When it comes to rape and sexual violence, our laws are tragically stuck in a different century.
Of course, attitudes and mind-sets also needs to change, and of course, what we teach young boys and girls about consent and respect matters. But with all of that said and done, the matter boils down to having a legal system that recognizes rape in all its forms as a crime, and punishes it with the severity it deserves.
Much of our law has been inherited from the British colonial era, and nowhere is this retrograde attitude more evident than in the case of rape, which is defined as being gender-specific ie committed by a male against a female. Furthermore, marital rape is not regarded as rape.
In addition, the age of consent is set at 14, allowing for child marriage to take place under “special provisions.” Clearly, true consent at such a young age is not possible.
But, perhaps worst of all, it allows defense lawyers to paint a rape victim as having “general immoral character” in order to undermine her credibility, leading to the repugnant practice of correlating a woman’s so-called “character,” lifestyle choices, and sexual history to the eventual outcome of rape.
While reforms have taken place in these laws, such as the Nari O Shishu Nirjatan Daman Ain, these have mostly increased the punishment without broadening the definition of rape.
How can we conceive any form of justice in cases of sexual violence when the eyes of justice themselves are blind to what it is? Our legal system continues to see men, married women, and transgender people as incapable of being raped. It continues to set provisions whereby defense lawyers can say that a victim was “asking for it.”
Comprehensive reform of our rape laws is the need of the hour. This is a matter of safeguarding the basic human right to bodily integrity. We can hardly make any claims to have progressed as a society if we fail to do so.