DNA Edit: No country for women..

India has a chronic case of amnesia when it comes to meeting the minimum basic norms that ensure physical security for its women citizens. Every time a brutal rape and murder incident surfaces to the level of our collective public consciousness, the Nirbhaya incident - wherein a young paramedic met her end after suffering unspeakable horrors- is ineffectually invoked.

In the larger dialogue of women’s safety in India, the Nirbhaya incident occupies a singular position for the outrage it generated amongst the people and the institutional response that followed. In the aftermath of the incident, the Criminal Law Amendment Act, 2013 was enacted, which laid the foundation for pronounced changes in the extant body of rape laws.

The definition of rape was widened and punishments were made more stringent. In the case of first-time offenders, the law stopped short of stipulating capital punishment but recommended life imprisonment. For repeat offenders, it  called for a death penalty.

Behind the maelstrom that took place after the Nirbhaya incident was the expectation of the people that a deterrent of adequate severity will be formulated by the government that would discourage a prospective offender from committing the crime.

However, new incidents cropping up with alarming regularity undergird the fact that the efforts of the state governments in protecting women have met with failure. Take, for instance, the case of a 15-year-old girl who was killed, abused and subsequently drowned in Jind district in Haryana. Her liver was ruptured while her genitals were mutilated.

The failure of the policing machinery is writ large in this incident. Even the National Crime Records Bureau’s data shows that India continues to be just as unsafe, if not more, than 2012, be it in the cities or in rural areas. From 2015 to 2016, rape incidents across India witnessed a rise of 12.5 per cent. Evidently, the policy of stringent punishment has not had the desired effect. This is because our policies have been functioning with a misplaced focus.

Common-sensical notions, in this particular domain, have proved to be counter-intuitive. While efforts, like lightening up darkened alley-ways and building accessible lavatories, have helped, studies highlight the disturbing trend of rape incidents perpetrated by fathers and family members outnumbering those perpetrated by strangers.

Sadly, the Indian administration- be it on the policing side or on the policy side- is without the wherewithal to deal effectively with this menace. Many of these abuses committed within the four walls of the house never surface; and most of those that make it to the courts do not result in convictions as the victim is put under enormous pressure to retract her complaint.

The need of the hour, then, is to aim for a comprehensive rehaul of the women’s security dynamic in India. This rehaul will remain incomplete unless a cultural zeitgeist that values women as equal stakeholders with inalienable rights starts in India.