A 23 year old woman is molested on a bus, her friend is beaten till he is near death and she is tortured even more, and finally both of them are thrown off the bus left to lie on the road for dead. She has suffered massive and permanent damage to her intestines and is fighting for her life at the hospital.
Everybody in the country seems to be rooting for a change in law. Things need to change and it has to be radical. And what would that change be?
Rape should be punishable by death or castration.
A fitting punishment?
I have seen petitions floating around on Facebook, asking me to sign it to help bring justice to a girl who even if she survives at the hospital is as good a dead.
I, for one, do not believe in capital punishment. But maybe this is the right thing to do. The belief that setting the harshest punishment for this crime will show that ill-treating women will not be taken lightly in this country and the perpetrators will think twice before committing such crimes.
It makes sense, doesn’t it?
NOT.
Why do we always sidestep the issue?
In the Guwahati case, it was whether the girl stepping out of the pub at 11 in the night wearing short clothes was asking for it or not.
Unfortunately, for the self-appointed moral police in our country, this time around, the woman was not at a pub or alone late at night. But they have still managed to label her, decide her future for her, by calling her as good as dead even if she survives. Doesn’t she have a say in this?
First of all, this case is not only about rape but also torture and attempt to murder. But setting that aside, let’s not kid ourselves into thinking this whole capital punishment thing is being brought up to protect women. Right now the conviction rate for rape cases is at an abysmal 26% and these are off the ones that are reported. And we all know how much of a struggle it is to even get up the courage and report this. And then comes the stage where these women either cajoled not to lodge a complaint or even worse, their morality is questioned. Has anyone realized what will happen to this measly 26% if the punishment is intensified? We are talking about taking a life here. Forget the fact that none of us, not even our system has the right to kill; do you think it will be any easier for these women to report these cases? And how difficult do you think it will be to get a conviction?
I think I say this for all women, Indian or otherwise, that if given a choice between not being molested and knowing that if I am, there is a less than 26% chance that my assailant will be killed or castrated. I choose the first option.
I know what I say above might sound stupid to you. But my point is exactly that. I don’t think the threat of death is going to make this country safer for women. Had it been so, there should be no murder cases in our courts.
I do believe the laws against rape should be relooked at. To ensure it is not a struggle to report the crime, to ensure the perpetrators are always, always caught and convicted, and quickly, and also so the punishment is not an appalling 5-10 years in prison (but certainly not death or castration).
But more importantly, if we are to take a stand, let’s take a stand against this whole patriarchal attitude. Ours is one of the very few countries where the criminals have been allowed to gain the moral high-ground over the women they molested.
I think I’d like to end here.
Last couple of thoughts–We all seem to have become so blood-thirsty and vindictive, or frustrated, that we are talking death and castration. Women for some reason are not considered individuals but objects to be treated as seen fit by the men.What age are we living in?
