Caste Atrocities in India: Time to Review the PoA Act, 1989

The constitutional commitment of equality, liberty, justice and dignity to all Indian citizens is the expression of our vision of building a nation without any discrimination including deep-rooted discrimination based on caste. In the past 68 years of independence, this commitment made in the Preamble has been translated into action through various public policies to abolish discrimination. Yet caste discrimination remains a widespread phenomenon throughout India. The cruelest outcome of caste discrimination against Dalits and Adivasis is the physical violence against them by socially advantaged caste groups in India. Recognizing such crimes and vulnerability of Dalits and Adivasis, the government of India enacted ‘The Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act’ in 1989 (PoA Act) to deter such violence and ensure justice and protection to them. However, its implementation remains very weak and the vulnerability of SCs and STs has barely improved. Dalit rights organizations and various other public institutions indicated towards non-implementation of the law, in-effectiveness of law to deter commonly committed caste base atrocities, lack of statutory arrangements in the states, corruption in police system and influence of caste system in public institutions. Considering all these loopholes in the Act, it has been demanded by various stakeholders to amend this law in order to ensure higher protection of victims and prevent caste-based atrocities. UPA-II government in the end of its tenure brought an ordinance to amend the PoA Act in March 2014. The newly formed NDA government introduced ‘The Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Amendment Bill, 2014 in the Lok Sabha to replace the ordinance. 

The Scheduled Castes (Dalits) and Scheduled Tribes (Adivasis) together accounts around one fourth of Indian population. Caste system deprives this entire section of population from enjoying a life as it is articulated in the Preamble of the Indian Constitution. Practices of the caste system such as untouchability and discrimination many times lead to the gross physical atrocities. The literature on atrocities shows that it is an all-India phenomenon legitimized by same principle of caste hierarchy. Government of India enacted The Untouchability (Offences) Act in 1955 to abolish practices of untouchability and protect rights of individual. Even after this legislative mechanism, frequency of atrocities against Dalits and Adivasis remain unchanged. Under the pressure from Dalit Members of Parliament (MPs), the Government of India started monitoring atrocities against SCs from 1974 and in the case of STs from 1981 onwards, with special focus on murder, rape, arson and grievous hurt.

The caste system is so deeply rooted in Indian society that mere monitoring of atrocities and enacting a law to abolish untouchability did not result into betterment of Adivasis and Dalits. The socially and culturally legitimized caste system leads to the complex manifestations such as discrimination, untouchability, atrocity on vulnerable sections of the society. The enactment of PoA Act in 1989 as a special law recognized complexity of caste base atrocities and higher vulnerability of victims. This special law treats various IPC and other offences against STs and SCs by any non ST and SC member in a different manner. It prescribes stronger punishment and provides protection to the victims. The Act states that, “despite various measures to improve the socio-economic conditions of SCs and STs, they remain vulnerable. They are denied a number of civil rights; they are subjected to various offences, indignities, humiliations and harassment. They have, in several brutal incidents, been deprived of their life and property. Serious atrocities are committed against them for various historical, social and economic reasons .”

Implementation of the Act

During two decades of its implementation the PoA Act ensured justice, protection and rehabilitation for thousands of victims of caste atrocities. . It also helped to generate awareness around basic human rights. Dalits and Adivasis have utilized this law to assert their rights and due share in society. However, various obstacles have been identified in its smooth implementation and delivering justice to the victims. According to a NHRC report on Status of Implementation of SCs and STs (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, police resort to various machinations to discourage SCs/STs from registering cases, to dilute the seriousness of the violence and to shield the accused persons from arrest and prosecution. FIRs are often registered under the Protection of Civil Right Act and IPC provision, which attract lesser punishment than PoA Act provision for the same offence.

The National Coalition for Strengthening SC & ST Prevention of Atrocity Act (a network of civil society organization and Dalit activists) identified following major deficiencies of the Act and its implementation :

·         Under reporting of the cases under the Act and deterred from making complaints of atrocities.

·         Deliberately not registering cases under appropriate sections of the Act.

·         Delay in filing charge sheet

·         Not arresting accused and the ones who are arrested are invariably released on bail.

·         Filing false and counter cases against Dalit victims by accused.

