This was published as Featured Post on Women's Web on 14th June , 2019.
Justice has been delivered in the Kathua gangrape case.And yet, the question that should agitate our minds, is why kids of such tender years are assaulted sexually & other wise.Perhaps, because kids are the most vulnerable after girls & women. And kids include both boys as also girls. More boys are sexually abused than girls as per statistics .And our society being patriarchal , we live in denial, that boys are raped & continue to be raped.And what begins as a sexual assault can slowly give away to sexual trafficking of kids which is apart of the $ 150 million illicit world wide trade which comes third after trade of small arms & drugs.
Recently , a 2 year old girl was found lifeless ,with her eyes gogged out in Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh.As usual, the matter was politicized .One of accused, who was arrested has been facing two charges under POCSO & yet, he was roaming freely to look around for potential victims & traumatize more kids.
Hence, there has been an urgent need to have a database of sexual offenders on a pan India basis. This would help in faster arrests & a better conviction rate. This in turn, would assist in assuring safety of kids. The idea of a national registry of sexual offenders is by activists like Sunitha Krishnan of Prajwala. She also started a #ShametheRapistCampaign as she had received many gangrape videos .And she felt outraged, that people who filmed such videos & or raped ought to be punished. She had approached Supreme Court with a plea that a national agency needs to deal with gangrape & rape videos which are being shared on various social media & the internet.
And all efforts by Sunitha Krishnan & other activists have yielded positive results.India has got a national registry of sex offenders .
It has been shown time & again that most of the sexual crimes are committed by people known to the child.As per NCRB data of 2016 ,43.3 % % of rape victims are minors .13 % of minor rape victims are aged 11 & below.And NCRB data of 2016 reiterates that 94.6 % of offenders were known to the victims.So obviously, minors are being raped by people known to them. Though data is unavailable regarding percentage of offenders known to minor rape victims, obviously it must be above 75 % .This is also one of the main reasons why conviction rate is as dismal as 30 % because many a times, families want the shame to remain within the family. Nobody tries to understand how this is going to traumatize the victim/ s who is/are family member/s. as well. And this non reporting of sexual assault / s makes the offender more brazen about perpetuating similar or more violent assaults on others within the family & outside .
Rapes are very traumatic crimes that affect the mental as also the physical being of the victim and or survivors. And in India, its a social stigma as well.The victims & survivors have to face the blame that they asked for it by wearing clothes which were in appropriate or by being too bold in any what way. Rape is an act of power play & control..And if some of us say that dressing indecently ( what is indecent & what is decent, depends on how the viewer sees it ...it is therefore subjective & hence, unfair & unjustified ).Moreover, what I may feel is decent dressing, may be not so as per another person's viewpoint .If dressing made somebody commit rape , then how can rape of babies & old women as old as eighty be explained ? Gangrapes during communal flare ups & caste violence ? Can they be explained by skimpy dressing ? No, & definitely rape of minors cannot be explained by dressing sense. Specially, rape of minor boys can never be explained , for those, who allege that females need to stay within limits & not behave like boys .Patriarchy is so entrenched, that the offenders roam freely after raping many, while the victims & survivors face the wrath of the society & the members of the society including anger from family & friends because the victim/s asked for it ( to be sexually assaulted ).
In a judgement delivered by Bombay High Court, the judges stated that rape is worse than murder because , it affects victims physically as also psychologically.And these affect the victim till the victim is alive. Hence, many of the victims tend to end their lives.
What needs to be done to prevent or lessen the number of rapes of minors ? Many steps need to be taken. Firstly, make sex education a part of school curriculum as has been done recently .Sex education will enlighten minors about the good touch,, the bad touch & the ugly ones. These will warn the minors about potential offenders.
Another step is sensitizing public about safety of children. .Its our duty as adults to create a safe environment for our children so that they grow up into fearless healthy adults.Minors who are raped suffer trauma on a life long basis & they have lots of psychological issues as well.
Police needs to be sensitized to take faster action & thorough investigation in all cases relating to sexual assaults of minors .This will assist in increasing the conviction rate under the POCSO Act.
And last, but not the least, faster trials & speedy dispensation of justice will act as deterrent .Certainty of punishment is deterrent & not the death penalty. Death penalty is most inappropriate as death penalty has almost the same effect of deterrence as life imprisonment. as per 262nd Indian Law Commission Report. Death penalty is a long & winding process .Death penalty is expensive. And sometimes , errors in judgement lead to innocent people who are punished by death penalty.And the death penalty has been shown to be awarded to people who are from the minorities & scheduled castes & tribes .
Kailash Satyarthi, the Nobel Peace Prize Winner in a recent article on the occasion of World Day Against Child Labour , 12th June, 2019 talks about steps each of us ,must take, to reach the goal of a child friendly society .Because each time, we remain silent as we witness any injustice in whatsoever form regarding a child, we let down that child & ultimately our future.
