Marital Rape Epidemic in India

Off late there has been a lot of discussion on Marital Rape. Rape is defined as, ‘Any Sexual intercourse without ones consent’. Rape is a deplorable act, within marriage or outside of it. Before we delve deeper into the discussion on rape, lets understand some statistics on it:

As we can see in the chart above whopping over 60% of all report rape cases are frivolous and donot stand the test of trial. Even organizations working for the cause of women have realized the gravity and extent of false accusations of rape. They have stated that over 53% cases filed were found to be false and ‘revenge was the motive of filing false cases’.

Presently in India, one false rape accusation from a woman makes the man a criminal, one accusation destroys his career and one accusation drains out his savings on legal recourse for defending himself. The woman gets a public prosecutor (ie. an attorney appointed by the state to fight the case on her behalf). There is no accountability whatsoever for filing a frivolous complaint by the woman primarily because of –

• Her identity being protected, therefore filing a frivolous complaint has no public backlash. Whereas the accused’s life is destroyed due to her frivolous complaint. No wonder the Indian Courts have stated that the victim of false case should be called a ‘rape case’ survivor
• As a public prosecutor is provided to the woman, there is no financial drain on her resources
• There are hardly any consequences for filing a false rape case.

Let us now understand the problems in the current rape laws:

1. As shown in the data above it has become increasingly easy to level a false complaint for rape.
2. There are no consequences for filing false complaints.
3. The falsely accused person stands to lose everything due to the false case
4. Men who are raped by women cannot file any complaint of rape. Their bodily integrity is not recognised by law

The need of the hour currently is to immediately amend the rape laws to:

1. Make them ‘Gender Neutral’, like in many other western countries where men can also file rape cases. As per a UK study substantial number of men were victims of rape.
2. Protecting the identity of the rape accused until the conviction, to protect him from media trials as there is a high probability that the case against him would be false as shown in the data above
3. Making the identity of the women public post trial, if the case if found to be frivolous, so as to prevent false cases being filed for ulterior motives
4. Compulsorily trying the woman for ‘malicious prosecution’ and ‘perjury’ for filing false complaint, and ruining the life of the ‘Rape Case Survivor’
5. Rehabilitation and compensation of ‘Rape Case Survivors’

Now as the foundation is clear, we can proceed to discussion on Marital Rape. The reasons put forward to pass a marital rape law are as under:

1. There are no Marital Rape Laws in India: This statement is false, as per The Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005 (DV Act), section 3, defines ‘Sexual Abuse’ to include any conduct of a sexual nature that abuses, humiliates, degrades or otherwise violates the dignity of woman. Therefore any woman subjected to sexual abuse such as marital rape can get orders under the DV Act.
2. Over 60% of Indian Women are subjected to Marital Rape: This is a generally quoted statistic that over 60% of Indian Women are subjected to marital rape. The base of this statistic is on a UNFPA report (Violence Against Women in India, 2004) which bases its comments on a report titled, Population Reports – Ending Violence Against Women, 1999 and this report bases its comments from a report Sexual violence within marriage: a case study of rural Uttar Pradesh, 1997. This study interviewed 115 women from a rural village in Uttar Pradesh. About 76 of these women knew nothing about sexuality during marriage. In most cases the first sexual encounter was characterized by male sexual coercion and female submission. This is being classified as Marital Rape epidemic in India.

Let’s understand the concerns in this report:

• The sample size is 115 rural women from Uttar Pradesh in 1997. This is not representative of the population of India and also is inappropriate be used after 20 years.
• The above women had no clue about sex at the time of marriage, therefore their husbands would have persuaded them to consummate the marriage which could have been classified as marital rape. The most logical transaction between the newly wed couple would have been:

“You’ll really enjoy it Mary.”

“Be careful, Patrick. Don’t.” No, you mustn’t.” “Oh. Oh. Not so hard.” “Do it gently. Oh yes, that’s better. Yes, that’s nice. Do it that way.”

