The ‘New’ Normal

What is even more shocking is the incapability of the government of India and of the various State Governments to implement even the most basic safety measures with any amount of efficacy… Despite numerous recommendations, deliberations, consultations, studies, directions from the judiciary and, most importantly, the protests of civil society, the state continues to fall woefully short of ensuring the safety of women in this country.

The Verma Committee Report (2013)

Even as the nation exploded in its denunciationof the gang rape, killing and torching of a young doctor in the fringes of Hyderabad city, at least a dozen other equally gruesome rapeshave been reported since then, of ‘infants, minors and adult’ women both from ‘within the family and without’ with the perpetrators belonging to ‘diverse age groups and communities.’ The public revulsiondisplayed in the occurrences evidently expose that almost nothing has alteredsince the 2012 Delhi bus gang rape (commonly referred to as the ‘Nirbhaya’ case)and the modification of the law against sexual violence. History seemed to be repeating itself asmass protestswere organized, candlelit vigilswere held, and the anger/outburst in theparliamentwhich in turn was unfortunatelydented by the reality that a reasonably significant number of parliamentarians havefeloniousallegations against them, among others of sexual misconduct.

The malaise is deep-seatedand located in an altogether different space to be healed by panic, fast-track courts or intimidation via capital punishment. To a great extent, the malady is entrenched in societal mindsets and the inadequacy in implementation of existinglaws. The conviction rate in rape cases is low as offenders often go unreprimanded on grounds  of ‘insufficient evidence’, and, prior to that, in  the first instance, filing  a case at the local police station is often a tedious and offensive experience for the victim and her kith and kin, pointing to the culture of ‘extreme administrative indifference and insensitivity.’  A society reared on misogyny, almost toxic masculinity, in which patriarchy is profoundly engrained has been penetrated by a discourse which is increasingly sectarian, rape incidents being no exception.  Besides, the much touted soft power of the Indian film industry can be held culpable to at least some extent for its brazen condoning of machismo.

An exhaustive debate on the causes of sexual violence backed by sincere political and social willingness and collaboration is the need of the hour. Undignified, ad hoc measures such as monetary compensation for rape victims, though frequently required for medical, both physical and mental recuperation, is often paralleled with ‘the principle of justice.’  Compensation  may appear to be an insensitive and patronizing dole offered to a person who even today in most cases has to live with the ‘humiliation’ of being physically violated and more significantly it could embolden the offenders to ‘pay their way out’ of their wrongdoing, in a nation tarnished by the image that bribery is the means to achieve most ends.

Priyanka Dubey, in her recent book, No Nation for Women: Reportage on Rape from India, the World’s Largest Democracy (2018) contends that the woman’s body is a ‘site’ of reprisal in a profoundly masculine social set up  wherein dissimilarities, ‘personal, social, communal or caste based’ are decided through the abuse of this ‘site.’ Attacking a woman meets various ends, it can act as a retribution for displaying the audacity to refuse a man, and it can serve as a cautionary of the repercussions of exerting ‘free choice,’ it may be a display of the uninhibited application of ‘power/control,’ for instance custodial rapes, or perhaps just a method of  asserting manliness. Equally imperative, as pointed out by Dubey is the need to bring forth the almost routine domestic violence that is ubiquitous in households, where women are beaten for being raped,  which can be as   harmful as a ruthless sexual attack.

From 2016 onwards, the annual National Crime Research Bureau (NCRB) reports have been allegedly muted. The 2017 report was released in 2019. Other than supposedexclusionsin the reportage of ‘lynching cases and honour crimes,’the report revealed adistressingupsurge in recordedmisconducts against women. Precisely, on an average, approximately 1,000 crimes were recordedon a daily basis, more than 3.5 lakh in the year. Roughly, 93 women were victims of rape daily,one-third of them being minors. Nearly 87,924 women recorded cases of sexual harassment, an average of 241 a day. Each day, about 28 women have been burnt to death in cases recorded as ‘dowry deaths’.

These statistics, however, replicate only a slight fraction of the crimes committed against women. The majority of cases go unregistered. For instance, the National Family Health Survey-4 exposed that every third married woman had endured either physical and/or sexual abuse,nonetheless,merely 1.5% had takenassistance from the police. The NCRB report indicates that the accumulation of pending cases, inclusive of cases of child rape, is enormous. For all misconducts against women, around 89.6% cases are pending. In 2017, there were around 1.17 lakh rape cases from preceding years awaiting hearing. In the same year, 28,750 additional cases were directed for trial.  Of them only 5,822 were sentenced.

The police encounterkillings in therecent caseof the Hyderabad rape accused, and the public applaudingshould not be read in ‘isolation.’ They come in the wake of demandsfor public execution and ‘mob justice’, and the plannedcreation of public rage. A national uproar over rape is only natural, however, meaningless, intermittentfurydevoid ofrelentlessefforts on ‘due process’ is in reality impairingthe nation.Violence to counter violence, vigilante justice andencounter killings seem to be the ‘new’ normal in the post truth age even as the core issue of the urgent need for a fundamental introspection of the crumbling social fabric is relegated to the background. ‘Optics’has once again triumphed over the more laborious and perhaps understandably undesirable restructuring of deep-seated social ills. Closures, be it hollow and fleeting are here to stay.

Priya Singh

9/12/2019

(The views expressed are solely those of the author in her private capacity and does not in any way reflect the views of the organisation)