties and uncles always used to carry her around, those were really lovely days.
‘Right from the start her ambition was to be a doctor. Her main aim was that our family wouldn’t have to suffer any more, she wanted to put the difficult life behind us, wipe out our poverty.
‘She also wanted to make sure I didn’t have to keep working hard late in life.’
Scroll down for Video Link.
………Mr Sharma said that he would contest Indian police‘s handling of evidence after prosecutors claimed to have forensic evidence which links the men to the attack.
A 17-year-old who is also accused of the woman’s rape and murder will appear at a youth court separately.
Meanwhile, the victim’s companion on the night of the attack, 28-year-old software engineer Awindra Pandey, has spoken out about the terrible ordeal and his friend’s horrific injuries.
He told The Times that his efforts to flag down help from passing motorists after the pair had been dumped in the road were ignored for 20 minutes.
Mr Pandey said that police were reluctant to help his friend despite her injuries.
‘She was asking for water and complaining of pain in her stomach,’ he said.
‘She was bleeding heavily. They (the police) asked me to put her in the van.’
He said that the pair, who were not dating, had been to a cinema in the city to see Life of Pi but were unable to persuade a rickshaw driver to take them all the way back to the Dwarka suburb where the woman lived with her parents.
They were dropped halfway home, when a phone call from her mother asking her to hurry home prompted them to board an illegal bus with blacked out windows.
Mr Pandey confronted other passengers when they began insulting the pair but they soon produced iron rods, he said.
He said that he was beaten and fell to the floor of the bus.
Hinduism prescribes strictest punishment for Rape.
Manu Smriti , apart from laying guidelines for the treatment for Rape.
Manu Smriti, Hindu Law.
8.323. Those who abduct women should be given death sentence.
9.232. Those who kill women, children or scholarly virtuous people should be given strictest punishment.
8.352. Those who rape or molest women or incite them into adultery should be given harshest punishment that creates fear among others to even think of such a crime.
8. 275. One should be punished if he puts false allegations or demeans mother, wife or daughter.
8.389. Those who abandon their mother, father, wife or children without any reasonable reason should face severe punishments.
357. Offering presents (to a woman), romping (with her), touching her ornaments and dress, sitting with her on a bed, all (these acts) are considered adulterous acts (samgrahana).
363. Yet he who secretly converses with such women, or with female slaves kept by one (master), and with female ascetics, shall be compelled to pay a small fine.
367. But if any man through insolence forcibly contaminates a maiden, two of his fingers shall be instantly cut off, and he shall pay a fine of six hundred (panas).
370. But a woman who pollutes a damsel shall instantly have (her head) shaved or two fingers cut off, and be made to ride (through the town) on a donkey.
385. A Brahmana who approaches unguarded females (of the) Kshatriya or Vaisya (castes), or a Sudra female, shall be fined five hundred (panas); but (for intercourse with) a female (of the) lowest (castes), one thousand.
