Rape, an issue of great concern ?

We all know that rape is undoubtedly a hazardous crime and an issue of great concern in today's India.Everyday newspaper,TV news channels everywhere rape reports are getting so available and common.Despite of enacting several new laws with stringent punishment,setting up fast track courts and several criticism from public.Including candle light march for every victim nothing changed much.

Some datas related to rape in India :

I am personally shamefaced to write this but rape is considered as the fourth most common crime against women in India.

Some important reports like according to National Crime records Bureau ( NCRB) 33,356 rape cases were reported across India in 2018.

Shockingly out of these 31,320 were committed by someone known to the victims (93.9% of the cases) , Unfortunately these are the numbers of reported cases,there are many cases which go unreported in India.

In 2018, every fourth rape victim in India was a minor while more than 50% of them fell in the age category of 18 to 30years according to National crime records bureau.

Also according to the National crime records bureau (NCRB) 14% of the rape victims are above 16 years, Nearly 2.2 of the rape victims falls between 6 years and 12 years and 0.8% of the rape cases victims falls under the category of 6 years old or below. NCRB also reports that 94 out of 100 the victims were known to the offenders.

Infamous rape cases in India :

Every rape case is condemnable and notorious act of transgression but there are some cases which become very infamous all around the country such as -

The 2012 Delhi gang rape and murder case or popularly known as "The Nirbhaya rape case" that occurred on 16th December 2012 in Munirka.The incident took place when Jyoti Singh, a 23 year old female physiotherapy intern,was beaten,gang raped,and tortured in a bus in which she was travelling along with her male friend.Unfortunately there were six others in the bus,including the driver,all of whom raped the girl and badly beaten her friend,Eleven days later after the incident she was transferred to a hospital in Singapore for emergency treatment but she couldn't survive and died after two days.

Since Indian law doesn't allow the press to publish a rape victim's name,the victim was widely known as Nirbhaya,meaning "fearless". And her painful and struggle death become a symbol of women's resistance to rape around the world.The four men who were convicted for this brutal act has been hanged on March 20th 2020,Justice served 7 years later.

Another ferocious act is the Kathua rape case where an 8 year old little girl known as Asifa Bano in Rasona village near Kathua in Jammu and Kashmir was abducted and later raped and murdered in January 2018.A chargesheet for the case was filed,the accused were arrested and the trial began in Kathua on 16th April 2018. The girl disappeared for a week before her body was discovered by the villagers a kilometer away from the village.The incident made national news when charges were filed against 8 men in April 2018.

On 10 June 2019, six of the seven defendants were convicted and one acquitted. Three of those convicted were sentenced to life in prison and three to five years.

Another act of timidity is the recent 2019 Hyderabad gang rape of Priyanka Reddy. The incident took place in November 2019 When a 26 year old veterinary doctor in Shamshabad,near Hyderabad was gang raped and Murdered.The Telangana police department stated that the victim had parked her scooter near a toll plaza, Which caught the attention of two lorry drivers and their assistants. They deflated her tyre, pretended to help her and pushed her into nearby bushes, Where they raped and smothered her, They didn't stop after this act therefore they allegedly loaded her corpse onto a lorry and dropped it on the roadside.

Later on all the four accused were killed in a police encounter on 6 December 2019 under a bridge on Banglore Hyderabad national highway, The police gave a statement that suspect were taken to a location for a reconstruction of the crime scene, Where two of them allegedly snatched guns and attacked the police. In the deadly shootout, all four suspect were shot dead.Some accused the police of extrajudicial execution, while thousands of people celebrated the rapist death.

So these are just few selected infamous rape cases which caught special attention of the media,there are many more tragic incidents with same painful stories.

Punishment for rape in India :

Punishment for rape is given in section 376 of Indian Penal Code. Except in case provided in sub section 2 of the same section, punishment will be rigorous imprisonment which is not less than 7 years and fine.

In April 2018, It allows capital punishment for anyone convicted of raping children under the age of 12.

Considering the punishment in other countries, India is too soft on convicts as per my views. While we can recognise that punishment for rape in some countries like Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia is instant death. It's good that India too has come up with some laws which needs to more strict. To what extend it will be successful, only time will tell.