Crime capital

The rape of a medical student in Delhi, the latest in a series of crimes against women in the capital, highlights the need for a higher conviction rate in such cases rather than death penalty.

SEVERAL years ago, while discussing the social construct of gender, a professor of sociology casually asked his post-graduate students why women in Delhi often walked with their head bent down, unlike women in the other metros. Several girl students said the perpetual fear of harassment outdoors made them diffident and they could not muster courage to look up.

Such harassment took a violent turn on November 15, when, at around 2.30 p.m., a student of the Maulana Azad Medical College (MAMC) was raped on the premises of Khooni Darwaza, a monument protected by the Archaeological Survey of India. The monument is situated opposite the main gate of the MAMC, and hardly a kilometre away are the police headquarters and several newspaper offices on Bahadurshah Zafar Marg. For nearly four days, the police remained clueless about the identity of the rapists despite getting the name of one person in this connection from the victim. Finally, on November 21, they arrested four persons, including two juveniles, belonging to a nearby slum cluster.

The incident raised the hackles of parliamentarians and citizens alike. Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani said in Parliament that he was not averse to the award of death penalty to rapists, provided there was a consensus. He emphasised that he had mooted the suggestion in 1998 itself. Students from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, the University College of Medical Sciences and the Lady Hardinge Medical College came out demanding more security on their campuses.

Not so long ago a girl student in the University of Delhi was dragged into a moving car and gang-raped. Soon afterwards, in South Delhi a girl was pulled out of an autorickshaw, dragged into another vehicle, and gang-raped in an apartment. In the MAMC itself, days after the Khooni Darwaza incident, a student was slapped on her back by two motorcyclists on the college campus. Girl students confirmed that while they felt insecure stepping outside the campus, harassment inside the campus was frequent by young men riding motorcycles. In another area, on November 25, a 40-year-old woman was chased and gang-raped in daytime.

It is with good reason that Delhi is called the crime capital of India. Giving statistics of atrocities against women in Delhi, Mabel Rebello of the Congress(I) said that between January and July this year, 75 cases of dowry death, 229 of rape, 243 of molestation, 306 of eve-teasing and 570 of abduction of women were reported. The latest incident has led to a shrill demand, not only from the ruling party but also from some Opposition members, especially in the Congress(I), to tighten the legislation dealing with rape. Several members of the Rajya Sabha demanded capital punishment to rapists.

Women's organisations that have been fighting against this social scourge for decades believe that the situation has only got worse. Brinda Karat, general secretary of the All India Democratic Women's Association (AIDWA), does not feel that stringent laws will act as a deterrent. She said judges were found to be extremely reluctant to deliver the maximum punishment for child rape even with the existing law. The demand for a more stringent law was misplaced; what was needed was to step up drastically the rate of convictions in rape cases, she said. The other important aspect, said Brinda Karat, was the changing attitudes in the era of neo-liberalisation. Women had become the object of fantasies to be played out by the sex market, she said.

Linked to this trend was an overwhelming sense of individualisation, manifested in a culture of non-intervention. "Therefore, you have a society which is totally silent and non-interventionist. Why is it that in Delhi young girls in buses don't find any support when they are harassed?" she asked. People get emboldened when they see such social silence around them, she remarked.

There is almost a voyeuristic element in the passivity of the denizens of Delhi and it is here that the role of the Delhi Police becomes vital. University students feel that often the police themselves were found to be indulging in mild forms of ogling or eve-teasing or appeared completely non-serious about their responsibilities.

Kirti Singh, Supreme Court advocate, said that the number of cases charged was pitiably low. This was attributed to the poor quality of investigation, lodging of incomplete first information reports and even the refusal to lodge FIRs, and delays in the medical examination of the victim and in the collection of important evidence. Women's organisations and the Law Commission have made several recommendations time and again, but little has been done to make the law more helpful to the victim. Now, the Cabinet seems to have made up its mind regarding an amendment to the Indian Evidence Act to disallow cross-examination of the rape victim in court.

Kirti Singh, who has dealt with women's cases for several years and is associated with AIDWA, says that both the substantive and procedural laws relating to rape are inadequate. One major amendment required is that of Section 155(4) of the Indian Evidence Act, which allows a victim to be questioned about her sexual history. This is a long-standing demand of the women's movement, and the Law Commission subsequently recommended it to the government. The Union Cabinet seems to have accepted the recommendation but there is no indication when it will act.

THE definition of rape itself does not take into account forced anal and oral intercourse. Other crimes such as protracted sexual assault, marital rape, sexual assault by relatives and child rape have gone unrecognised by courts. Procedural laws too need to be amended drastically so as to save the victim from the trauma of repeated interrogation. Other issues involved are the provision of mandatory counselling and rehabilitation by the state, according to Kirti Singh. Data for 1999 from the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) showed that the National Capital Territory of Delhi reported a crime rate (the number of crimes per lakh population) of 431.6 for all Indian Penal Code (IPC) crimes, nearly 2.5 times the national average rate of 178.9. Among mega cities (population of 10 lakh or more), Delhi reported the highest number of murder cases, followed by Mumbai and Kochi.

The national capital also recorded the highest incidence of kidnapping and abduction among the 23 mega cities; rape (32.9 per cent of the total rape cases that year), molestation (23.3 per cent) and dowry deaths (17.4 per cent). The crimes against women identified under the IPC are rape (Section 376), kidnapping and abduction for different purposes (Section 363-373), homicide for dowry, dowry deaths or attempts to commit such crimes (Section 302/304B), torture, both mental and physical (Section 498A), molestation (Section 354), sexual harassment (Section 509) and importation of girls (Section 366B) and trafficking in women.

The all-India crime rate for crimes reported against women was 13.8 in 1999. The NCRB acknowledges that this rate, which may not appear alarming at first sight, should be viewed with caution as "a sizable number of crimes against women go unreported due to social stigma attached to them". The highest incidence was reported in Madhya Pradesh, followed by Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra. In a study titled "Crime Against Women: Bondage and Beyond. Revelation of Data" by the Centre for Women's Development Studies, Delhi was found to have the highest average overall crime rate (number of crimes per million population). The study analysed NCRB data from 1995 to 1997. It found that in 1998 and 1999, 22 per cent of the cases remained pending and that the highest rate of pendency was cases in the categories of kidnapping/abduction of girls and women, rape, dowry death, and cruelty at home.

The solution, it is argued, lies not in the stringency of the law but in its applicability. The scope of the law has to be widened, conviction rates have to improve, and the police have to inspire confidence so that victims feel emboldened to report crimes.

Populist slogans of death penalty for rapists have little meaning in a society where class and caste divisions are so entrenched and people with pelf and power can subvert the law.