India as Rape Capital | Rape Capital Tag is Making of the Feminists

Is India Rape Capital Tag Justified

Suddenly, the middle class got paranoid about the safety of their sisters, wives and daughters when ‘India’s Daughter’ was re-re-provoked by interest in Rapes happening in India. Re-re-provoked? Oh, just a couple of months back, it was Uber Rape Case, and then a few months back, there were two bodies hanging in some village in Ballia duly raped and then hanged (Guess in which state that is?). So it would be a couple of weeks before people stop talking about “Rapes” happening in every nook and corner of India before people realize that those three men sipping tea in that roadside stall and giving casual glances around are not looking for prey to rape.

“But we just want this man hanged”
– cried the well-educated middle class.

And look who also was seen asking for his hanging before his appeal was decided by the Supreme Court – Jaya Bachchan, a legislator who was chosen to govern us by us. It is a meek and frivolous attempt, I would say, to play to the gallery and prove to the world how knee-jerk our reactions can be. For the record, after the CBI report and due forensics, it was found that those two girls who were found hanging from the tree in Ballia were not raped. Who would have been responsible for the lives of the accused in that case if they were hanged without a trial? But then that is a one-off case, my friend would remind me. Nirbhaya was also a one-off case, my dear friend; prior to this and after this, how many such cases have you heard?

“But, one cannot deny the fact that in India rapes happen at the drop of a hat.”

Let’s come back to one of my favorites, statistics

Rape per 100,000 people in US – 29

Rape per 100,000 people in UK – 25

Rape per 100,000 people in Australia – 29

Rape per 100,000 people in South Africa – 115

Rape per 100,000 people in Sweden – 67

Rape per 100,000 people in India – 2

I am not making these statistics. People can visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rape_statistics to find the source of these statistics, which were taken from UN data. In terms of countries, India stands 102nd in terms of incidence of Rape. Is it something to be ashamed of?

“But many rapes in India go unreported; we should do something about it; statistics do not tell the right picture always.”

If you can trust sources like the USA Justice Department or UK Home Office, or Australian Government Statistics, you would find that even they say that Rapes are underreported and at times time even suggest that out of 13 rapes, only one is reported, so if you juxtapose that much on Indian Scenario, we are not worse than them in this regard. One in 200 UK women was speculated to be raped in the year 2006-07. Would you say there is anything comparable in India? Also, in the US, 1 out of 6 women would be raped in their lifetime. Now to all the concerned citizens of India, how many rape victims you know. Is it comparable in any way?

“But in India, rapists get away because of loopholes in law”.

India probably is only one of the very few countries where the conduct of the prosecutrix can not be brought up during the trial. It is also one of the very few countries where the sole testimony of the complainant is enough to convict a man. And coming to my favourite mistress statistics, India has a healthy conviction rate of 24%, which is considerably more than less than 7% in UK, 10% in Sweden and 25% in France (Sources: UK Home Office 2006-07 report on crime and Time Nov 08, 2013)

“But Rapes still happen in India, and we should have zero tolerance for it”

I heard you right, Every crime and not only Rape, should shake us to the core, why single out Rape and equally also there should be zero tolerance for many things, I hope you would agree that Rape is not the only problem plaguing this country. We have many more problems to tackle, and we are emphasizing all of them, including (and rightly ‘but not limited to’) Rape.

“But whenever there is rape, someone should pay for it.”

Right, tomorrow you can pay for a rape which either happened or not happened; somebody has to pay should mean a guilty person has to pay and not let’s frame someone because a rape has happened. Today, some other poor chap has been framed; tomorrow, it might be you or someone close to you. One aspect that these punishment mongers miss is that all leading reports, including “The Hindu” study “The many shades of Rape in Delhi” and an independent study done by “Delhi Commission of Women”, suggest that an overwhelming number of rapes 83% as Hindu put it and 55% as DCW put it are prima-facie false. This means a minimum of 50% of Rape accused are incarcerated for a crime that was probably never committed. If the figures are not alarming as of now, the increase would mean that tomorrow no one would believe even the genuine victim of Rape. The same thing happened with 498A (Husband or relative of husband of a woman subjecting her to cruelty: Proposed Section 84 of The Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023) and then happened with cases of molestation. In the beginning, it is the police and lawyers who stop believing the victims, and soon society at large would stop believing these so-called “victims” if the checks and balances are not put in place urgently.