Can India get rid of “The Dangerous Country for Women” tag?

India – “The Dangerous Country for Women”!

KAKALI DAS

Ankita Singh, a student of Class 12 from Dumka in Jharkhand, dreamt of becoming a police officer, however, alleged stalker Shahrukh made turned her life upside down.

Shahrukh treated her as if she was a toy and killed Ankita by burning her body with petroleum, when rejected. This incident took place on 23^rd August 2022, and on 28^th August Ankita lost her life to burn injuries.

Ankita’s father said that had the administration sprung into action in time, his daughter could be saved. Dumka is outraged and government even imposed section 144. And, people are reminded of what happened with Nikita Tomar – stalker Tauseef killed Nikita Tomar in broad daylight in Faridabad, for rejecting a proposal.

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It seems that there is no Right to say No. One kills in broad daylight, another burns alive, because there’s a mentality that if one stalks relentlessly, use force, only then the girl would approve.

We need SCAW (Serious Crime Against Women) division to deal with these elements against women. To stop and punish these violent Romeos, who think that they can escape after every violence, a dedicated special division is necessary.

Shahrukh had been following Ankita from school to home, got her phone number through friends and was pressuring Ankita to be his friend. These incidents are rising with every passing day.

In 2020, there were 1,443 number of cases registered of murders due tolove affairs, and in 2021, this number increased to 1566. 

One sided love was the reason for 13.4 percent of kidnappings in the year 2020 – the harsh reality of country today. Murders due to love affairs increased by 28 percent from the year 2001 to 2017.

In the country, 386 cases of acid attacks on women were registered from 2018 to 2020. And, according to a report, 78 percent of acid attacks are the result of one-sided love.

The brutality with which Ankita was killed has angered people. What is worse is that Shahrukh in custody was seen smiling in the video clip as if he didn’t care walking like a model having no shame at all. Why has he no shame or fear for what he did? May be because he read result of trial in such cases when criminal was not punished, the case was forgotten, and so on.

Government stats prove how common that is. NCRB data shows that in 2021, crime against women rose by 15.3 percent from 2020. In 2020, 3,71,503 cases and in 2021, 4,28,278 cases were registered for crime against women in the country. Majority or 31.8 percent cases were registered of cruelty by husband or his relatives. Cases of assault on women with intent to outrage her modesty is 20.8 percent, kidnapping and abduction is 17.8 percent and rape is 7.4 percent.

Uttar Pradesh comes on top in terms of cases registered – 56,083 cases in 2021 – followed by Rajasthan, Maharashtra, West Bengal and Odisha. So, all political parties are the same as far as women safety is concerned. NCRB also shows that Rajasthan had the highest rate of rape in 2021 i.e. 16.4 percent (6,337 registered cases last year).

Where there is education and understanding of women’s rights and safety, such cases rarely happen. Nagaland is the safest place for women – 43 registered number of cases in 2019, 39 cases in 2020, and 54 cases in 2021. These annual numbers of Nagaland are daily numbers for UP, Delhi, Bihar, Rajasthan.

28,000 women were abducted in 2021 to be compelled into marriage, where 12,000 were minors. Child marriage is still happening forcefully and by family pressure. In this case too, Uttar Pradesh has the highest number of cases i.e. 8,599, followed by 6,589 cases in Bihar.

There are positives too. Conviction rate has improved – 18.9% in 2016 to 29.8% in 2020 –as told by the government in Rajya Sabha. However, crime against women case pendency rate was 95.5% in 2020, which was 89.8% in 2019. The ministry of home affairs itself has revealed the pending rate. After these stats when international press writes that India is not safe for women, we get furious. We turn a blind eye to our own government data.

Politics has come into play after Jharkhand incident – BJP blamed Soren government for Ankita’s death. These political statements will put question upon administration and it’s good. Now, Jharkhand CM announced 10 lakh rupees for the victim family and ADG will supervise the case. Ankita’s father says that if this compensation amount was given earlier his daughter could be saved.

We forget these incidents easily, and if I ask you about Nikita Tomar case proceedings and result, you may not know, similarly, of other cases such as Nirbhaya case, Hathras Case, Shakti Mill case, Kathua case, Hyderabad case, we are ignorant of. We outrage over these horrifying incidents and forget about justice over time. Is outrage a precursor to justice?

SOLUTION

First of all, the mindset of people should change. People say, “boys will be boys” “they make mistakes”. Rid society of this sick mentality. Another sorry of an excuse is generation – blaming everything upon the generation – this also needs to be avoided. Thirdly, rejection is her choice – No means No. The boys should be taught early on to accept rejection gracefully. Most importantly, society must stop questioning girl’s choices. Crime committed by boys is not girl’s fault. She only refused to speak to the boy and that was her mistake.

That is why we need Serious Crime Against Women (SCAW) division and many developed nations have dedicated divisions like this to deal with this. It should have been in place long before in the country. SCAW division will act swiftly against criminals in these serious crimes against women. These attacks may happen again but a division like SCAW will come handy to deal with the likes of Shahrukh, they should be afraid of the consequences.

We have a parallel Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO). It handles multi crore and multinational company fraud cases. Meaning, SFIO deals with fraudsters. Likewise, CBI formed a new division recently, On-line Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation (OCSAE) Unit. To deal with online crimes against children, this unit was set up with training and resources a normal police station may not have.

Similarly, we need a SCAW division, otherwise do as much outrage, involve politics and religion, set up fund but only to keep it unused for years. Outrage is justified, but kindly also examine what is being done to prevent such crimes in future, how govt. acts on it.

[Images from different sources]

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