·         Compensation prescribed under the Act 16 is invariably not paid.

·         Victims have no access to legal aid.

·         Non-implementation of statutory provisions in various States under the Act and Rule, 1995.

According to the data of Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, majority of states do not fulfill minimum statutory provisions as per the Act, 1989 and Rules, 1995. Following table shows the status of non-implementation of the provisions of SCs and STs (PoA) Act, 1989 and Rules 1995 by State Governments. 

Although there is provision in the PoA Act for the constitution of Special Courts to expeditiously try atrocity cases, in reality what SCs/STs experience is a huge pendency of their cases before the trial courts. Moreover, the conviction rate is very low. In fact, the conviction rate under the PoA Act is found to be much lower than in cases booked under IPC. According to the NCRB data, in 2013 the average conviction rate for crimes against Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes stood at 23.8% and 16.4% respectively as compared to overall conviction rate of 40.2% relating to IPC cases and 90.9% relating to SLL (Special and Local Law) cases. The processing of reported cases for investigation and trail is very slow.  According to the NCRB data, 35645 cases are pending in different courts for trial. Large numbers of cases are pending in States such as Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Odisha, Gujarat and Karnataka.

The National Advisory Council (NAC) during UPA government reviewed the provisions of law and cases of atrocities and found that certain forms of atrocities, though well documented, are not covered by the Act. NAC recommended for the incorporation of various IPC offences and other commonly committed offences under the perview of this law to ensure wider protection to the victims of caste atrocities. The National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC) and Justice Punnaiah Commission critically examined deficiencies of the Act and has suggested various amendments to the Act. Human rights organizations have also highlighted various gaps in the enforcement of the Act and Rules. Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment and Ministry of Home Affairs have issued various advisories to State governments to fill the gaps in the enforcement.

Status of Atrocities:

The National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB) data further exposes the poor implementation of the Act and its minimal impact in effectively dealing with caste based atrocities. The data reveals that the number and frequency of crime against SCs and STs are continuously increasing. The prevalent atrocities against SCs and STs includes incidents such as making SCs eat human excreta, and subjecting both SCs and STs to physical assaults, grievous hurt, arson, mass killings and rapes of SC/ST women, etc. Although the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) provides useful data that reveal the extent of atrocities committed against the SCs/STs, these data do not fully reflect the ground reality as most of the cases go unreported due to reluctance by police to register atrocity cases for various reasons. One also finds caste bias and corruption among the police force preventing registration and investigation of cases.

Even after low rate of reporting of crime under PoA Act, incidences of crime under this Act has increased from 11602 incidences in 2008 to 13975 incidences in 2013. The incidences of rape have shockingly increased from 1457 in 2008 to 2073 in 2013 (an increase of 42.27%).  There has been no mitigation with annual average of crimes registered against SCs/ST standing at 39408 and daily average being 108.

Proposed Amendments in PoA Act, 1989:

The literature and empirical data on caste atrocities reveals that it made nominal impact in the lives of SCs and STs. However, various assessment of the law reveals that it has created a sense of security and protection among the victims of the caste atrocity. Dalit and Adivasi victims have used it as a tool to assert their basic rights and combat with wrong social and cultural practices. The current situation of atrocities and status of cases pending in police station and in courts led stakeholder to advocate for amendment in the PoA Act, 1989.

The Scheduled Castes and The Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Amendment Bill, 2014 introduced in the Lok Sabha on July 16, 2014 that replaces ordinance enacted by UPA government in March 2014 represents the consensus  of stakeholders to amend the law for better results.

The amendment Bill proposes substantial changes in the chapter on ‘Offences of Atrocities’ (Chapter-II) of the Principal Act. The proposed amendments attempts to increase number of IPC offences under the preview of this act. It also recognizes commonly practiced action in society to insult and harm dignity of person from SC and ST community as an offence. These offences are garlanding with footwear, compelling to dispose or carry human or animal carcasses, manual scavenging, attempting to promote feeling of ill-will against SCs or STs, imposing or threatening a social or economic boycott. The amendments in this chapter further specify duties of public servant in detail and prescribe punishment in case of any neglect of duty by the public servant. The common duties of public servant includes registration of FIR, furnishing a copy of information recorded by the informant in police station, to record statements of victims or witnesses, conduct investigation, file charge sheet within six days and keep records of document.

