INDIA WOMEN AND CRIME
India is a multi-cultural and multi-racial, country. Each state has a unique identity with a varied set of customs, traditions, values and superstitions. People follow different religions and the level of development in different states and cities, is also not the same. So, it is very hard to generalize the situation of women in India. However, they can be classified into two broad categories: The Women in Urban India and The Women in Rural India.
In most Indian states, especially in the rural areas, when a girl child is born, there is mourning on a large scale. Female feticide and infanticide are major social problems in India. Even when the girl child is allowed to live, she is made to tolerate every form of torture – mental, physical and emotional. She is not allowed to educate herself and enrich her mind. Instead she is trained to manage the house and encouraged to take up menial jobs. She is married off even before she begins to understand her womanhood and is forced to multiply. She has no individuality, no identity and no life of her own. She is ever too busy serving others. Finally she meets her end and no one even notices her absence. This is the story of women in rural India.
The plight of the urbanized Indian woman is of a different kind. She is expected to have academic and professional qualifications. She is trained to be reasonable and rational, yet her life is an anti-thesis of rationality. Despite the fact that she is trained to be independent, she is forced to conform to the gender codes for purposes of social acceptance. She is expected to be the jack-of-all-trades, with recognized qualifications, a good job and excellent communication skills. Apart from this, an urbanized Indian woman should also have a good family background, a nymph like frame, clear complexion, wrinkle and pimple free face and silky-dandruff free hair. She becomes a victim of fashion. Besides, she knows that she has to be perfect by the age of twenty-four, because, without the aforementioned qualities, she cannot expect to get an Indian man. The poor thing knows that she is going to be an obsolete product in the Indian marriage market by the age of thirty, which is ordinarily, her expiry date.
Woman is treated like an inanimate object in our society. She is displayed in the marriage market and is purchased by the groom’s family. Ironically, she is the one who pays the price, in the form of dowry. Despite her education she is forced to accept the unreasonable demands of her prospect bridegroom’s family. She has to love her mother-law, more than her man. And mum-in-law always forgets that she herself is a woman and inevitably assumes the role of a slave-driver. She rants and curses all the time. If she fails to balance her personal and professional life, she is expected to forget her professional life, altogether. Her desire to succeed and attain self-fulfillment is of no consequence to anyone. So, she has to manage her house, be a good mother, wife and daughter-in-law, look beautiful and also earn a living.
There are a large number of women in our society who are single. A spinster is tortured all her life for not finding the right man. It is believed that a widowed woman brings bad luck to the people she associates with and the social stigma attached to the term ‘divorcee’ is far from gone. Single women are seen as threats to the society by the so-called happily married women.
The crime against women is also on the high. Over 32000 murders, 19,000 rapes, 7500 dowry deaths and 36500 molestation cases are the violent crimes reported in India in 2006 against women. There are many instances of crime against women which go unreported in India. These are figures released by the National Crime Records Bureau recently. While Madhya Pradesh is worst off among the states, the national capital New Delhi continues to hold on to its reputation of being the most unsafe city in India. Delhi takes the top slot for crimes ranging from murders and rapes to dowry deaths and abductions.
Police records show high incidence of crimes against women in India. The National Crime Records Bureau reported in 1998 that the growth rate of crimes against women would be higher than the population growth rate by 2010.Earlier, many cases were not registered with the police due to the social stigma attached to rape and molestation cases. Official statistics show that there has been a dramatic increase in the number of reported crimes against women.
1. Sexual harassment:
Half of the total number of crimes against women reported in 1990 related to molestation and harassment at the workplace. Eve teasing is a euphemism used for sexual harassment or molestation of women by men. Many activists blame the rising incidents of sexual harassment against women on the influence of "Western culture".
In 1987, The Indecent Representation of Women (Prohibition) Act was passed to prohibit indecent representation of women through advertisements or in publications, writings, paintings, figures or in any other manner.
In 1987, The Indecent Representation of Women (Prohibition) Act was passed to prohibit indecent representation of women through advertisements or in publications, writings, paintings, figures or in any other manner.
In 1997, in a landmark judgement, the Supreme Court of India took a strong stand against sexual harassment of women in the workplace. The Court also laid down detailed guidelines for prevention and redressal of grievances. The National Commission for Women subsequently elaborated these guidelines into a Code of Conduct for employers.
2. Dowry:
In 1961, the Government of India passed the Dowry Prohibition Act, making the dowry demands in wedding arrangements illegal. However, many cases of dowry-related domestic violence, suicides and murders have been reported. In the 1980s, numerous such cases were reported.
In 1985, the Dowry Prohibition (maintenance of lists of presents to the bride and bridegroom) rules were framed. According to these rules, a signed list of presents given at the time of the marriage to the bride and the bridegroom should be maintained. The list should contain a brief description of each present, its approximate value, the name of whoever has given the present and his/her relationship to the person. However, such rules are hardly enforced.
A 1997 report claimed that at least 5,000 women die each year because of dowry deaths, and at least a dozen die each day in 'kitchen fires' thought to be intentional. The term for this is "bride burning" and is criticized within India itself. Amongst the urban educated, such dowry abuse has reduced considerably.
3. Child marriage:
Child marriage has been traditionally prevalent in India and continues to this day. Historically, young girls would live with their parents until they reached puberty. In the past, the child widows were condemned to a life of great agony, shaving heads, living in isolation, and shunned by the society. Although child marriage was outlawed in 1860, it is still a common practice.
According to UNICEF’s “State of the World’s Children-2009” report, 47% of India's women aged 20–24 were married before the legal age of 18, with 56% in rural areas. The report also showed that 40% of the world's child marriages occur in India.
4. Female infanticides and sex selective abortions:
India has a highly masculine sex ratio, the chief reason being that many women die before reaching adulthood. Tribal societies in India have a less masculine sex ratio than all other caste groups. This, in spite of the fact that tribal communities have far lower levels of income, literacy and health facilities. It is therefore suggested by many experts, that the highly masculine sex ratio in India can be attributed to female infanticides and sex-selective abortions.
All medical tests that can be used to determine the sex of the child have been banned in India, due to incidents of these tests being used to get rid of unwanted female children before birth. Female infanticide (killing of girl infants) is still prevalent in some rural areas. The abuse of the dowry tradition has been one of the main reasons for sex-selective abortions and female infanticides in India.
5. Domestic violence:
The incidents of domestic violence are higher among the lower Socio-Economic Classes (SECs).[citation needed] The Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005 came into force on 26 October 2006.
6. Trafficking:
The Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act was passed in 1956. However many cases of trafficking of young girls and women have been reported. These women are either forced into prostitution, domestic work or child labour.
As many as 18 women are assaulted in some form or the other, every hour, across India. Even foreigners aren’t spared. We have a reputation, alright! Cases of rape have become so commonplace that people don’t even bother to express their shock or despair, when they hear about a rape. Filing a police complaint in this case, is a nightmare and the investigations which follow are humiliating. Policemen are expected to protect women. However, if you are an Indian woman, you should know that they are more dangerous than most criminals. They’ll give you the nastiest of glares.Ladies who go to police stations at night often complain of misbehaviour and the charges of rape and molestation against police officers are a proof of this. Alas! Our society forgets the rapist but it never forgives the victim. It seems women have accepted the reality. They don’t complain any more, they choose to be careful, instead.
Meetings and seminars are organized from time to time to analyze the cases of crime against women. Most come to the conclusion that laws should be enforced. These days people are talking about making molestation a non-bailable offence. However, like the other laws, this would also be forgotten. Punishments set an example. People who are guilty of crime against women, should be humiliated and insulted in every possible way, in public. Their life should be made a living hell and every aspect of their trial should be covered by the media. So that, people think twice before molesting women.
