Rape : Reality, Reasons, Responsibilities

We are very convenience loving people. We tend to discuss things which are easy to talk about but leave out topics which present tough glaring questions. And, conveniently so.

It’s not worth mentioning why this topic is hot now, but it’s worth pondering the kind of response and discussions it has led into.   

First, let’s look into some realities.

Realities

1.       The offenders of the rape are known to the victim in 92.5% cases of rape.  (National Crime Reports Bureau 2007 Report ). This again can be roughly divided as –

a.       In around 7% of all cases, its incest rape, meaning the rapist is the immediate family member. (mostly, fathers)

b.      In around 35% of all cases, it’s the neighbours.

c.       In around 50% of all cases, it’s the friends, co-workers, relatives and other people who remain in contact.

2.       52.94% of boys and 47.06% of girls in India have faced ‘child sexual abuse’. (Study on child abuse by govt of India, supported by UNICEF, 2007). This problem cannot be viewed in isolation from the problem of rape. They are inter-related.

a.       21% of total children have faced ‘severe form of child sexual abuse’. It includes rape, sodomy, touching private body parts, photographing nude.

b.      The prevalence of sexual abuse in upper and middle class was found to be proportionately higher than in lower or in lower middle class.( A study on Child Sexual Abuse carried out by Save the Children and Tulir in 2006)

c.       50% abuses are persons known to the child and are in a position of trust and responsibility.

3.       Some data regarding gender divide and prejudices.

a.       48.4% of girls wished they were boys. (Study on child abuse by govt of India, supported by UNICEF, 2007)

b.      More than 12 million girls have been aborted in India in the past three decades because parents prefer sons and do not want to pay a dowry, according to a study by medical journal the Lancet.

c.       As many as 57 per cent of male adolescents and 53 per cent of female adolescents believe a husband is justified in beating up his wife under certain circumstances, according to a UNICEF 2012 report.

d.      In 2007 a woman had filed a case of rape against her husband, who forced sex on her against her wishes.  Recently,  District Judge JR Aryan discharged the case, saying that forcing sex on one’s wife does not amount to rape. He said, “[the Indian Penal Code] IPC does not recognise any such concept of martial rape.  If complainant was a legally-wedded wife of accused, the sexual intercourse with her by accused would not constitute offence of rape even if it was by force or against her wishes.”

e.      In the Tehelka story, nearly 17 of the 30 policemen interviewed by the magazine believed that “real” rape cases are rare: “There are cases but 70 percent involve consensual sex. Only if someone sees, or the money is denied, it gets turned into rape”

4.       How many of you know the story of Soni Sori, from Chattisgarh. (Search in wikipidea). She wrote to her lawyer that she had been forced to stand naked while "(Superintendent of Police) Ankit Garg was watching me, sitting on his chair... While looking at my body, he abused me in filthy language and humiliated me.” She alleged that he then sent three men into the room to sexually assault her. Sori was subsequently hospitalized at Kolkata Medical College Hospital , where doctors removed stones that had been inserted into her vagina and rectum.

5.       When Shiney Ahuja, the bollywood actor raped his maid from Jharkhand, no one asked to hang him. The poor maid was blamed and the actor is now free and people continue to watch his cinema.

These realities are not just randomly picked facts. They speak volumes about our society, about what is the real problem and about how we need to proceed to remove this evil.

The following inferences can be drawn from the above mentioned facts.

1.       Rapes and sexual abuses and not the result of sudden rush of testosterone, but in almost all cases are pre-determined and pre-planned acts of sexual violence. People known to victim plan it before hand and just wait for the right opportunity. Even in 8% of the cases when the offender is complete stranger, it’s somehow planned. Take the recent Delhi bus case, the offenders decided to ‘teach the victim a lesson’ by raping her.

2.       Sexual violence does not arise out of provocative clothing or gestures, but out of filthy mindset. Except a very few cases, the victims are raped while they are going about with their usual day to day activities in known and comfortable surroundings with no reason to ‘provoke’ anyone. And what about 50% children of India who even do not know what is being a ‘slut’.

3.       Giving more protection to women and children do not help in reducing rapes and abuses. When more than 9 out of 10 cases are reported when victim is with the people who are supposed to protect them, such conclusion is evident.

4.       It is not possible for government alone to curb such crimes. We the people are more responsible for such crimes. The government cannot be present everywhere. It cannot watch you sleeping in your home, it cannot be present when you are travelling with a friend, and it cannot be a part of your conversation with your co-worker. But it’s we who are present everywhere always choosing to ignore rather than to help.