3. Gender Neutral Rape and Marital Rape Laws: The proponents of marital rape law shy away on the request to make the law gender neutral. They know that majority of domestic violence across the world is initiated by women.  Making a gender neutral law would bring out all the atrocities faced by men at the hands of women in a domestic setting. Why are the proponents shying away from making a gender neutral law?
4. Strict provisions for False Accusations: Again the proponents are shying away from adding strict provisions for false accusation and consequences for filing a frivolous case. We have seen how grossly misused are the other women specific laws including the rape laws. Why do the proponents shy away from protecting the identity of the rape accused until the conviction to protect him from media trials?
5. Women do not lie about rape: This statement is completely false. As can be seen above majority of the rape cases are found to be frivolous / false. As per women’s organizations over 53% cases filed were found to be false and ‘revenge was the motive of filing false cases’. There have been cases where a 75 year old sick frail old man, who could not even stand straight was booked for raping a young lady in mid-thirties. The slapping the false rape was to merely extract money from the man. Another example of false case can be found here.
6. Jurisprudence Provisions: No discussion ever takes place on the detailed jurisprudence on marital rape laws, safeguards to be employed to protect the falsely accused and evidence requirements. A law without safeguard mechanisms is a bound to be bane on the society.

As we can see above the whole debate on marital rape is hollow as adequate protection is available for women from marital rape. It is the men who need protection from false cases, domestic violence and marital rape which is being conveniently brushed under the carpet.

 Let us all Stand Up for a Cause…

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Chart data Source: NCRB – Frivolous Cases includes: a) Cases compounded or withdrawn, b) cases declared false on account of mistake of fact or of law, c) cases not investigated or in which investigation was refused, d) cases withdrawn by the govt., and e) cases withdrawn by the govt. during investigation.

Tedx: Need for Men’s Rights

Men’s Rights a concept which sounds alien in this modern era. We hear so much about rights for various groups, that we have ended up trampling on the most basic fundamental rights for men. Still on the backdrop of patriarchy we keep giving them the short end of the stick and ask them to ‘man up’.

Recently in an address in Tedx, the discussion was on Need for Men’s Rights.

The speaker very articulately explains the distinction between economic power and decision making power. He explains this concept with the story of Shantanu. Certain parameters can be used as a barometer to measure the health and quality of living of men in the society.

• Life Expectancy
• Unnatural Deaths
• Suicides
• Homelessness
• Education

There is something very wrong with the society with majority of child labour being boys, victims of violent crimes being men and violent crimes committed by women on the rise. The discussion then went to if we are really living in a patriarchal society and the rape laws of India.

The presentation used at the address is given below:

Need for Mens Rights_TEDxJuhu

Let’s all Stand Up for a Cause…

All Violence is Male Generated?

Today a comment was made by one of the ministers that all violence is male generated. It is sad to find such comments coming from ministers of India. Let’s try to analyse the statement backed by facts. Violence can be categorized as:

• Violence within the house (Domestic Violence)
• Violence outside the house (Crimes)

Domestic Violence: It is a common misnomer that domestic violence is conducted only by men. In the study by Morse, 1995, the researcher came to a conclusion that both men and women are equally likely to assault their partners. In a study conducted by Whitaker DJ, Haileyesus T, Swahn M, Saltzman LS. in 2007, found that in almost 24% of relationship there was some sort of violence with about 49.7% of violence activities to be reciprocal. In non-reciprocal violence women were the perpetrators in over 70% of the cases.

Women are more likely to use weapons during domestic violence as per an international study by Brown GA, 2004. As per the study 28.4% of the women were charged by assaulting with a knife, 11% with a blunt instrument and 7.7% with some other weapon.

