Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Punishment
Even more frightening for the officials who sat huddled, wondering what to do, in the prime
minister's office and ministry of home affairs on Raisina Hill that week in December 2012
was the realization that the anti-rape protests were entirely spontaneous and (despite the
gradual involvement of some women's organizations) had no leader like Hazare, Kejriwal
and their hangers-on to mobilize meetings and media hype. There was no one they could
either pillory or engage in negotiations, as they had done with Hazare. Hosing and chas-
ing the crowds away was therefore a quick and easy solution, followed by gesture politics
that included a flood of sympathetic statements and public appearances from hitherto in-
visible, silent and often contemptuous politicians and police, plus a security clampdown in
the centre of the capital that closed many roads.
The government set up what turned out to be one of the fastest ever committees of in-
quiry under a distinguished judge, J.S.Verma, a former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court,
to recommend amendments to the criminal law that would lead to quicker trials and stiffer
punishments for sexual assault against women. The Committee submitted its report on 23
dinance which introduced the death penalty for rape that led to death or left a victim in
a coma. This was much tougher than the previous seven to ten years' imprisonment. The
minimum sentence was doubled from ten to 20 years, with a maximum of life without pa-
role, for rape of a minor as well as rape by policemen or others in authority, and gang rape.
Public demands for the death penalty were met when the ordinance was replaced by new
laws in April 2013 providing for execution of repeat offenders - with imprisonment for
tenced to death.
Stiffer penalties for police were also included in the new laws, which was significant be-
cause the police rarely helped victims, and were sometimes themselves involved in rapes.
At the end of 2012, there were, for example, reports of a policeman and his nephew rap-
ing a young woman who wanted to be recruited into the force, and of a 17-year-old girl in
Punjab committing suicide because she was being harassed after it had taken her 14 days
to persuade police to accept her gang-rape accusation. A friend of mine wrote on Face-
to the police with her semiliterate, frightened dhobi (laundryman) father, who lived nearby.
The father kept repeating 'Meri beti ke saath kuch ladkon nein bura kiya' (some boys have
done something bad to my daughter). The police atfirst were sympathetic, but after a day
or two said: 'When both her parents are at work, she crosses two roads and the train tracks
to move around with boys of another locality. She is a very bad character, and if any boy
does anything to her, she totally deserves it'. The girl was only eight.