Addressing issue of long pendency of cases and low conviction rate under the Act, the amendment Bill proposes constitution of Exclusive Special Court and Special Courts to dispose cases within given time-frame. The provision in the bill ensures adequate number of courts so that every case can be disposed within the period of two months from the date of filling of the charge sheet.  The bill has inserted a new chapter namely ‘Chapter IVA’ in the principal Act, that describes the rights of victims and witnesses in detail. Some of the crucial rights of victims and witnesses are as follows:

·   Right of victims, their dependents and witnesses to access state’s support for their protection against any kind of violence, threats, coercion, inducement and intimidation. 

·   Right of victims to access special support from government, that arises because of their age, gender, educational disadvantage and poverty.

·  Right of hearing views of victims at any proceeding under this Act in respect of bail, discharge, release, parole, conviction or sentence of an accused.

·  Right of victims, their dependents, informants and witnesses to access facilities of relocation, rehabilitation and maintenance during investigation, inquiry and trail of the case.

·  Right to access information about trial, enquiry and trial such as recorded FIR and provision of laws and allied schemes of relief for victims, their relatives.

·     Right to access relief in cash or kind.

·    Right of atrocity victims and their dependents to take assistance from Non-Government Organizations, social workers and advocates.

Soon after the introduction of the amendment Bill in the Parliament, the Lok Sabha Speaker referred the Bill to the Parliamentary standing committee for further deliberation.

Conclusion:

The Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Amendment Bill, 2014 introduced in budget session 2014-15 replaces ordinance brought in by UPA-II government in March 2014. The proposed amendments in the principal act comprehensively addresses issues of non-implementation, in-effectiveness and number of loopholes in the existing law as highlighted by various human rights organizations, Dalit activists and public institutions. The amendments in the Act will ensure wider protection and timely justice to the victims of caste atrocities. It has already been delayed for so many reasons, but now it is up to the Parliament and political parties to understand the urgency of the amendment Bill to provide relief to the SCs and STs who constitute almost one forth of Indian population.

 

Jeet Singh

 

Development Roadmap: Threat to India’s Environment and Wildlife

The development roadmap of present government as indicated through their recent



Photo: Survival International

economic policies would sharply pose a threat to India’s marginalized communities, green environment and precious wildlife. Thus with the dilution of the Forest Conservation Act, 1980 by the Ministry of Environment and Forest to grant forest clearances for facilitating development projects is a step towards this. The most sensitive areas around tiger reservation, national parks and sanctuaries now would be under the grab of project developers as they have been de-linked from wildlife assessment impacts.

Such kind of policy decision would necessarily help the developers to go ahead with the linear projects of irrigation, canals, highways and power lines, but by massive destruction of India’s rich forest areas and its wildlife. Though providing funds for compensatory afforestation is mandatory, but fair utilization of this fund would be a challenge.

 The present government has also done away with the need for consent of tribals for forest and mine openings in their traditional lands, which clearly violates their rights. The state government can no longer put any additional conditions to protect forest and biodiversity for those projects which have been cleared from the Centre.

All these steps are taken with a justification that India need development, and all its citizens must enjoy the fruits of it. But such a policy roadmap to modernize India clearly in contradiction with the issue of the rights of tribals over their forest land, which would also be at the cost of precious environment and wildlife. This development policy is unsustainable and undemocratic. Can this development ensure the well being of the last and the least in the country or is it a path towards more inequity in the economy?

Read More

http://www.business-standard.com/article/economy-policy/fresh-dilution-of-green-norms-114091700027_1.html   

 

by RGICS

Designing Gender Friendly Cities

Photo Source: openIDEO

An Academic Congress on Understanding Gender was held in Lady Shri Ram College from March 5-7, 2014 and it was occasion to not only learn and debate ideas of gender, violence and societal norms and pressures but equally important, an arena to unlearn frequently propagated myths about women’s safety.

 

Safe City Dialogues by Shikha Trivedy of NDTV, a short documentary which captured the urgent need for city plans to have a gendered perspective cracked wide open a number of these long cherished and often invoked myths.

