With new and ongoing cases of rape, India has been identified with a rape problem. Recently, two tourists who were camping in between Datia and Orchaa were assaulted by eight men. The man was beaten with sticks and tied to a tree while he watch the eight men rape his wife, then they were robbed of their belongings. There is a court case going on currently trying to convict men of this crime. No one has been charged, they had 13 men in custody, released 6, and are still questioning the rest. In the article, India was described as “fairly lawless and poor”, which makes me assume that the people who committed this crime will most likely get away with it. There was another account of gang rape back in December that was similar to this one. Also in December, another woman who was raped was refused an investigation by the police. The police wouldn't investigate the rape she was involved with and didn’t look for or arrest her rapists. As a result of this, she committed suicide. Police try to keep their crime rates low through not reporting all incidents. It is said that only one out of ten cases of rape are reported and processed and they only have a 25% conviction rate. With all of the acts of violence against women happening across India, there is more attention getting drawn to India’s government to do something about it. Considering that this society is extremely patriarchal, they suffer from violence and it is very easily undermined and disregarded. Even though marital rape, sex selective abortion, bridal dowries, and many other forms of violence towards women are illegal in India, they all still happen and go unpunished. The home affairs minister is attempting to make it illegal to not register and process women who have been victims of rape and violence. The Human Rights Watch is another group who are pushing for more harsher laws and punishments for these types of crimes, but they have not yet been enforced.
When rape and other violent acts towards any particular person happens on a regular basis and it is clear that it is a huge problem, you would think that the government would try to enforce new laws as soon as possible. I agree with how the article ended with saying that ending the patriarchy and rape problems is India’s next big challenge. Ending patriarchy in India would be one of the first steps in helping their society realize the respect that women deserve. Ending patriarchy in itself, would hopefully help reduce the amount of rape and violence towards women. There seems to have been many articles written and reported about victimized women in India who have suffered from rape in the past 6 months that it should be a wake up call in India’s government. Hopefully, over the next few months more laws and harsher punishments will start to be enforced and women will be treated more fairly and more equally.
http://www.policymic.com/articles/30133/sexual-assault-of-swiss-tourist-proves-india-has-a-rape-problem
Lauren Doss
3/18/2013
11:35 am
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