Rape problem in India!

Monoswini Sarmah

Rape is a type of sexual assault involving sexual intercourse or other forms of sexual penetration carried out against a person without their consent.

Rape is to force someone to have sex when they are unwilling, using violence or threatening behaviour. South Africa has the highest rape rate in the world of 132.4. The number of rape incidents in India as per 100,000 citizens is 22,172 as of 2020 with 1.80 rape rate.

According to the local human rights org, World Population Review data, India recorded an average of 87 rape cases daily in 2019. Around the time of the 2012 attack, police were recording up to 25,000 rape cases a year across India, according to the data from the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB).

In India, the highest number of rape cases are found in Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Kerala and Chhattisgarh. As per the history of rape records in India, we have seen many rape cases which are never forgotten by the Indians. In 1992, the Ajmer rape case was one of India’s biggest cases of sexual exploitation with more than a hundred underage school girls estimated to have been sexually molested and raped.

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Another was the Delhi gang rape of a 23-year-old student on a public bus on 16 December 2012. In August 2013, in the Shakti Mills gang rape case, where a 22 years old photojournalist, who was interning with an English-language magazine in Mumbai, was gang raped by five persons. On 14 March 2015, a 71-year-old nun was gang raped in Ranaghat, West Bengal. On 17 January 2018, Asifa, an 8-year-old minor girl was raped and murdered in Patta Rasana village near Kathua in Jammu and Kashmir.

In the 1973, nurse Aruna Shanbaug was raped by a sweeper, Sohanlal Bhartha Walmiki, while working as a junior nurse at KEM Hospital in Mumbai. On 26 March 1972, a 15-year-old tribal girl named Mathura was raped by two policemen in Chandrapur district, Maharashtra, and now the Kolkata doctor rape case.

The data of the rape case records shows us the continuity of rape in India. According to the 2021 annual report of the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), 31,677 rape cases were registered across the country or an average of 86 cases daily.

In India, the punishment for rape is outlined in the Indian Penal Code (IPC) of 1860, under Sections 375 to 376E. Section 376(1) provides that any person who commits the offence of rape is liable to be punished with a period of imprisonment which shall not be less than 10 years. However, the same may exceed a punishment of life imprisonment. But in other countries of the world punishment for rapists are extremely severe.

There are many reasons behind increasing rape cases. In this part, Psychological conditions of rapist gives us many information. Madhumita Pandey and Dr. Smithyman worked on the psychological perspectives of rapist. Their research teaches the mentality of rapists.

In India we more focused on the victims than the rapist. Many researchers said that many rapists show no remorse and blame the victim

. According to Madhumita Pandey who took interview of rapist in Tihar jail, rapist don’t realise that they have actually committed a crime and raped. They have no understanding of the concept of rape itself. Rapist often convince themselves of an alternative reality. They believe that their sexual needs are more important. Or that victim was asking for it, or that men’s sexual drive is uncontrollable.

From this research, overall, we can say that rapists have never felt guilty. The motivation of rapists is of two types. One is biological or evolutionary theory. Which states that rape is a reproductive strategy by men to ensure the contribution of their genetic material and heredity. This theory can’t tell about why some countries have more numbers of rape and other countries less.

Another type is societal and cultural theory. It states that sexual violence occurs due to societal, cultural and man-made reasons. If only biological theory is responsible for rape, then every country should have equal number of rape cases. But in reality, it’s not the case. Because along with biological theory, societal theory is also responsible for rape.

There are six types of rapist: opportunistic rapist, anger rapist, sexual rapist, sexual non-sadistic rapist, sexual sadistic rapist and vindictive rapist. Sadistic rapists are those who take pleasure in inflicting pain, punishment or humiliation on others. A rapist can believe that if a girl says no it really means yes and she is just playing around or challenging him. Sociological factors which are responsible for rape are patriarchy, toxic masculinity, social disenfranchisement, caste domination, feminist theory of rape.

Along with psychological, biological, sociological factors of rape, internet is also become responsible for rape. In this year, from 10th august to 20th august, in Google, 90% people searched porn and 17% searched jobs. India ranked third in search of porn videos in the internet. But there’s no clear evidence that easy access to pornography has led to an increase in sexual assault or rape.

Some studies suggest that pornography may even protect consumers from sexual violence, while others suggest that it may increase the likelihood of rape or sexual coercion. But in recent Kolkata doctor rape case, the rapist Sanjay Roy is a porn addicted person.

After all the reasons of rapists or increasing rape cases, we need the solution of this problem. In India we have no strict laws against the rapists. Sometimes our society also become the cause of rape. It’s time to discover solutions against rape. One of the solutions is sex education. It increases knowledge, normalization of sexual and reproductive issues and self-efficacy. Research shows that Comprehensive Sex Education (CSE) can help reduce the risk of sexual assault and rape.

Day by day India’s rape cases has become a rape culture. We want solution not only of sexual or biological aspects of rape. We need solution against rape in factors of society, education, political, economic and laws also.

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