 

It began by questioning whether gentrification made cities safer. In the 1990’s there were many mills in operation within the city of Bombay. These mills employed a large number of women. It was the presence of these migrant, often lower class and caste women returning home from the late shift on the local trains late at night that normalized seeing women of all classes out and about in the city even very late at night. Far from the often invoked maxim that the only way to keep women safe in big bad cities is to have them safely home during daylight hours, the story of the women mill workers is proof that the only way to make a city women friendly, is to have them as a constant presence in all public spaces at all times. When the mills closed, these women disappeared from city making all women more susceptible to becoming victims of crimes. 

 

Though the mills closed, the abandoned factories remained in varying stages of decay. Abandoned buildings and areas are breeding grounds for the mushrooming of criminal and undesirable elements. A failure to repurpose these spaces make them hunting grounds for committing crimes against women without anyone on the street noticing.  The documentary recounts the case of a woman photo journalist who was raped in one of these abandoned mills and no one could hear her screams on the roads outside. 

Equally imperiled are the low income women relocated to distant colonies more akin to high-rise slums with poor sanitary facilities and unknown neighbours and neighbourhoods. Their harsher realities include fearing letting their daughters out of the house even for school and a fear of going to the dimly if at all lit, voyeur prone public washrooms at night. Young men travel freely in the narrow alleys between these colonies, while the young women remain trapped inside their homes to emerge only to be the object of harassment.

When cities are planned without keeping in mind the needs of different genders, they become more dangerous instead of safer for women. Equally dangerous are measures that give you a veneer of security without any actual safety. Higher gates and walls immediately give off the illusion of fortification and therefore safety but the reality is chilling. Where once a woman had many options of escaping danger running through the open maidans of Bombay, she must now skirt around their tall boundary walls and often meet with high gates. Thus the security measure has actually reduced her chances of making an escape.

We have to start a dialogue in which women are an integral part not only of the vision of a city but are also consulted in the making of this vision. An article by Clare Foran recounts the successes that city administrators in Vienna have had by designing laws that consciously try to benefit men and women equally. The goal of “Gender  main-streaming” or a “Fair Shared City” policies as they now prefer have in on instance made it possible for public parks to be shared equally by both boys and girls where once their utilization by girls was falling.

Our vision must shift from one designed to keep out the undesirables to one which aims to attract more and more desirables. The need is for better not more policing, more toilets, more public transport, more night shelters at major transport hubs. Gender sensitive improvements to infrastructure make a city more livable and an equally accessible space for all its citizens.

By Gayatri Verma

 

Gender Knowledge as important as General Knowledge

The Academic Congress on Understanding Gender held at Lady Shri Ram College for Women from March 5-7, 2014 proved that in today’s age “gender knowledge” is as important as general knowledge. The three day event probed into Questions of Justice and Freedom and gave a gendered analysis of the present context. The Congress brought together experts and activist in an attempt to have an enriching discussion around women’s issues and included the interconnected themes of law, media, voice, marginalization, sexuality and the rise of the free-spirited woman in an era of backlash and conflicting choices. What set the LSR event apart from the norm was that gender was located within the larger context of rights and freedom for all aimed at humanizing women. The following snippets give a glimpse of Day 2 (March 6) of the event:

The morning session included a panel discussion on Gender and Marginalized Voices supported by UN Women. Gopal Guru, Anand Patwardhan and Vimal Thorat led a discussion on the intersection between gender, caste and religion. The question of dalit politics and caste were discussed. The speakers clarified that while gender is linked to caste, the women’s movement has not contributed substantially to the caste debates in India that emerged in the post-Mandal era. It was also pointed out that in the current scenario; violence against women (VAW) in rural India and violence against dalit/ Northeastern women tends to get less attention as compared to VAW in urban India. In this context the role of media and selective reporting was debated.

The panel discussion was followed by a conversation with women who exemplify empowerment and breaking the glass ceiling.  

The first speaker was Baby Haldar who narrated her inspiring life story. Baby works as a domestic worker and is an author, whose autobiography Aalo Aandhari describes her harsh life growing up and as a domestic worker and has been translated into several languages.

