In India, as elsewhere, sexual violence is committed at regular intervals, ultimately bringing disrepute to the nation. It was heartening that Delhi took to streets last week and forced the government to take notice but the actions promised are a bit worrisome. There was no talk of taking up the issue at the national level. Our Government should understand that applying quick-fixes in Delhi will not solve the problem.
According to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) report (1991-2011), Madhya Pradesh led the nation in the number of rapes committed. Only last year, it recorded 3,406 cases of rape, which means nine women were raped every 24 hours. Overall, in February this year, a woman in Indore was gang-raped by eight people including a cop while her husband was kept in captivity. However the cops took their own time to register an FIR. After the Delhi gang-rape case, an abducted school girl was found raped and murdered in Chennai. She was 12. Let us not forget what happened to Sonali Mukherjee in Jharkhand when her face was splashed with acid and her father rubbed his nose before the authorities for 10 years to get her treated as the criminals who did this to her were out on bail.
Not surprisingly, in 2011 alone the top five States in terms of the number of rapes — Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Maharashtra — witnessed 3,406; 2,363; 2,042; 1,800; and 1,701 cases of rape respectively. For the same year in India 35565 is the number of kidnapping and abduction of women and girls, 24206 rape, 8618 dowry death, 42968 molestation, 8570 sexual harassment and 80 trafficking of girls, as per National Crime Records Bureau.
On 9 July 2012, in Guwahati, the capital of Assam, a teenage girl was allegedly molested and manhandled by a crowd of approximately 30 people outside a bar because she ‘was dressed in western clothes’. The State government officials attempted to cover up the issue and little action was taken.
Bride-buying is an old practice in many regions in India. It is common in states like Haryana, Jharkhand and the Punjab. According to CNN-IBN, many underage women, as young as 11, are “bought, sold, trafficked, raped and married off without consent” across India. Bride-purchases are usually outsourced from Bihar, Assam, and West Bengal. The price of the bride (locally known as ‘paros’ in Jharkhand), if bought from the sellers, may cost between 4,000 to 30,000 Indian rupees, the equivalent of US$88 to US$660. The parents of the girls are normally paid an average of 500 to 1,000 Indian rupees (around US$11 to US$22). The need to buy a bride is because of the low ratio of girls in comparison to boys. Such a low ratio, in turn, was caused by the preference by most Indian parents to have sons instead of daughters, thus female foeticide.
In 2006, according to BBC News, there were around 861 women for every 1,000 men in Haryana; and the national ratio in India as a whole was 927 women for every 1,000 men. The women are not only purchased as brides or wives but also to work as farm workers or house-helps. Most women become “sex slaves” or forced labourers who are later resold to human traffickers to defray the cost.
The Thomas Reuters Foundation survey says that India is the second most dangerous place in the world for women to live in as women belonging to any class, caste or creed and religion can be victims of cruel forms of violence and disfigurement, premeditated crimes intended to kill or maim permanently to act as a lesson to ‘put her in her place.’ In India, acid attacks on women, who dare to refuse a man’s proposal of marriage or ask for a divorce, are a form of revenge. Acid is cheap and easily available and is the quickest way to destroy a woman’s life.
The number of acid attacks has been rising in India and there have been 968 reported acid attacks in the state of Karnataka alone since 1999. Most of the female victims suffer more because of police apathy in dealing with cases of harassment as that of a safety issue as they refuse to register a police case despite the victim being attacked twice or thrice before meriting police aid after an acid attack. One such incident was that of Sonali Mukherjee, where the perpetrators were granted bail after being sentenced to nine years in jail. Thereafter, when her family approached the High Court and legislators in search of justice, all she got in return was assurances and “nothing else”. The perpetrators got away scot-free.
Indian acid attack survivor Shirin Juwaley founded the Palash Foundation to help other survivors with “psycho-social rehabilitation”; but in 2011, the principal of an Indian college under orders from the Government refused to have Juwaley speak at her school for fear that Juwaley’s story of being attacked by her husband would make students “become scared of marriage”.
People are completely at ease with the invasion of western culture of nudity and vulgarism. Nobody opposes the photographs of scantly-dressed women in titillating poses in magazines and news papers. The process of justice delivery in our country is complicated; political connection and corruption in the entire process tend to help the culprits rather than the victims.
The present day youth is caught in the mire of economic and moral decline. They are mentally disturbed and unstable. They believe it is advantageous to avoid the bonds and responsibilities of marriage and satisfy their natural needs with illicit relationships. Our society is not taking seriously crime against women, alcoholism and drug addiction rather it promotes these evils as a fashion and eventually it leads to sexual violence.
Islam creates and promotes a modest society and culture and discourages vulgarity and obscenity. In Islam Hijab creates the psychological atmosphere to resist the calls for deviation, and builds an internal immunity in both men and women. It suggests to the woman that she should present herself as a human being and helps her to do so by veiling her beauties. It also suggests to the man that he has to consider the woman as a human being only, since he cannot see her body. Thus the Hijab represents to a large extent a means of blocking the roads that lead to deviation.
Islam gives the harshest punishment to culprits if such crimes happen. The Islamic laws are based on justice and equity and are according to the nature. In Islam the punishment for illegal sexual act with a woman is hundred lashes. The penalty of illicit sexual intercourse between a married woman and married man is stoning to death.
Islam prescribes very strict and severe laws of punishment for the wrong doers. It is only the severity of a law that compels average individuals to abide by it. Islamic law first takes into consideration the condition and helplessness of the fornicator, and only then does it prescribe the punishment.