A gist of some other international domestic violence surveys/studies is given below –

	Male-to-Female (%)	Female-to-Male(%)
Bland & Orn (1986)(a)	14.6%	22.6%
Brinkerhoff & Lupri (1988)(b)	24.6%	27.5%
DeKeseredy & Schwartz (1998)(ade)	35%	46.1%
Grandin & Lupri (1997)(b)	18.3%	25.3%
Straus & Gelles (1986)(b)
Men’s Reports	12.2%	10.5%
Women’s Reports	12.1%	11.9%
Magdol et al. (1997)(bd)
Men’s Reports	22.8%	34.1%
Women’s Reports	27.1%	37.2%
a: prevalence rates (violence experienced ever in the past)
b: one-year prevalence rates
c: violence experienced from a current partner
d: young adult sample
e: women’s reports only

(Source: Gender Differences in Patterns of Relationship Violence In Alberta, 1999- By Kwong M, Bartholomew K and Dutton D)

Majority of all domestic violence studies conducted in India are primarily targeting male to female domestic violence. Reciprocal violence and female to male violence does not seem to be researched. For example in the research article Violence against Women in India: Evidence from Rural Gujarat, 1999, 346 women were contacted for the survey. Please note that in the sample not a single male respondent is there. Further, the questions asked donot seem to probe the female to male domestic violence (women initiated domestic violence). In another study titled, Domestic violence against women in eastern India: a population-based study on prevalence and related issues, both men and women were part of the sample. In this study, both men and women were administered different questionnaires. For women the questionnaires focused on victimization where they were asked whether their husbands or family members committed violence against them. Men were administered questionnaires on perpetration where they were asked if they had committed violent acts against their wife. The copy of the questionnaire can be found here.

The important points to note in these surveys are –

• In many studies only women are the respondent and the questions administered are primarily of victimization
• In other studies where both men and women are respondents questions administered are victimization for women and perpetration for men.

In domestic violence studies conducted, men are never asked if they ever suffered domestic violence at the hands of their wives and women are never asked if they were ever perpetrators of domestic violence against their husbands. The construct of these studies were primarily based on a biased notion that women are victims of domestic violence and men the perpetrators. At the onset of the study, bias has been introduced by the researcher either by way of choosing the sample or by way of administering different sets of questions to different genders. Therefore, the results obtained by these studies cannot be said to be free from bias.

Anant Kumar, has written an interesting article on Domestic Violence against Men in India: A Perspective, which discusses in detail domestic violence against men in India.

Crimes: Let’s see if there has been any structural change in the society over the past 10 years. We have used the NCRB Crime data from 2001 – 2010 for arrests made for serious crimes such as murder, dacoity, burglary, arson, kidnapping, thefts etc… The data for increase in arrests by police over the 10 year period is given below, which is startling:

 

Crime	Increase in arrest from 2001-2010
	Women	Male
Murder	10.6%	-18.4%
Attempt to commit Murder	46.4%	-17.2%
Dacoity	110.3%	-29.9%
Burglary	40.6%	1.5%
Arson	7.1%	-22.9%
Explosives & Explosive Substances Act	4.2%	-19.6%
Auto Theft	53.0%	80.7%
Other Thefts	45.5%	4.4%
Total Theft	45.7%	18.9%
Robbery	135.2%	18.5%
Kidnapping & Abduction – Women & Girls	66.3%	94.1%
Kidnapping & Abduction	56.0%	46.9%
Other Indian Penal Code crimes	25.8%	16.1%
Gambling Act	39.7%	13.3%
Essential Commodities Act	226.8%	82.8%
Cheating	159.0%	79.0%
Criminal Breach of Trust	62.1%	29.7%

 

Violence does not have a “Gender”, the belief that men are the source of all violence is wrong at many levels. Let us all Stand Up for a Cause…

World Suicide Prevention Day (September 10)

Does anything else needs to be said….

Let’s Stand Up for a Cause…

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Source: NCRB

Do women want to be treated specially or equally? – Do men know the difference?