Baby’s struggle began at a very young age. She was raised by an abusive father: an ex-serviceman and driver and her step-mother in West Bengal and was only 12, when her father married her off to a man 14 years older than her. Finally in 1999, at the age of 25, after years of domestic violence, she left her husband and came to Delhi with her children. Urvashi Butalia, who Baby considers to be her mentor, told the audience that when a woman like Baby decides to speak up, her story will invariably give many others courage and start a revolution of courage and strength.

Sunita, India’s first female auto driver and the two cab drivers from Sakha (Saroj, Lalita) shared how a woman driving on the streets reassures people- women, children, families, whereas, a man doing the same would give rise to fear in certain circumstances and yet women do not take up similar occupations. They hope that their work will inspire more women to challenge the norm and step out of their homes. Meenu Vadhera, Director of Sakha cabs shared how mobility is a very important tool in the struggle for women’s empowerment.

The afternoon session began with a Lecture by Mary E. John from CWDS. Ms. John spoke on ‘Gendering Violence: Rethinking Sexuality and Violence’. She traced the discourse on gender violence and outlined how while the movement on VAW began in the 1970s, it wasn’t till the 1990s that the language of sexuality emerged. She said that the 2000’s saw a very rapid shift as women now articulated sexuality through means such as the ‘pink chaddi campaign’ and ‘slut walk’ which not only challenged gender stereotypes but also led to a backlash.

She said that the gang rape of Nirbhaya was a ‘genuine event’ that marked another shift in the gender discourse. Although, several cases in the past like Mathura rape case, Ramiza B. case, Bhanwari Devi case had also led to protest and outrage, what was different about Nirbhaya was that the protests didn’t originate only from the women’s group and were not restricted to only women. The rape also changed the direction of the discourse as the ire of the public turned towards the state and ‘demanded’ better laws and safer cities. She said that the placards she read during the protest had slogans such as ‘Meri skirt se uchi meri awaaz’, ‘my dress is not a yes’ carried by both men and women and was an indication of the change being brought on by the event.

What she found discomforting about the December rape is that the incident has reinforced the false stereotype of the danger lying outside the house. She showed with the help of NCRB data that in more than 97% of the cases, the victim is known to the accused. She said that it was in this context that the backlash of violence against women was disturbing and needs to be challenged. The advancing of women’s hostel deadlines, canceling night shifts for female employees, parents refusing to let their daughters to go out after dark are just some of the obvious ways in which the backlash works. More subtle ways exist and impact our daily life, making women fearful, breeding mistrust and straining relationships between the sexes.

The discussion led to a debate about gender roles and how while women are now juggling work within and outside the house, the roles of men continue to be static. The rising expectations from women often lead to them having to make a choice between two worlds and the need to challenge this stereotype.

The session also included the screening of ‘Safe City Dialogues’ by Shikha Trivedi from NDTV. Safe City Dialogues is a short documentary which captures the urgent need for city plans to have a gendered perspective. It looked at the lives of young women in slums of Mumbai and how they struggle for access to basic sanitation. The slums are poorly lit, suffer due to a shortage of public washrooms and other amenities and the streets are congested along with poor garbage and human/ animal waste disposal. The documentary explored how women become victims of both, poor planning and violence against women. The documentary recorded lives of young women living in these slums and questioned whether their voice was ever taken into consideration while planning cities? It raised questions such as ‘are technological and safety measures the solution to build a safe society or do we need to initiate a dialogue to heighten gender sensitivity’? 

The day concluded with an interaction with Bhanwari Devi from Rajasthan. Bhanwari Devi worked as a ‘Sathin’ in Rajasthan and was part of the Women's Development Project (WDP) run by the Government of Rajasthan. She belongs to the ‘kumhar’ (potter) caste and her village is dominated by the upper caste Gujjar community. Her training as a Sathin enabled her to raise her voice and take a stand against child marriage happening in a rich Gujjar family in her village in the early 1990s.

Bhanwari narrated how despite her protest, the marriage of the two girl children did take place, with the police attending the wedding celebrations.  Yet, the men from the Gujjar community felt insulted and in a bid to take ‘revenge’, gang raped her. Bhanwari then had to struggle to get herself examined medically in order to register a FIR. Yet, Bhanwari refused to give up. She fought for her justice and continues to do so. Her case at the moment is pending with the High Court.

