dna edit: End of humiliation for rape victims with the banning of the 'two-finger test'

The regressive, humiliating medical procedure called the two-finger test, which rape victims are subject to, has finally been banned. The new guidelines that the Department of Health Research (DHR) and Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) have come up with in consultation with experts also makes it mandatory for medical institutions to have a separate room to conduct forensic and medical tests on victims, thus offering them privacy.

Though the government deserves praise, even as it took an inordinately long time to formulate such essential guidelines, there are reasons to believe that noble intentions alone do not make things change. The fate of the Nirbhaya helpline in Delhi, set up by the state government following nationwide protests in the wake of the rape of a woman in December 2012, is a case in point. The contracts of the employees who handle the helpline, which receives on an average 3,000 calls every day, have not been renewed. Neither have they being paid salaries for two months. It is not that the employees were not committed to their job. They have to suffer because of the uncertain political situation in Delhi. That alone says a lot about an administration’s priorities in dealing with something as important as women’s safety.

There are several other instances that speak volumes of how initiatives of governments at the state and Centre lose steam after a point. The Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (PNDT) Act has failed to make significant progress in stopping female foeticide and restore male-female ratio in India for two reasons. For one, the 1994 law, passed by Parliament, lacked teeth. It prompted the Supreme Court in 2013 to pass an order to make it more effective. The role of state governments too have been questioned in this regard since they failed to demonstrate the will to end the senseless killing of foetuses. The 2013 NCRB data shows how rampant foeticide and infanticides are in some Indian states, most notably in Madhya Pradesh, which tops the list. A law on paper can achieve little if the enforcers fail to do their job. That explains why sex determination clinics do roaring business in certain parts of the country — by pandering to the wishes of a patriarchal society.

One had hoped that in the last couple of months before the elections, political parties would at least try and make amends by highlighting women’s issues as an important electoral strategy. Yet, apart from occasional noises by the Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi on women’s empowerment, there is little to show that parties across the political spectrum seem to be taking keen interest on issues pertaining to women’s safety and security. The din and bustle of electoral promises is mostly about offering jobs, economic growth, caste-based reservations, clean governance and a secular atmosphere. That’s unacceptable because women comprise 49 per cent of India’s voting population.

This election would also be about what young India wants from the political establishment. If leaders have their ears to the ground, they should also know that the youth too want an India free of gender violence — a society that bridges the gap between men and women, making both equal stakeholders to the nation’s progress.