Because , as stated by Nelson Mandela, "There can be no keener revelation of a society's soul than the way in which it treats its children . "
Justice has been delivered in the Kathua gangrape case.And yet, the question that should agitate our minds, is why kids of such tender years are assaulted sexually & other wise.Perhaps, because kids are the most vulnerable after girls & women. And kids include both boys as also girls. More boys are sexually abused than girls as per statistics .And our society being patriarchal , we live in denial, that boys are raped & continue to be raped.And what begins as a sexual assault can slowly give away to sexual trafficking of kids which is apart of the $ 150 million illicit world wide trade which comes third after trade of small arms & drugs.
Thankfully, the POCSO ( The Protection of Children from Sexual Offences ) Act has been made gender neutral to tackle sexual abuse of boys & girls .And yet, the death penalty for the guilty in POCSO cases cannot stem the rot of sexual abuse of kids.
Recently , a 2 year old girl was found lifeless ,with her eyes gogged out in Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh.As usual, the matter was politicized .One of accused, who was arrested has been facing two charges under POCSO & yet, he was roaming freely to look around for potential victims & traumatize more kids.
Hence, there has been an urgent need to have a database of sexual offenders on a pan India basis. This would help in faster arrests & a better conviction rate. This in turn, would assist in assuring safety of kids. The idea of a national registry of sexual offenders is by activists like Sunitha Krishnan of Prajwala. She also started a #ShametheRapistCampaign as she had received many gangrape videos .And she felt outraged, that people who filmed such videos & or raped ought to be punished. She had approached Supreme Court with a plea that a national agency needs to deal with gangrape & rape videos which are being shared on various social media & the internet.
And all efforts by Sunitha Krishnan & other activists have yielded positive results.India has got a national registry of sex offenders .
It has been shown time & again that most of the sexual crimes are committed by people known to the child.As per NCRB data of 2016 ,43.3 % % of rape victims are minors .13 % of minor rape victims are aged 11 & below.And NCRB data of 2016 reiterates that 94.6 % of offenders were known to the victims.So obviously, minors are being raped by people known to them. Though data is unavailable regarding percentage of offenders known to minor rape victims, obviously it must be above 75 % .This is also one of the main reasons why conviction rate is as dismal as 30 % because many a times, families want the shame to remain within the family. Nobody tries to understand how this is going to traumatize the victim/ s who is/are family member/s. as well. And this non reporting of sexual assault / s makes the offender more brazen about perpetuating similar or more violent assaults on others within the family & outside .
Rapes are very traumatic crimes that affect the mental as also the physical being of the victim and or survivors. And in India, its a social stigma as well.The victims & survivors have to face the blame that they asked for it by wearing clothes which were in appropriate or by being too bold in any what way. Rape is an act of power play & control..And if some of us say that dressing indecently ( what is indecent & what is decent, depends on how the viewer sees it ...it is therefore subjective & hence, unfair & unjustified ).Moreover, what I may feel is decent dressing, may be not so as per another person's viewpoint .If dressing made somebody commit rape , then how can rape of babies & old women as old as eighty be explained ? Gangrapes during communal flare ups & caste violence ? Can they be explained by skimpy dressing ? No, & definitely rape of minors cannot be explained by dressing sense. Specially, rape of minor boys can never be explained , for those, who allege that females need to stay within limits & not behave like boys .Patriarchy is so entrenched, that the offenders roam freely after raping many, while the victims & survivors face the wrath of the society & the members of the society including anger from family & friends because the victim/s asked for it ( to be sexually assaulted ).
In a judgement delivered by Bombay High Court, the judges stated that rape is worse than murder because , it affects victims physically as also psychologically.And these affect the victim till the victim is alive. Hence, many of the victims tend to end their lives.
What needs to be done to prevent or lessen the number of rapes of minors ? Many steps need to be taken. Firstly, make sex education a part of school curriculum as has been done recently .Sex education will enlighten minors about the good touch,, the bad touch & the ugly ones. These will warn the minors about potential offenders.
Another step is sensitizing public about safety of children. .Its our duty as adults to create a safe environment for our children so that they grow up into fearless healthy adults.Minors who are raped suffer trauma on a life long basis & they have lots of psychological issues as well.
Police needs to be sensitized to take faster action & thorough investigation in all cases relating to sexual assaults of minors .This will assist in increasing the conviction rate under the POCSO Act.
And last, but not the least, faster trials & speedy dispensation of justice will act as deterrent .Certainty of punishment is deterrent & not the death penalty. Death penalty is most inappropriate as death penalty has almost the same effect of deterrence as life imprisonment. as per 262nd Indian Law Commission Report. Death penalty is a long & winding process .Death penalty is expensive. And sometimes , errors in judgement lead to innocent people who are punished by death penalty.And the death penalty has been shown to be awarded to people who are from the minorities & scheduled castes & tribes .
Kailash Satyarthi, the Nobel Peace Prize Winner in a recent article on the occasion of World Day Against Child Labour , 12th June, 2019 talks about steps each of us ,must take, to reach the goal of a child friendly society .Because each time, we remain silent as we witness any injustice in whatsoever form regarding a child, we let down that child & ultimately our future.
Because , as stated by Nelson Mandela, "There can be no keener revelation of a society's soul than the way in which it treats its children . "
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