Systemic & societal tolerance of India’s rape crisis

“Nation Can’t Await Another Rape For Real Changes On Ground.” That is how the Supreme Court observed, looking at lack of protocols, concern and urgency in the Kolkata rape-murder case.

But will it shake the nation’s conscience? Sexual atrocities against women, except in very rare cases, are failing to stir public outrage, enough to compel authorities to act as per law.

It is pitiable, and much worrying, too, that it took the apex court of the land to step in and take suo moto cognisance of the shoddy state of affairs at R G Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata, where a junior doctor was raped and murdered in a brutal way. Despite being saddled with numerous cases, the Supreme Court thought it fit to intervene in the case and ferret out the truth. It noted the shocking apathy of the state police and the hospital administration in such a brutal crime.

The SC’s harsh remarks are literally a slap in the face of the Mamata Banerjee government for playing down the issue, and failing to show utmost urgency and all seriousness, not just because a woman was raped and murdered in the state capital, but she was a doctor with huge implications for the treatment and care of lakhs of patients should the medical community go on protest, which they did.

As Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud said, the police should not have unleashed the state force on the protesters seeking justice. “Let us deal with them with great sensitivity. This is a moment for national catharsis,” the SC chastised all. Terming depiction and showing of the victim’s body across the social media as “extremely concerning,” the CJI ordered them deleted. The bench comprising Justice Pardiwala and Justice Manoj Misra besides the CJI was appalled by the conduct of the hospital head as well as the police, be it in passing off the incident as a suicide initially to delaying a complaint and registering FIR after the autopsy was performed.

What’s more, violent mobs vandalised the R G Kar Hospital, threatening the protesting doctors, warning them of the same fate as the victim. The state police simply fled the scene. Deployment of CISF at the hospital at the behest of SC amounts to an indictment of the state government.

Even as agitations are raging country-wide, many cases of rapes, and murders, of even children are continuing to recur with so much regularity that they fail to spark public outrage. Only those cases which have sensational value or political ramifications are seized upon.

Thus, selective outrage against rape cases betrays hypocrisy of the society. It is concerning that male aggression has become toxic in the country. Instead of asking them to exercise restraint and self-control, recently, the Calcutta HC advised adolescent girls to “control their sexual urges.”

The SC faulted it, of course. It opined such observations are “shocking” and perverse. How come the Kolkata court came to term a sexual act, a heinous POCSO offence, as non-exploitative, the apex court wondered in the related case.

Whatever the observations the apex court is making, they apply to the entire country, not just to West Bengal. It is said that it will take India about six years, if no new case is added, to clear the backlog of POCSO cases numbering over 2.2 lakh as of 31st January, 2022.

There are over 30,000 rapes of adult women every year. As such, it is expected of the government and the SC, as well, to study what could be done to expedite trials and ensure that offenders do not walk free and are punished swiftly and sternly.