Ms. Kavita Srivastava translated Bhanwri’s narrative for the audience. Speaking of Bhanwari’s struggle, she said that the reason why Bhanwari’s initial FIR was not entertained initially was because of patriarchy. She said that the police, medical examiners, Magistrate and all others in authority did not believe Bhanwari because they bought into the patriarchal stereotypes of:

1)       Old woman are not raped
2)       Old men do not rape
3)       Upper caste men would not want to have physical relations with a low caste woman

It is this thinking that got challenged when Bhanwari refused to stay quiet about her rape. She decided to persist for justice and continues to do so, despite all the obstacles that have come her way. While the accused were released on bail, Bhanwari’s struggle led to the Vishakha Judgement which became the foundation for the Sexual Harassment Act passed in 2013.

Bhanwari’s struggle, according to Ms. Srivastava shows that people need to stop looking at women’s bodies in the framework of shame and honour. If women continue to think that way, they will feel victimized, but if they decide to step out of the mould they will identify themselves, as Bhanwari does, as a survivor. This concluded the final session of the second day of the Gender Congress.

The overall theme of the “Genderknowledge” held at LSR made the audience pause and reflect upon why gender is so important today. It highlighted that gender doesn’t only concern women; rather questions of women’s safety, greater mobility, freedom of occupation, the struggle for rights are reflection of our society and therefore concern us all. As the day concluded, questions regarding what is and what is not acceptable to women today, gender roles, family as a unit of safety and many others sprang up, leading to an internal debate and change of thought, both for the audience and the participants.

Divashri Mathur

Integrated Action Plan: An overarching development initiative

Photo Source: kracktivist

The Integrated Action Plan is entering the fourth year of its existence this year. It is a plan which has caused a lot of infighting; however, it was seen as a hopeful start to a new strategy to counter Left Wing Extremism in the country. Has it achieved what it set out to? What are the points of divergence? Where lies the problem and what can be the solutions to make it a more judicious and effective plan by the Central government? These are some questions that this article seeks to answer.

Since it was first presented in 2010, the IAP has been extended to 88 districts. The initial 33 districts were part of the 83 Left Wing Extremism (LWE) affected districts identified under the Security Related Expenditure (SRE) by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA). The LWE districts coming under the IAP were those wherein more than 20 per cent of the total number police stations in the district saw incidents of naxal violence.

To begin with, IAP for 60 identified tribal and backward districts was implemented with a block grant of Rs.25 crore and Rs.30 crore per district during 2010-11 and 2011-12 respectively, for which the funds were to be placed at the disposal of the Committee headed by the District Collector (DC) assisted by the Superintendent of Police (SP) of the district and the Divisional Forest Officer (DFO).

 

Its basic fallacy is that it follows a top-down approach, which, in a democratic set-up is rather unsustainable. The voice of the people for which the IAP is intended is not heard while the onus of making the policy rests with the bureaucracy. Neither the people at ground level, nor their representatives, are a part of the consultations on the implementation of policies under the plan. Therefore, the vision with which the policy was initiated is more or less defeated.

 

This allows for pilferages in the system which, as was observed during a field trip to some of the states with districts falling under the IAP, increases the gap between allocation of funds and implementation thereof. Moreover, because the IAP was primarily initiated to address the governance deficit in LWE states, putting other districts in states like Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, where the problem is not acute, takes away from the purpose of the plan. A better way of guaranteeing that the most needy districts get the benefit of this policy would be to establish a graded system of aid ie: Grade A districts which need the most attention can be granted more funds while Grade B districts which are relatively free from violence can be granted a lesser amount of aid under this plan.

Another recommendation for addressing the trust deficit that the government faces is allowing greater role for Gram Sabha in consultations. As is the case now, the bureaucracy is seen as the enemy by the locals in these areas. The Gram Sabha comprises each member of the village and involving them in the decision making process would ensure a more democratic system of aid dispensation.

 

For greater accountability, a proper grievance redressal mechanism needs to be put in place. This can only happen with greater transparency in the form of plan outlay and implementation record. A model that can be replicated for this is how the transparency in the Right to Information Act was followed in Rajasthan where the law and guidelines were put up on the walls of the villages so that everyone can be made aware of their rights.

