The Supreme Court has done well by awarding death sentence to a 53-year old man from Maharashtra for his being guilty of raping a 4-year old girl and stoning her to death. A 3-judge bench of Justices Dipak Misra, Rohinton Nariman and U.U. Lalit held the crime as ‘the rarest of rare’ as the child had always addressed the man from her neighbourhood as uncle and trusted him.
They further stated: “The rape of a minor girl child is nothing but a monstrous burial of her dignity in the darkness. It is against the holy body of a girl child and the soul of the society and such a crime is aggravated by the manner in which it has been committed.”
Such incidents have become the order of the day. According to the National Crime Records Bureau 2013 report, 24,923 rape cases were reported across India in 2012. Out of these, 24,470 were allegedly committed by relatives or neighbours. In other words, the victims knew the alleged rapists in 98% of the cases.
Why is there so much increase in this crime? There are so many reasons behind it. They include immodesty, parents’ negligence in proper upbringing of their children, alcohol, and ineffective law to curb it.
Immodesty: It is such a menace as can lead one towards adultery, fornication, rape, molestation and other obscene acts. Both male and female are responsible for allowing such circumstances to crop up. In the past occurrence of such incidents was rare. Ever since the western culture started affecting our society, the situation has taken an ugly turn. This is the western culture which has dampened the Indian culture and smashed its social fabric.
It is modesty that keeps us from indulging in evil deeds and inhuman acts. Islam lays much emphasis on observing modesty. The Holy Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be to him) says: “Every religion has a distinctive quality and the distinctive quality of Islam is modesty.” (Muwatta) He again says: “Modesty and faith exist together and when one of them goes out, the other, too, goes out.” (Baihaqi) “Modesty brings nothing but good.” (Bukhari and Muslim)
Parents’ negligence in proper upbringing of their children: Parents should play a constructive role in proper upbringing and character building of their children. It is unfortunate that scant attention is now paid by them towards character building of their children. Some parents do not feel shy in watching blue movies and nasty films with their children. Even some parents do not contain free mixing of boys and girls when they reach their puberty. Attention should be paid to the proper upbringing of their children.
Alcohol: Intoxication is root of all evils and crimes, particularly against women. It should be totally banned in the whole country. The Prophet of Islam (peace and blessings of Allah be to him) says: “Wine is the mother of every kind of crime and sin.”
He further says: “Every intoxicant is wine and every wine is forbidden; those who drink wine in this world will be forbidden to touch the pure wine provided in heaven.” Due to its multi-dimensional nauseas and ill effects, Islam has declared it as haram (prohibitory) for its adherents.
Ineffective Law: It is often seen that perpetrators get away with light punishment provided under Section 376 of the IPC. It is time harsher punishment was given to the offenders and law amended accordingly.
To a great extent, capital punishment may play an important role in bringing down heinous crimes such as rape. Justice Bhanwar Singh, Chairman of Judicial Training and Research Institute, U.P., has rightly stated: “Death sentence should be introduced for rapists as things have gone beyond control and if strictest measures are not taken, things may worsen.” Citing the example of U.K., he said: “Once petty crimes increased so much that the ruler had to make even pick pocketing punishable with death penalty. When it showed results, more 200 petty crimes were made punishable with death penalty. Things worked and crime was controlled.”
In short, the above mentioned four reasons are responsible for spiralling of the crime graph. It is high time we woke up from slumber and pondered over the said causes and tried our level best to ward off the inhuman acts.
[The writer is Lecturer, Nadwa College, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh]