Indian judiciary must deliver faster justice in rape cases

What are the sociopolitical motivations behind the apathy of the justice system regarding rape cases?

Recently, the International Association of Women in Radio and Television (IAWRT) hosted the Asian Women's Festival at the India International Centre. Of many of the stirring films screened there, I chanced upon a documentary, Encountering Injustice, on the struggle for justice for Meena Xalxo, a 15-year-old girl who was allegedly raped and murdered by the Chhattisgarh Police in 2011.

Indifference

It was a 12-minute film made by the WSS collective and it showed Meena's parents raising slogans and recounting the incident with tears in their eyes.

Despite their apparent vulnerability, they appeared undeterred in their quest even after four years of running from pillar to post to get justice. It is unfortunate that this is not a solitary incident.

The indifference and apathy towards women and girls who have been violated, gangraped or abused are steadily growing; a recent study indicates that the figures have grown from 16,496 in 2000 to 24,206 in 2011.

One does wish that in the face of the increasing violence, justice is swifter and more sympathetic to the women and girls, boys under the age of ten years and others from minority groups like the transgender community who undergo sexual violence on a more subtle and regular basis since many of them are forced into sex work. The sad truth is that justice moves at a glacial pace. In many countries in Asia and Africa, justice for survivors of sexual violence comes after they are dead.

This United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD), in its report on "Gender Equality: Striving for Justice in an Unequal World", indicates that often cases of mass genocide and rape go unpunished because there is a lack of political will, there is poor quality of investigations and often those conducting the fact finding are biased into ignoring the evidence.

Another study indicated that in situations of armed conflict, approximately 50 per cent of the uprooted population is women and girls whose life and personal freedom are continuously being threatened and they have all at some stage faced sexual violence in the form of rape and molestation.

According to the report, the sexual violence committed in Assam/Northeast region has been synonymised as a form of "collateral damage", making the quest for justice against such crimes look as a casual endeavour. Social notions of women as the "honour and dignity" of the family and community is a major hurdle that blocks the road to justice for women.

High profile

Some of the most high-profile cases have been Manorama in Manipur (2004), Khairlanji rapes and killings (2006), of Nilofer and Asiya in Kashmir (2009) and the custodial torture of Soni Sori (2011).

The report also documents several other cases not reported at all - the alleged mass rape of several Pardhi women in Madhya Pradesh of whom one was murdered (2007), the alleged custodial gang rape of 50-year-old Janki Bai in MP (2009), and the alleged attempted rape by a soldier of the Indian Army in Dolopa.

There was also the widely reported Nirbhaya gang rape case (2013) where the victim was a medical student who was brutally raped on a bus. While the high profile nature of the case got much empathy for the aggrieved parents, one of the rapists was allowed to walk free on account of being a juvenile. A lesser known statistic is that there were nearly a dozen cases of rape in neighbouring Haryana right after the Delhi incident occurred. In one instance, the men circulated video clips of the act, which led to the father of the girl committing suicide. These are just a small percentage of the cases that have come to light.

Sanhati.com reports further disturbing figures. A study by doctors of the Department of Forensic Science & Toxicology, AIIMS, Delhi, reported that in most cases the rape victims were women from poor backgrounds and 80 per cent of the cases, the perpetrators were known to the victims.

Conviction

The indifferent functioning of police, the delays of the criminal justice system, the low rates of conviction, and hence the accompanying sense of impunity among the rapists. Additionally in the capital just seven per cent of police officers are women, and they are frequently given inconsequential posts that don't involve patrol duty.

It does not take rocket science to figure out that we in India need a more sympathetic justice system that will bring the perpetrators of sexual violence to justice in a swifter and more efficient manner.

Oomen Chandy announced a special Nirbhaya scheme for the safety of women in Kerala. The chief minister has gone on record saying that special fast-track courts would be set up for the early disposal of sexual harassment cases and other cases involving violence against women. Through the innovative scheme, the government aims at making the state women-friendly where women can safely travel even at midnight.

The efficient functioning of any scheme depends on the intention of its people. Will Kerala with its high literacy rate set the bar for the rest of the country? One can only hope so.