As per Article 15(3) of the constitution of India a special enabling provision was made towards the upliftment of women – “Nothing in this article shall prevent the State from making any special provision for women and children”, thereby allowing positive for discrimination for women. The reason for insertion of clause 3 to article 15 was that, for centuries, women in India had been socially and economically handicapped. Thereby they were unable to participate in the socio-economic activities of the nation on a footing of equality with their menfolk. This article was to empower them by way of positive discrimination so as to bring about an equality between men and women, gradually reducing the gap between the two sexes.

Let us evaluate if this is true in modern India. The data points that can act as a barometer for concluding whether women are underprivileged could be:

• Life Expectancy of women: Showing how well they are cared for and have access to medical facilities
• Unnatural deaths of women
• Women’s access to higher education
• Women Child Labour
• Homelessness of Women
• Violent Crime against women
• Women casualties in war
• Political representation of women

Let us critically evaluate every parameter above with data comparing how well men and women of India have fared on the same:

Life Expectancy of Women: It is widely believed that women donot have access to medical facilities. If that is the case their life expectancy ought to have been lower as compared to the privileged men of India.

 

Particulars	Male	Female
Life Expectancy	62	65

As we can see above life expectancy of women is higher than men in India.

Unnatural deaths: Even in the case of unnatural deaths women have fared better than men. As per the WHO data, the number of non-natural deaths in the South East Asian Countries (India is a part of this group) is given below:

Year: 2008

(In ‘000)

Reasons for Death	Male	Female
All Causes	79,13,478.64	65,84,985.96
Communicable Diseases	25,25,517.23	2,507,378.56
Cancers	5,68,926.57	5,66,482.90
Cardiovascular diseases	20,10,290.25	16,05,605.64
Injuries	9,91,230.123	5,60,454.64
Intentional Injuries	2,93,042.05	1,27,055.14

 

Women’s access to higher education: India is currently having more number of graduates and post graduate women. The census data below speaks for itself:

Age	All India Female – Male Sex Ratio	Graduate and above Female – Male Sex Ratio
		All India	Rural	Urban
Total	943	955	962	939
20-24		935	936	933
25-29		975	980	967
30-34		984	1001	951
35-59		951	966	924
60+		1033	1036	1027

As can be seen above the all India all age group graduate female to male sex ratio is way higher than the population sex ratio implying that more women as a percentage are sent to colleges than men. The difference is even wider in rural India where even more women as a percentage than men attend colleges as compared to urban India.

Child Labour: The working children are primarily boys who carry the burden of the patriarchal social construct in their roles as protectors/ providers of the family and at that young age have to shoulder the responsibilities of the family. Still India has special schemes for education and development of a girl child and not for a boy child

Homelessness of Women: In the recent census data for 2011 about 1.05 mn men were found to be homeless with over 600 thousand in cities. Around 1.8x times more men were found to be homeless in the urban areas as compared to women. The situation was not very different in the rural areas where more men are homeless as compared to women. The all-India average is at 1.4x times more homeless men.

Homeless Indian Men

Violent Crime against women: Majority of the crimes are against the male population in India; we see that around 74% of all violent crimes are against the male gender. Men are 2.7 times more likely to be murdered and 4.4 times more likely to be seriously harmed than women in India.

Crime[i]	Men	Women
Murder (#)	25,665	9,457
%	73%	27%
Harm Not amounting to murder  (IPC 304/308) (#)	3,362	761
%	82%	18%

Women casualties in war: the male gender is primarily on the receiving end of all wars and lay down their lives for protecting the society. The casualties across all wars is given below–

	Men	Women
Troop Casualties in WW1	3,74,64,404	Nil
Troop Casualties in WW2	2,70,70,026	Nil
Indo-Pakistani War of 1965	6,800	Nil
Indo-Pakistani War of 1971	12,843	Nil
Kargil War	980	Nil

Political representation of women: Women have higher political representation (shown by the number of voters) and it is seen that a dominant group is one which has more political representation as they control the law making in a democracy-

Year	Men (% votes)	Women (% votes)
1999	40.01%	59.99%
2004	41.93%	58.07%
2009	45.8%	54.2%

 

As we see above in all parameters women fare better than men still there is a demand for positive discrimination for them. Is this positive discrimination beneficial for the society. We have more women graduates, still the women are going out of the work force and prefer to stay at home. Men are required to maintain well educated women, which is evident in the laws such as Section 125 of CrPC. The violent crimes committed by women has substantially increased over the past decade; still they are treated with kid gloves in the eyes of law.

