Rape and the idea of justice

Bipasha Saikia

(The writer can be reached at bs4380@gmail.com)

Aftermath of the horrific 2012 Delhi gang rape saw the who’s who of the population of Delhi and other parts of the nation come to the streets raising slogans of ‘We want justice’, ‘Hang the rapists’, ‘Shame on Delhi Government’ thereby demonstrating the widespread abhorrence of mankind towards the dreaded four-letter word ‘R-A-P-E’ — the most grotesque way of violating a women’s (mostly) dignity. In line with the public outrage and cries of death penalty, the apex Court had given death sentence to the convicts on May 5, 2017, holding that the act was ‘barbaric’ and had shaken the ‘conscience of the society’. The verdict along with the recent rejection of the review petition of one the convicts might give the impression of justice being served. Closer inspection confirms that it would not be incorrect to state that simply awarding death does not solve the matter. Rapes continue to rise across the country at alarming rates with no signs of deterrence. So, how do we, as a nation, tackle this menace and what does the term ‘justice’ imply in the context of rape?

The JS Verma Committee Report of January 2013, recommending amendments to criminal law with respect to crimes against women was well-received but nowhere does it suggest death as a solution to rape. In fact, the very idea of justice in this regard is ambiguous. Law is not the same as justice. It is a means to secure justice. That was the traditional understanding of the term but somewhere, the distinction got blurred for law and justice to mean the same. A question of relevance: Is stringent punishment enough to provide the kind of justice that a rape victim or the larger society seeks? Does sending a convict to the gallows imply that justice has been done? What is the idea of clamoring for justice when it comes to rape?

Many might perceive justice to have been done every time a rape convict is awarded death. But, how does it ensure the idea of righteousness, morality, truthfulness and good harmony of the society as a whole that the word justice commonly implies?

Rape isn’t a problem with specific causes and specific solutions. It is a vicious act with the causes and solutions intersecting/crisscrossing at various angles. And for a country as humongous as India, tackling a multi-layered offence like rape requires policymakers, political thinkers, the civil society and all the stakeholders to deliberate upon not just on what the sentence for rape must be (for that comes at the end of the spectrum), but how to cut the very roots of this heinous act from sprouting. Like a true watchdog of the Constitution, the judiciary has played a commendable role when dealing with cases of crimes against women, but it is what is being done at the level of grassroots by the society and the law-enforcement machinery before the stage of trial that necessitates brainstorming deliberations for deliverance of justice is not the duty of the Courts alone. What needs inspection and also rectification is what kind of upbringing is happening in both the rural and urban households, the education scenario in the country, especially at the primary and secondary level, the popular sentiment running across the country towards the rise of womenfolk and their growing presence in the workforce — the breaking of glass ceilings and shattering of deep-seated notions of patriarchy and how does a man from a rural background adjust to the idea of a working woman, having himself come from a household of a toiling housewife/mother and an illiterate sister? How much responsibility must television, cinema and social media bear in this regard?

Public opinion has been instrumental in revamping the laws pertaining to crimes against women as the Delhi gang rape case shows. True, public opinion has enough political and social force but they are more ‘calls of outrage’ than one borne out of thorough discussion; and their credibility has been tested time and again to prove that mere hanging of offenders does not confirm to the true idea of justice. For true justice to happen, it has to be looked into from the larger perspective of society — ensuring the swift implementation of laws and addressing of the myriad causes of rape at the most rudimentary levels in the society ranging from eliminating evils like patriarchy- the muddy waters from which evils like rape sprout.

In the context of rape, true justice would be served only if the government and the civil society as a whole are successful in ensuring the synthesizing of virtues and a just system of human relations. Elimination of the offender might imbue a sense of justice being served but it is a kind of short-term solace, like a quick-fix solution to a terrible ache without much concern for the root cause of the same.