INCREASING RAPE CASES IN INDIA

 

“We must send a message across the world that there is no disgrace in being a survivor of sexual violence- The shame is on the aggressor”

                                                                                                                                  -ANGELINA JOLIE-

Abstract

The poor administration of law and lack of proper punishments lead India to stand number one in front of other countries in the rate of rape cases. The rising cases made the country a place which is not suitable for the women to live safely. This worse situation can overcome only through severe punishments which are imposed by other countries. Society is also under the obligation to make the country suitable for women to stay peacefully. The acquittals of the criminals makes the victim to lose their trust in justice and laws. As the conviction rates are very fewer victims are not ready to go beyond the case and waste their time and money for the same.

Introduction:

India has become an incongruous country for the women due to the increasing number of sexual assaults and brutal rapes reporting in the country every year. [1]According to government reports approximately 32,033cases of rapes are registered with police in 2019 that is 90 cases per day. Among this only 18,300 cases were disposed, rest of the cases were pending in that year. There are lot of laws which are provided under Indian legal system to protect the people from these kinds of abuse. Even then the country is witnessing a steep increase such crimes. The reason behind the increase is evident from the statistical data of disposal of rape cases in 2019. 2019 reports shows that there is an average of 90 rape cases per day in the country. It clearly shows that proper and effective implementation of laws are also necessary to keep a control over the crimes.

Growing sexual assaults in the country

[2]Government report shows that one women in the country is raped in every 15 minutes in the year 2018. According to National Crime Record Bureau 85% of these cases are charged and only 27% among them are convicted.

Table no: 1 Rape cases report in India

This data clearly shows the range of rape cases which happened in the country from 2012-2017. As per the report of Times of India in 2020 there are approximately 88 rape cases are reported in the country per day and the conviction rates are 30% and below. This shows the safety of the women in the country. Nirbhaya rape case of 2012, Unnao case of 2017, Hyderabad case of 2019 shows that there is no much difference towards the sexual brutality towards women from 2012-2019. The number of rape cases in the country during 2005 was 18,359 and in 2019 it increased to 32,559, which is an increase of 14,200 cases within 14years.

These rise in the numbers reveals that how the crimes like rapes and sexual assaults are increasing against women every year. This makes the country not suitable for a women to live safely.

Conviction rate of rape cases in the country

[3]National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) shows that the number of rape cases for trial in 2018 was 1, 56,327 out of which 4,708 convicted among the 17,313 cases which completed the trial in 2018. 11,133 acquitted and 1,472 cases were discharged. This shows that the conviction rate in the country during 2018 was just 27.19%. In 2017 the conviction rate was 32.2%. This reveals that just 1 year brought a decrease of 5% in the conviction rate. Decreasing conviction rates plays a vital role in the increasing crimes in the country. The increasing acquittal rates made the criminals think that the legal systems are for the acquittal of the criminals and not for the conviction. This played a vital role in increasing the rate of crimes happening in the country. As the legal system is more interested in acquittal of the criminals, they are also interested in increasing the rate of crimes every year.

Reasons for increasing rape cases

There are vast number of reasons which plays a vital role in increasing the number of sexual assaults in the country every year. The authorities and the society also plays a hidden role in increasing such cases.

·         Increasing acquittals: As most number of criminals are being acquitted and set free, it made an impact and set an image in the mind of the society that it’s easy for a person to escape from punishments after committing a crime. This can also be considered as a reason for the increasing crimes.

·         The other reason for the hike in the numbers is the fear of victims and their family. As majority of them are not ready to come before the society and fight for their justice, the criminals are under the belief that there is not one to question them and can do whatever they want.

·         Even in this scenario, where the rape cases are increasing incidents drastically, society and the legal system instead of finding solutions to this atrocities are trying to find the defects in the dressing style of the victims which they found as the ultimate reasonfor the rape. As the society is busy in finding faults in the part of the victims on the other side the criminals are busy in increasing the number of crimes.

·         Indian is a place where some of the atrocities are as a part of custom. The domestic violence against the women are one among them. The men are at a view that wives are meant to be beaten up by the husbands. At the same time women are the ones who grants the implied permission for their husband and family to exploit her physically and mentally.

·         As compared to the other countries the conviction rate in India is very less. Even though a person is convicted the punishment granted for them is far less as compared to the sufferings faced by the victims. As the society is not scared of the punishments granted for a convicted person it can also lead to the increase in crime rates.

                                         

Severe punishments and decreased rape rate

There are many counties which has a very low rate of rape cases as compared to India. The major reason which leads the countries to keep the crime rate under the control is severity in the punishments rendered by the country. The fear over the punishments which can be provided to them is the major reason which restrain them from committing such crimes. It’s evident from the punishments and the rate of crimes in different countries.

In countries like UAE the person committing rape are hanged to death this severe punishment made them to keep the rape rate in the country as just [4]72 per year.Greece is the country which has only 215 rape cases per year, as the person found guilty of this crime is punished with incarceration. Russia punishes the rapist up to [5]30years of imprisonment which help them in keeping the rape cases up to 5000 which is far less compared to India. There are also countries such as Afghanistan are such countries where the rapist are shoot on the head within 4days of the crime.India can adopt such countries as an example to learn how to control the rape rates in a country by imposing severe punishments.

Conclusion

As the number of rape cases are increasing drastically in the country, it’s high time to make a control over it. This can be done only by passing such legislations which makes the people scared and prevent them from committing such offences. Not only the making but the implementation of the laws properly is also necessary to reduce the crime rate. The women must be made aware and strong enough to fight against the atrocities against them. Society must has a mentality to stand for the victim and not for the ones who are committing such crimes.