Crimes against women must stop for the country to prosper
- We need a multi-pronged approach that includes gender sensitization and greater representation across all levels of the justice system. We must end injustices that laws alone have been unable to tackle.
Crimes against women in India rose by 4% in 2022 from the previous year, a majority of the cases being cruelty by the husband or his relatives (31.4%). Delhi is still rated as the country’s most unsafe city for women, with an average of three reported rape cases per day, accounting for 29% of crimes committed against women in 19 major cities, according to 2023 data from the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB).
The latest edition of the NCRB report underlines the continued vulnerability of women to violence. A recent study, which analysed about 400,000 FIRs filed between 2015 and 2018 in Haryana where women were the primary complainants of different offences, has revealed “multi-stage discrimination" in our criminal justice delivery system and raised the issue of whether the complainant’s gender impacts police processes and judicial outcomes. Commenting on its findings, a senior police officer said that “women complainants often get raw treatment during investigation and trials, are not always viewed seriously by the police, and sometimes get short shrift in the court proceedings." In a 2010 case, India’s Supreme Court observed that “most of the complaints of assault and violence against women are filed in the heat of the moment over trivial issues." It was cited in a 2017 case for the framing of ‘guidelines’ for arrests under Section 498-A of the Indian Penal Code that were reversed in 2018 by a larger bench.
The NCRB took care to point out that its data records the incidence of registered crimes, not the actual numbers, and that chances of under-reporting cannot be ruled out. Intimate-partner violence is fairly common in India, with about 31.5% of Indian women experiencing physical or sexual violence at least once after the age of 15 (National Family Health Survey, 2019-2021). Many women find it difficult to report or are ‘pressured’ into not reporting for fear of societal retaliation, stigma, unfair treatment at police stations and torturous judicial processes. On average, only 5.2% of victims seek help from the police in cases of physical or sexual violence (NFHS-2019-20). Even in states with high literacy rates like Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, the rate of reporting has been low, showing that it is not linked to general literacy. In fact, globally, less than 10% of the women who experience violence seek help from the police.
In the aftermath of the ‘Nirbhaya’ incident, several changes were brought into the legal landscape, but their impact as a deterrent has remained limited. Many legal experts opined that the fault lies more with implementation processes and argued for making these transparent, with the use of electronic evidence, video-graphing of entire investigations and the time-bound filing of charge-sheets and holding of trials to boost confidence among victims. As a recent research noted that “the victims deserve more empathy and sensitivity, as they are now being humiliated on a daily basis in long-drawn court cases… which tend to make them believe that the system is accused-friendly." At the end of 2022, there were about 50 million cases pending across various courts in the country. A legal expert also lamented that in many instances, “the witnesses turn hostile during the investigation and trial... and victims were thrust upon out-of-court settlements, which results in low convictions." The conviction rate was a measly 26.5% in 2021, down from 29.8% in 2020. Many feminists were of the view that legal reforms were more ‘populist’ than truly reformist, since patriarchal notions remain predominant in society and law, while both need to evolve hand-in-hand for better results.
Way back in 1993, the United Nations in its declaration on eliminating violence against women was categorical that crime against women is an expression of traditionally imbalanced gender power relations. In the criminal justice system, historically designed by men for men, women are severely under-represented but over-represented as victims or survivors, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.
Globally, about 30% of women have been subjected to physical or sexual violence (by an intimate partner or non-partner) at least once in their lives. Women make up less than 35% of the police force and women’s representation in the judiciary varies widely, from 70.9% in France to just 3.8% in Nepal. In India, women account for around 12% of the police force, 28% of the lower judiciary, 12% of high courts and 9.6% of prison administrations across levels.
Despite 162 countries having passed laws on domestic violence and 147 on sexual harassment at the workplace, violence against women and girls continues to negatively impact their well-being and full participation in society and the economy. It results in large economic losses too—$1.5 trillion every year globally, according to a 2022 World Bank estimate, and around 1.2–3.7% of GDP for many countries. Studies indicate that in India, women can lose an average of at least five paid work days for each incident of intimate-partner violence. As India sets out to achieve rapid economic expansion, it is important to boost women’s labour market participation and skills.
The mere adoption of laws isn’t enough; these must be implemented earnestly. Gender sensitization from early childhood well into people’s work lives could mitigate and help end gender inequality, stereotypes and gender-based violence to make homes, workplaces and public spaces safer.
