Crimes against women

{ Tara Shanker Chaudhary } Crimes against women such as rape, molestation, sexual harassment and cruelty at home spring from the structure of patriarchy. These days the number of crime against women (CAW) are on rise and there might be two reasons- either reporting is higher due to awareness about their rights and Laws or it has really gone up because more incidences are taking place. In Indian society, woman occupies a vital position but a venerable place. The Vedas glorified women as the mother, the creator, and one who gives life and worshipped her as a ‘Devi’ or Goddess. But their glorification is just a myth. Women are totally suppressed and subjugated in a patriarchal society. At present, women have become sex objects and are widely treated as inferior to men in different spheres of life. Patriarchy works in many processes, first is women’s subordination by devaluing women’s contribution, while at the same time extracting a significant contribution from them. Second is rigidly assigned gender roles to women and the last is double standards of sexual morality for men and women, the latter being subjected to strict norms.

Women are often in great danger in the place where they should be safest: within their families. For many, ‘home’ is where they face a regime of terror and violence at the hands of somebody close to them – somebody they should be able to trust. Numerous Indian laws prohibiting crimes against women exist yet reported crimes against women is increasing throughout India. Crimes against women are very complex to determine when reporting is so very low and causes are somewhat different from other types of crimes. It’s not driven by economic status, income inequality or poverty etc but rather it is a result of patriarchal structure. There is a well known saying in India that ‘you have nowhere to go to complain against the rain or the husband’. The World Health Organization reports that the proportion of women who had ever experienced physical or sexual violence or both by an intimate partner ranged from 15% to 71%.

India’s National Family Health Survey-III, carried out in 29 states during 2005-06, has found that a substantial proportion of married women have been physically or sexually abused by their husbands at some time in their lives. The survey indicated that, nationwide, 37.2% of women “experienced violence” after marriage. Strangely, 63% of these incidents were reported from urban families rather than the state’s most backward villages. A recent United Nation Population Fund report also revealed that around two-thirds of married women in India were victims of domestic violence.

Despite the fact that there is huge underreporting when crime against women is concerned the recent trends show that crime against women is on increase e.g. rape in Delhi has gone up by 51% in the last five years (National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) 2008-2012) and similarly molestation 16%, sexual harassment 60% and cruelty at home by 41%. The total number of reporting of crime against women in Delhi has almost doubled in last 10 years (from 3282 in 2003 to 5959 in 2012).

Most crimes against women go unreported for understandable reasons: attached social stigma, distrust in legal mechanisms, and fear of retaliation and so on. It is almost impossible to lodge a complaint against men in the police and the armed forces, or in government services. Domestic violence is frequently misrepresented as being a private issue solely affecting the poor, less educated and traditionally lower strata in society. The extent of under-reporting is expected to vary across space and time; as well as by type of crime. For example, rape is grossly under-reported, but it is believed dowry deaths rarely go unreported. Victims of dowry harassment, molestation, and rape etc., often stay back at home due to the lack of knowledge on legal awareness. This encourages the criminals to commit more such offences. Often victims believe that they have nothing to gain and more to lose by making a report. The victims are afraid of social embarrassment, interrogation by sometimes unsympathetic law enforcement officials, and humiliating public testimony in court about the offence.

Women who were respected and worshipped as incarnation of “Sakti” are today the targets of crimes such as rape. Studies show that increasing participation of women in work and politics (especially at the grass roots level) is making them more vulnerable to crime. The experience of Bhanwari Devi, the ‘sathin’ from Rajasthan, is a case in point .She was gang-raped for working against child marriage practiced by the upper castes in her village.

Crimes against women have roots in the male dominated socio-economic, legal and political order. Assaults on women are often visibly associated with their social status, their communal, ethnic and caste identities. Implicit in all this is the treatment of women as private property, to be protected by men of particular family, social, communal and caste groups. The notion that women need protection is linked to the traditional value placed upon their virginity and chastity.

Delhi: Why it is rape capital?

An overall trend is saying that total number of rape incidences every year has gone up in Delhi from 490 to 706 (from 2003-2012 NCRB). After the incidence of 16 December 2012 gang rape of Nirbhaya, the reporting of crime against women has gone up very significantly. For example NCRB reports 1623 rape cases in 2013 in comparison with 706 in 2012. Now 4 cases of rape are being reported every day. Nirbhaya incidence seems has emboldened many rape victims to come forward to report the crime.

If we take a closer look at the crime against women in Delhi, we can get the grim reality. A news paper content analysis will show the nature of sexual crime against women in Delhi. A total 298 cases of rape got reported in ‘The Times of India’ in last three years (2011, 2012 and 2013). What I found in my study is that one fourth cases of all rapes are of gang rape. This is something we should think about in very deeply that why gang rape takes place and what would be the motive behind it? It can be explained in many ways such as gang rape is power exertion in order to take an absolute control over the victim. It helps the perpetrators in threatening the victim, in blackmailing her. It helps rapists to make the act a planned success because otherwise it would not be easy for a single perpetrator to make this act possible easily when girls are becoming more aware and strong.

I found that no relation is exception while rape is concerned. Father, step father, brother, cousin, uncle and sometimes even son can be a rapist.  My study says that relatives, neighbours, friends and family members constitute almost 45% of total rapes. Others are husband’s friend, teacher, father-in-law, landlord, fiancé, tantric, boyfriend, brother-in-law. I found that average age of rape victims is 17.5 years while same is 31 years for the perpetrators. The most age group of women is 15-20 while most violent age group of offenders is 25-30.

The picture emerging from the content analysis is something very alarming in a sense that number of gang rapes and incest rapes are very high. And above all now rapists are targeting minors so that the chances of their being caught can be minimized. So it is clearly visible that it is not dressing, it is not particular age which is responsible for this increasing menace but it is the male chauvinism which treats women as consumables, sex objects. A gender sensitization from the beginning is need of the hour.

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Tara Shanker Chaudhary

PhD Scholar, Centre for Study of Regional Development, School of Social Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University New Delhi  

Doing his Doctorate on crime against women in Delhi. Done his M.Phil on the same topic in 2011

email :  tarashanker11@gmail.com

Disclaimer : The views expressed by the author in this feature are entirely his own and do not necessarily reflect the views of INVC.