Rape is a violent socio economic crime not just gender violence

Rape is a violent socio economic crime not just a SEXUAL crime.

Digital Discourse Foundation

By Malini Shankar

7.12.19

On a day the four men accused of rape and murder of a young veterinarian near Hyderabad were killed by police while in their custody, news broke out late the same night that the Unnao rape victim who was burnt by the accused rapists to prevent her from reaching the court in Uttar Pradesh for the case hearing has succumbed to 90% burns. Ghastly indeed that sexual violence has reached such proportions in India today.

Sexual crimes against women have increased drastically, even as the anachronistic and primordial political representatives patronise criminals and rapists, with the political leadership turning a blind eye to chronic criminals. Sexual violence has become the unfortunate new normal. Gang rape and murder of meek and marginalised has become legion in Uttar Pradesh. Two minor Dalit girls were raped and killed and hung to a tree branch in Uttar Pradesh not so long ago. 

The Member of the Legislative Party of the ruling party in Uttar Pradesh not just raped a young girl like it was his birth right, but tried to kill her in a highway making it look like a road accident when she had the temerity to lodge a complaint. The intentional highway accident happened when Police protection was missing on her way to court earlier this year. It was obvious that the perpetrators knew when there was no police protection for her. Her father was murdered while in judicial custody for complaining against the rape of his daughter. The rapist – allegedly a law maker of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party enjoyed not just freedom but patronage of a Member of Parliament and support of the same ruling party at the Centre till the Media created enough pressure to expel him from the party, and he was finally taken into custody. 

But on Thursday 5^th December 2019 as this young lady – all of 23 years old was on her way to the court for hearing of her case, criminal elements accosted her when she was boarding a train to go for the court hearing – allegedly stabbed her, doused her in petrol and set her on fire in the railway station in the presence of helpless onlookers… such is the callous disregard to law and administrative paralysis in the state of Uttar Pradesh – known at the best of times for its jungle law, and the State it seems legally sanctions crime in the worst of times when clueless religious leaders are in the chair of political executive. The most populous state of India, politically significant for any incumbent Government of India cannot be blindly administered.

A minister in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s cabinet - an erudite former editor of a respectable national English newspaper was accused of rape and sexual harassment and was eased out of the cabinet although he is contesting defamation in a court of law.

The Kathua rape and ensuing death of a minor girl of an indigenous community in Jammu in January 2018 did not shame the powers that be. Infact the most unfortunate rape and murder of an innocent  young girl of the indigenous community was - many observers feel - a political experiment for abrogation of Article 370 and detention of political representatives with suspension of the state's political governance. Such is the callous disregard to medieval ethos of a conservative, dogmatic, feudal, patriarchal society opposed to inclusive progressive values of debates discussion and political evolution.   

Never mind the reconstruction of the Ram Temple, even if Lord Ram himself were to reign in Ayodhya today, Uttar Pradesh remains utterly ungovernable; such is the lawlessness in the state stuck in a medieval time warp.

Be that as it may… psychologists, anthropologists, criminologists, jurists, media professionals and activists must converge intellectual capital and synergise ways to mitigate sexual violence. Death penalty is not a deterrent to any crime as criminologists and anthropologists will readily concur.

In favour of an argument against death penalty, activists aver that it is more effective to punish the convicted criminal by letting him / her live to regret his / her misdeeds in jail. The psychological impact of conviction and solitary confinement will certainly make them regret their misdeeds and crime. This will serve s a live deterrent / live example for future potential sexual offenders and predators.

Much as it sounds so shameful to analyse the anatomy of a rape or the perverted psychology of a rapist, it is necessary to understand criminal and deviant behaviour if only to make the society safer for women, marginalised and vulnerable.

It is the unemployed uneducated illiterate youth who are stigmatised by society for their failures; they are the ones who seek revenge against the society through rape, theft and other means of crime like drug addiction sexual predation, or other felonies.

Many other facets of rape have not seen the light of the legal day it seems. Marital rape remains controversial. But sexual minorities like transgenders have no recourse to law. Transgenders are also sodomised on streets but they have no recourse to law like a woman can complain of rape.

Human rights theory calls for rehabilitating such marginalised criminals … in pursuit of the hope that they will reform through rehabilitation for a more inclusive, mainstreamed respectable, constructive future. That is the value of Human Rights. Not just to defend the Right to Life of a criminal who has raped and murdered an innocent woman. 

This approach will also subtly send a message that reactionary discourse is not just futile but will breed more criminal elements in any society. It is repulsive to watch Parliamentarians politicise rape and question opposition benches if rape in a state ruled by an opposition party is OK. Such discourse lowers the standards of debate to pathetic levels of political desperation riding on reactionary forces. Shame, … let's not besmirch Mother Democracy. 

These reactionary forces not confident of their irrational logic disregard law, debate, and thus are intolerant of liberal democratic values. Thus, eliminating the accused in the rape and murder of a veterinarian is certainly not as per legal jurisprudence and does not conform to any “laws”  as claimed by the Hyderabad Police squad which has taken credit for ‘lawfully’ killing the accused rapist - murderers. Under what law? We need to ask.

Patronising politicians routinely call for women to dress more conservatively, and not to work night shifts in the wake of every crime against women. One wonders if self-confident, educated women who conduct themselves with poise, dignity, confidence and knowledge of legal jurisprudence will be spared the trauma of rape and sexual violence.  This is where the contributions of psychologists, anthropologists, criminologists, jurists, media and activists are of critical value to solve the problem of gender based violence in India today.

Before the rapists of Nirbhaya are executed, the Government of India would do well to assign mental health professionals and psychiatrists from National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences in Bangalore (which is an Institute of National Importance, governed by Indian Parliament and recognised by World Health Organisation of the United Nations) to interview them and map their thinking and rationale for rape… and whether they regret their crime. Thereafter the psychologists, anthropologists, criminologists, jurists, media and activists can synergise recommendations for inclusive growth …hopefully it will mitigate sexual crimes against women in the future.