Crimes against Women

The very sharp increase in the number of crimes against women in Assam should be a matter of serious concern for everyone. According to data provided in the Assam Assembly by Chandra Mohan Patowary, Parliamentary Affairs Minister, between April 2016 and January 6 this year, 3009 cases of rape, 17,103 cases of physical harassment and 9,108 cases of abduction of women were registered in the State. In respect of the rape cases, 1,786 accused had been arrested and chargesheets had been filed against 1,697 accused, of whom 76 had been convicted. Patowary also said that under the Assam Victim Compensation Scheme, 2012, a compensation of Rs 3 lakh each had been provided by the State government to the rape victims and to their families in the case of their death. It is futile to imagine that monetary compensations can undo the trauma that remains with a victim of rape. It is far more important to work towards the prevention of such crimes against women by bringing in far more stringent punishment than what we have now for such heinous crimes. Since Assam leads the country in crimes against women, lawmakers of the State should go in for more stringent State pel provisions for crimes against women than what the Indian Pel Code provides. It is also important to accept the fact that there are bound to be many more cases of rape and abduction than the ones that get reported, and the scerio is bound to be worse than what meets the eye. The number of convictions is almost insignificant compared to the number of cases reported. Equally important is the task of motivating our policemen to regard rape as a far worse crime than many of them deem it to be.