Development can only happen when the government’s agenda matches with that of the people. It is not difficult if the right intent exists. All it needs is a more democratic process of decision making and transparent means of accountable implementation. 

Medha Chaturvedi

 

Voicing violence: Has the new Act made a difference?

Photo Source: www.indiatimes.com
 

A 16-year-old girl in Kolkata was gang raped twice in October, the second time immediately after she registered an FIR with the police. The rape of the minor is an example of how despite the passage of a stringent Act against sexual crimes and a promise of providing an environment of greater safety for women to speak against violence, not much has changed in actual terms.

The Criminal Law Amendment Act that came into existence in March 2013 amended various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), the Code of Criminal Procedure and the Indian Evidence Act, with an aim of providing a strong deterrent against crimes like rapes. The Act inserted Section 166 A in the IPC which provides for rigorous punishment up to 2 years for public servants disregarding directions while investigating rape. In addition, the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act was also strengthened. POCSO envisions police as child protectors. Under it, the police is required to make arrangements for the care and protection of a child who has been sexually abused.

However, these provisions did nothing to save the Kolkata rape victim. In fact, her registering the FIR and then pursuing it led the culprits to allegedly burning her alive. According to the Justice Varma Committee report that guided the fast track passage of the Criminal Law Amendment Act, “Failure of good governance is the obvious root cause for the current unsafe environment eroding the rule of law, and not the want of needed legislation”. The report also warned that in the absence of “attitudinal changes”, mere changes in law cannot correct the gender bias that plagues Indian society.

Statistics justify the observations of the committee. A year after the Act came to function; rape and other crimes against women have increased, rather than decreased. Delhi alone has seen a 129% increase in rape. Compared to 2012 when 680 cases were registered, 2013 saw 1559 registered cases.

A victim who speaks out against rape not only requires legal protection, but also support from society. However, the mindsets of people are largely unchanged. Many, including those in authority, continue to believe that women ‘invite’ rape by dressing in a certain way, stepping outside their homes after a certain hour or visiting certain places. The question then becomes if change in legal procedures can bring about reform in society?

There are differing views on this among activists; some like Dr. Nandita Shah, co- Director Akshara asserts that some changes are definitely visible. While the judicial, medical and police structures are still inadequate, what has changed since the passage of the law is that it has broadened the definition of rape which she views as a positive change. “Earlier traumatic experiences of sexual assault would make a victim feel stigmatized, but now with the broadening of rape to include non-penetrative assault, such victims are encouraged to speak out and seek justice”. She points out to the Tehelka case where the journalist pointedly referred to the new law while seeking a trial for rape.

Others like Kavita Srivastava, National Secretary; People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL)feel that while Criminal Law Amendment Act was welcomed as changes relating to criminal law and sexual violence came after 31 years, there is still a long way to go before the law achieves its stated purpose. “We welcomed the processes (behind the law) as it was demanded from the streets and the Verma committee report was extremely participatory. However, nine months since it has been implemented, it is clear that the police still does not know the new law. Though some trainings have been conducted, it will take a long time for the Thana level police to know the sections and in particular the application of the Law. Lay persons and survivors of violence are even further removed from knowing the changes and therefore do not directly feel empowered. Unless the attitude of the police changes, the law will be a change agent only on paper”. 

 A year has passed since the Delhi gang rape shook the collective conscience of the country. While a larger discussion on women’s safety continues to be kept alive by media, activists and academia, there seems little impact of the Criminal Law Amendment Act on the lives of women sufferers of sexual violence. Though, the new Act addresses sexual crimes committed by those in position of authority, often, police medical practitioners, advocates, even judges make voicing violence more difficult for women, rather than encouraging them. For one, court processes and police procedures need quick adaptation to the changes in law and then implement them. If mere change in law equated changed attitudes, then the police would have ensured protection of the minor in Kolkata by sending her to a shelter and prevented her death.  Further, while change in law may serve as a first step, there remains a need to spread awareness to create an environment of sensitive support, so that the law benefits women both in letter and in spirit.

 

-Divashri Mathur