5.       Even basic understanding and apathy lacks in government setup. When police thinks that rape cases are the creation of victims to ‘extract money’ and when a person of the rank of SP interrogates the prisoner nude and his “men” fill the prisoner’s vagina and rectum with stones, not much can be expected. Even our great judiciary thinks that marriage gives the right to the husband to force himself upon his “wife” irrespective of her consent.

6.       Our society recognises women as secondary citizens and does not recognise children at all. When girls are killed in womb to avoid dowry, when half of India’s girls wish they were boys and when 50% of our children face sexual abuse, no other conclusion can be drawn.

7.       Response to sexual violence cases has class prejudice. People are not outraged by Shiney Ahuja raping his maid; people are not outraged by cases of rape by Maoists and police in tribal areas. People are outraged only when a middle or upper class girl is raped in big cities.

8.        Response to girl child sexual abuse is negligible while boy child sexual abuse is not even considered worth mentioning. Every second child in India faces sexual abuse which means half the kids you have met till date are victims and half of the people who are reading this have been responsible for some kind of child sexual abuse. But, who cares? If you will strain your brain a lot , you can remember case of baby Falak but I bet you do not remember any case of boy child sexual abuse.

Reasons

Why is our society like this? Why rapes happen? Why are we like this?

1.       Natural selection – Being a student of Anthropology, I cannot but ignore this point. In pre-historical eras and even till medieval ages of history, those men were able to procreate more who were able to force themselves upon women. Kingdoms were always looted and raped. Those who showed more “manly” characteristics rose in societal hierarchy. And those with higher status had more kids. So, basically our present day society has ‘rapist genes’ in plenty. We men are outcome of those men who could rape better.

2.       Objectification of women – Women are not considered ‘human’. They have always been considered objects of satisfying sexual desires of men. Forget about the kind of sculptures we find of women from ancient times, let’s look at our modern progressive time. Some 6 or 7 months ago, I saw a list of 10 most successful women of recent times given in indiatimes. A women loco driver running trains and entering into a traditional male bastion was ranked 10^th. The woman who topped the list was Sherlyn Chopra for posing nude in playboy. Be it movies, advertisement, stories, pornography etc., women are judged, appreciated, viewed and considered for their bodies only.

3.       No sex education – Sex is considered taboo in our society. See the irony in it! We do not talk sex but rape women, abuse children, after Pakistan we have the highest hits for ‘sex’ in google, Poonam Pandey was the most searched ‘item’ and so on. Children need to know what is right and wrong for them. Our children learn about sex from porn films, porn magazines and from ‘japani tel’ advertisements in newspapers.

4.       We are OK with it – I remember once in school, our teacher was asking what we read in newspapers to inculcate a good habit. I had answered, “ma’am, I love reading about murder, crime etc. They have good stories.” I was not a good kid. But, people seem to have remained like a bad kid who reads rape stories just for fun. In many villages in India when a rapist is caught and where the victim is an unmarried girl, he is asked to marry her. Wow! What a solution. Now, he can rape her at will.

5.       Trained incapacity of women – We consider women as vulnerable. They have been trained for centuries to not to react.  To protect own ‘maryada’, ‘ghar ki maryada’ and all sort of different maryadas, they have been habituated to not to raise voice. Our women consider themselves as vulnerable.

Responsibilities

Now, who has to take responsibility? What can be done?

1.       Government measures – A lot has been written about what government has to do. Let me skip it.

2.       Empowered women – It has been observed earlier that protection does not guarantee less sexual violence. So, idea should be to empower. Women should have equal access to education and work opportunity. They should come out of homes more and more. They should be able to stand up and fight. For India to get freedom, Chinese didn’t fight for us. We fought for ourselves. Many rape cases can be avoided if women are empowered to come out of ‘closet’.

3.       Sex education – Sex education is the only way to stop child abuse. They must know what’s wrong and right for them.

4.       We must get angry – Such incidents must enrage us. We should react in whatever good way we know. It shows humanity is alive.

5.       Men should be ashamed and must take responsibility – If every man in India decides to treat his children as equal, to treat his wife as a person equal to him and takes oath not to abuse his own family members and as a matter of fact no one then all problems will vanish.

6.       No drinking – Drinking doesn’t always directly lead to abuses. But most of the domestic violence cases are registered when the male member is drunk. This slowly becomes habit. Under pretext of being drunk, men are allowed to cross many lines. This enters the psyche that beating and abuses are common and this gets reflected on a larger scale as sexual violence.  

These measures are mainly about what we should do for ourselves rather than what others must do for us.

More analysis, suggestions and criticism are welcome. A little appreciation will also do not much harm  J