Given the above scenario, do we really require any type of special laws favouring women? Are women really underprivileged and donot have opportunities? It’s time to ponder. Let’s Stand Up for a Cause …

I’m blogging for the India Today Woman Summit 2015 #WomenPower activity at BlogAdda.

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(i) Table 3.3 and 3.4 of Crimes in India 2012, NCRB.

Audi Alteram Partem – No one should be condemned unheard

Audi Alteram Partem in simple words means ‘hear the other side’. It is the most fundamental principle of Justice which states that no one ought to be judged without been given an opportunity to be heard. According to Fortescue J.[1], the first hearing in human history was given in the Garden of Eden. His Lordship observed : Even God himself did not pass sentence upon Adam, before he was called upon to make his defense. “Adam”, says God, “Where art thou? Hast thou not eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?”

These days in the social media trials coupled with an over enthusiastic rush for getting “breaking news”, we have forgotten the most fundamental principle of justice which is hearing the other side of the story. This is important to apply the rules relating to reasonableness, good faith, justice, equity and good conscience. Not giving the other side an opportunity to be heard is akin to treating the words of the accuser as gospel truth and amounts to gross miscarriage of justice.

In the recent past, 2 incidents have come to fore where a lady accused an innocent person of molestation/misconduct through social media. One was the Rohtak Incident and the other the Tilak Nagar- Delhi incident. For days, the pictures of the men were flashed on all news channels, the women were termed as brave-hearts and even bravery awards were announced for them. In both such cases, the women were the wrongdoers, had misbehaved with the men and to gain media sympathy had filed frivolous cases.

In both these cases there were just some photos / videos posted by these women on social media sites which did not show the accused conducting the alleged acts. In both these incidents the eyewitnesses had a completely different story to tell. Still…….

The media themselves have not followed its ‘Norms of Journalistic Conduct’, issued by the Press Council of India. These norms state that media reporting should be:

• Accurate and Fair: The media should not report inaccurate baseless, graceless, misleading or distorted material. Their reports need to be backed by irrefutable facts and evidences.
• Pre-Publication Verification: In case of comments against a citizen, the editor should check with due care and attention its factual accuracy apart from other authentic sources
• Caution against defamatory writings: Should not publish anything which is manifestly defamatory or libelous against any individual unless after due care and verification, there is sufficient reason/evidence to believe that it is true and its publication will be for public good.
• Headings not to be sensational/provocative and must justify the matter printed under them

The media is answerable to these false case survivors and should be put to strict proof whether they had followed the most basis norms of journalistic conduct. Yellow Journalism should be strictly dealt with.

Presently as the situation is in India, one accusation from a woman makes the man a criminal, one accusation destroys his career and one accusation drains out his savings on legal recourse for defending himself. The woman gets a public prosecutor (i.e. an attorney appointed by the state to fight the case on her behalf). There is no accountability whatsoever for filing a frivolous complaint by the woman, in turn media treats her a survivor and terms her a brave-heart.

Over the past decade there has been an exponential rise in the frivolous case of molestation filed by women for personal, political gains and settling scores.

Male Suicides and frivolous cases plotted on a graph and scaled to 100 is given below:

We need to nip this issue at the bud before it assumes disproportional magnitude which cannot be dealt with. The false accusers in these cases ought to be dispensed with iron gloves and should be booked under

1. Section 181: Making a false statement on oath to public servant
2. Section 182: Giving false information, with intent to cause public servant to injure another
3. Section 191: Giving False Evidence
4. Section 192: Fabricating False Evidence
5. Section 211: False Charge of an offense
6. Section 499: Defamation

Let us all Stand Up for a Cause to eradicate this social evil of false cases and media trials.

