Saturday, December 27, 2008

Easing the agony of rape victims - little steps to make a difference.

Last week a bill was passed in the Rajya Sabha that gives us a reason to cheer!
The Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) Act - the one used to nail rape offenders (amongst others) - has been amended to provide some relief to rape victims.
  • Rape cases willl have to complete trial in two months
  • Video and audio conferencing can be used in the trial
  • Recording victims' statements at the place of their choice
  • Having female judges record statements

These little changes will make a big difference IF they're implemented.
With India emerging as the third worst rape offender in the world, (http://newshopper.sulekha.com/newsitem/2008/12/its-official-india-3rd-worst-offender-in-rape-cases.htm) and statistics painting a terrible picture of gender violence in India (http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Two_women_raped_in_India_every_hour/rssarticleshow/3778956.cms)
we need stringent laws that nail offenders, systems that make it easier for the victim to co-operate and movements that change mindsets.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Hey!aarthi this is nitin, i read ur article at fight-back about rappist.My question is what we can do about it, daily we hear all this .we cannot blame our system all d time becoz our system is corrupt and it is not going 2 do anything .According 2 me we have to ephesis more on moral education rather than on regular education becoz now we cannot say dat culprit is illeterate.Now a days mostly crimes are done by educated people and they r doing this only 4 fun.Accoding 2 me solution is dis we all have 2 protest against it with some powerful personalities otherwise nobody is going to hear us.take care

Gurpreet Kaur Sodhi said...

Hi.Well the thing i want to know is that do all of us know about such laws the one u have stated in ur blog? No! i dont think so. As Nitin said we will have to do something. N i think that something can include making people(women)aware of these laws. many of such laws must be existing already in India's law book but they haven't been used till date. D reason?? Coz we all r illiterate regarding the laws n procedures. So i think camps or lectures should be organized at regular intervals starting rightly from the school level about the weapons (the laws)that can be used in case some misfortune happens with someone. Also there should be lectures or events for boys(or men)also regarding the level of punishments they can actually suffer if unfortunately (for them)the women knows the extent of punishment n all such related things she can throw on them in case they(the men) do any misdeed with the women.
Thanx.