Women in Dual-Face India

Writing has always fascinated me for I believe that words have a lot of power to educate or degrade the socieity. Being an optimistic, I believe Koi bhi desh perfect nahi hota, usey perfect banana padta hain (no country is perfect, we have to make it perfect). I decided to start off my blog with the most happening case that is all over the newspapers and even on the television and social networking sites, the Delhi gang rape case that happened on 16th December. While most articles have focused on how the incident happened and what really happened, I am highlighting some other aspects of women issues (especially rape) that often go unnoticed.

Almost all would agree with me when I say Delhi and NCR is the rape capital of India, but I still disagree with it. Rape happens all over India, but it still remains one of the most under-reported violent crimes in the country against women.



There are many western countries that also stand high in the ranks when it comes to number of rapes cases registered. In the year 2010, South Africa registered 2,77,012 rape cases followed by United States at 84,767 rape cases with India taking the third position with 22,172 cases registered. This indicates that South Africa has 10 times higher percentage of rapes compare to India. So, we can see that rape is not something is connected to the qualifications or education level of individuals.

Although, rape is usually associated with sexual hunger it is a violent crime that generates from anger, lack of respect for women, and desire for power. While most Indians believe that rapes happen because the female victim was in strange places with strange clothes and strange people there are reports that debunk this theory. As per the report provided by Rape Abuse and Incest National Network 73% of the rape victims around the world know their attackers of which 38% are friends or acquaintances of the victim. It also debunks the theory that the dress code of victim entices rapists to rape. In majority of the cases and confessions from the rapists it was found that rapists usually look out for targets that are weak and vulnerable.

Gender Discrimination and Unequal Status of Women - While most foreigners believe that India has a rich and vibrant culture and tradition, I do not accept it completely for the very fact that India is a land where gender discrimination has remained a part of culture for centuries. The secondary status of women in India is something that has been followed from ancient times and it still persist. female infanticide, rapes, eve teasing, dowry, inequality in employment and various other problems are still very much embedded in the social fabric of Indians. While RSS (a Hindu nationalist group) claims that gender discrimination, rapes and unequal status of women only happen in India (urban India) and not in Bharat (rural India), there are facts that prove that rural India has far more crimes against women that often go unreported. There have been instances when Dalit women have been abused socially and physically to regain social dominance by upper caste people, but it rarely catches the attention of urban people that are too busy with hectic schedules.

Poor Judicial System - The National Crime Records Bureau report indicates that rapes happen all over India and not just particularly the New Delhi and NCR region. In fact, in 2011, 15,423 rapes cases were registered across India of which only 4,072 convictions were completed. This means that out of the 100% cases that were registered only 26.4% of the rape cases got justice while 74% of the cases got accumulated with the pending cases of the previous years. Some of the smaller states like Manipur have convicted 100% of the rape cases compared to top states like Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal. some of the reports claim that most women in India never go ahead with legal procedures because of the very low conviction rate and because of the social stigma associated with rape. Unfortunately, some of the top female leaders in the country have failed to provide better environment for women as they too jockey for power and position that they enjoy.

Lack of Effective Law - India might be the only country in the world where there are thousands of laws incorporated in the constitution but those hardly get implemented in the real life situations. We have laws for everything that you can think of in this dirty world, but how often do we see perpetrators behind the bars rotting for their heinous crimes? It took almost almost a decade for some of the top cases like Jessica Lal murder case to offer some justice to the victim's family. While capital punishment is left only for the rarest of the rare cases most of the convicted rapists have never received capital punishment. Since 1995 only three capital punishment executions have happened, Auto Shankar in 1995, Dhananjoy Chatterjee in 2004 and Ajmal Kasab in 2012. Out of the three only Dhananjoy Chatterjee was executed rape and murder case. It will be surprising to know that former President Pratibha Patil this year have commuted 35 convicts to life imprisonment. All of the 35 convicts were awarded death penalty by the Supreme Court for most blood curdling crimes like rape, mass murder, kidnapping and murder, and rape and killings of children but the President decided to show some mercy on these convicts and commuted their term to life imprisonment. While most human right associations speak up for showing mercy to murderers and rapists, they never really come out when various women related issues spark up in the society.

Image of Women in Society and Media - Globalization has changed certain factors in India and with media playing an important role in our life we tend to change our thinking for women in the society. While some media personnels have tried to focus the image of Indian women in clear light, the media has not managed to get over  with the typical stereotypes that are closely associated with women of India. To be honest, the image of women in India is very confusing. On one hand, the woman is India is confined to certain duties, boundaries and responsibilities that she has towards her family and husband while on the other hand she is also a glamour girl that is ready to take over some of the hottest models from the West. Basically the image of women in India oscillates from being the Mother India to Glamour Girl. Something similar happens in movies as well, most women are projected as the Abla Naari while the actor intervenes with a stylish entry to save the girl. The recent trend of item songs have contributed well to the degradation of women's image in the society by projecting her as the object of desire.

While India has always projected women equal to Goddesses like Saraswati and Durga its time that people should start realizing that the image of women in the society and in the real world must change. The unequal status of women in the society might not affect us directly now but these issues cannot be swept under the carpet as someday it will fire back at us. A stronger law and efficient legal system is the right way if we have to bring such perpetrators to justice and offer quick solutions to female victims that have suffered years of trauma, suffering and injustice in a dual-face India.