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[1] R.v. University of Cambridge (1723) 1 Str 557

Frivolous Cases includes: a) Cases compounded or withdrawn, b) cases declared false on account of mistake of fact or of law, c) cases not investigated or in which investigation was refused, d) cases withdrawn by the govt., and e) cases withdrawn by the govt. during investigation

Higher Education Gender Biasness Myth – Part 2

This is the part 2 of the previous article titled Higher Education: Gender Biasness Myth. It is been said that women in India are not allowed to study, which is not correct as enumerated by the census data. The fact is quite contrary and completely opposite to the popular belief.

Women are promoted more in India for higher education (which is classified as graduation and above). The census data below speaks for itself:

Age	All India Female – Male Sex Ratio	Graduate and above Female – Male Sex Ratio
		All India	Rural	Urban
Total	943	955	962	939
20-24		935	936	933
25-29		975	980	967
30-34		984	1001	951
35-59		951	966	924
60+		1033	1036	1027

As can be seen above the all India all age group graduate female to male sex ratio is way higher than the population sex ratio implying that more women as a percentage are sent to colleges than men. The difference is even wider in rural India where even more women as a percentage than men attend colleges as compared to urban India.

If we take the decadal changes in education in India, we can look at Post Graduates in the age group of 20-29.

Age Group 20-24	Males (#)	Females (#)
Post Graduates	25,66,169	28,31,783

In the field of medicine, we have now more women graduates / post graduates at 183,342 women as compared to 171,843 men in the 20-24 age group.

This gets us to a few pertinent questions:

• If women are more educated then why do they do not prefer to work?
• Why should educated women get alimony and maintenance when they are self reliant?
• Why give bonus marks to women in competitive exams?

Some thoughts to ponder upon. Stand Up for a Cause…

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Data Source: Census 2011

Benefits of Legalizing Prostitution

Note: For Mature Audiences Only.

No Automatic Arrest in 498A Complaints

In the recent landmark judgement by the Apex Court, it was directed that there should not be any automatic arrest for cases under section 498A of the IPC until provisions of Section 41 of Cr.PC are satisfied.

Section 498A of the IPC was inserted in the code in 1983 with a backdrop to curb torture of married women by the in-laws for dowry. As per the Supreme Court in B.S. Joshi vs. State of Haryana, the object of introducing Section 498A in the Indian Penal Code was to prevent the torture to a woman by her husband or by relatives of her husband. Section 498A was added with a view to punishing a husband and his relatives who harass or torture the wife to coerce her or her relatives to satisfy unlawful demands of dowry.

Though the backdrop of the provision was to prevent the menace of dowry there were many instances where a complaint was filed with oblique motives. The acquittal of the accused does not wipe out the ignomy suffered during the trial period. By the misuse of the provision a new legal terrorism can be unleashed. The provision is intended to be used a shield and not assassins’ weapon, observed the Supreme Court in Sushil Kumar Sharma vs Union Of India.

There have been many articles stating that the recent SC judgement has weakened the anti-dowry laws. Certain reasons for such a statement were:

1. Complainant required to negotiate with perpetrator: It is said that the complainant is forced to negotiate with the perpetrators. The incidences of frivolous cases has increased over the decade. In 2001 ‘one’ frivolous 498A case was filed per 53 minutes which has increased to ‘one’ frivolous case in 33 minutes till 2010[i]. This is a whooping 62% jump in 10 years. Due to such high incidences of frivolous cases, there could be a situation where in case of a preliminary inquiry and no merit being found in the case, a reconciliation may be promoted to save the marriage.
2. Low conviction rate does not imply misuse: The statement on the face sounds true, but to correctly substantiate, we must see the incidents of frivolous cases, which is as high as one case in 33 minutes. As a percentage, frivolous cases are in the range of 17% – 22%. The chart below on 498A incidents shows a clear picture of high frivolous cases.

Let us understand what does this judgement talks about. The judgement states that there should not be any mechanical arrest in 498A cases. The police should investigate and if there is a prima facie case, should they proceed to arrest. In case of a mechanical arrest, which was prevalent earlier, but just an accusation by the wife, the whole family of the husband used to be behind bars. There have been cases where the entire family of the husband such as his mother, sisters, bhabhis, other female relatives, ailing parents were booked under this section and were arrested. Even people who came to help the victim were booked. There have been cases where a dog’s name has been put in the complaint and even a 2 month old baby got an anticipatory bail under this section.

Looking at the above extent of misuse the hon’able SC has given directions to implement the CrPC section 41 in case of arrest for crimes where punishment is under 7 years (such crimes include 498A crimes).

Prior to arrest,:

1. Police Officeris satisfied that such arrest is necessary –
   1. To prevent such person from committing any further offense ;
   2. For proper investigation of the offense;
   3. To prevent such person from causing the evidence of the offense to disappear or tampering with such evidence in any manner;
   4. To prevent such person from making any inducement, threat or promise to any person acquainted with the facts of the case so as to dissuade him from disclosing such facts to the Court or to the police officer;
   5. As unless such person is arrested, his presence in the Court whenever required cannot be ensured
2. The arresting officer also needs toensure:
   1. Why arrest?
   2. Is it really required?
   3. What purpose it will serve?
   4. What object it will achieve?

The constitution of India, provides the most cherished guarantee in the world as per article 21, Protection of Life and Personal Liberty. This fundamental right states that personal liberty of a citizen will not be taken away without the process established by law. The process of law for arrests is given in Section 41 of CrPC, which is as discussed above.

I fail to understand how does arresting a person as per this process has weakened the anti-dowry laws.

Let us all Stand Up for a Cause…

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[i] NCRB: Frivolous cases include: a) cases withdrawn by the govt. during investigation, b) cases withdrawn by the govt, c) cases compounded or withdrawn, d) cases not investigated or in which investigation was refused, e) cases declared false on account of mistake of fact or of law

Note: Do feel free to comment on the article. Your views will be appropriately responded and/or the article will be suitably modified.

India – Rape Statistics

The total number of frivolous cases and acquittals (as a percentage of cases reported) during a year has been consistently over 50%, nearing 70% in a few years and touching 71% for 2003. Such a high number of frivolous cases and acquittals is a very serious concern as the identity of the rape victims were protected who filed the complaints and the accused identity was made public. Presently in India, one accusation from a woman makes the man a criminal, one accusation destroys his career and one accusation drains out his savings on legal recourses for defending himself. The woman gets a public prosecutor (ie. an attorney appointed by the state to fight the case on her behalf). There is no accountability whatsoever for filing a frivolous complaint by the woman primarily because of –

• Her identity being protected, therefore filing a frivolous complaint has no public backlash. Whereas the accused’s life is destroyed due to her frivolous complaint
• As a public prosecutor is provided to the woman, there is no financial drain on her resources
• There are hardly any consequences for filing a false rape case. (though a perjury case may be filed)

False rape complaints are a menace to the society and stringent action should be taken against them, let us all Stand up for a Cause…

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The percentage has been calculated as a percentage of the number of incidents reported during the year

Frivolous Cases includes: a) Cases compounded or withdrawn, b) cases declared false on account of mistake of fact or of law, c) cases not investigated or in which investigation was refused, d) cases withdrawn by the govt., and e) cases withdrawn by the govt. during investigation.

Data Source: NCRB Software for analysis Crime Info

Related articles

• False Rape Charges on the Rise – (Part 2) (standupforacause.wordpress.com)
• False Rape Charges on the Rise (standupforacause.wordpress.com)
• The many shades of rape cases in Delhi (thehindu.com)