Till the year 2017 – as a voracious consumer of mainstream online media and news, I always perceived my own country the way feminists and western media projected in “India’s Daughter” documentary. But to me, the reality check came as the worst day of my life. More on this some other time…
If we see India as a country – there was long-standing patriarchy till the British era, the lawmakers took a note of that added many remarks in our penal code to help women in distress. Post-independence the way Indian women have progressed is phenomenal, on the day of writing this article USA is celebrating their first female vice president. Whereas India already got their first female prime minister, president long back. Nobody from the feminism camp came forward to acknowledge the progress, but even if in some remote corner some horrible soul has done some atrocities toward any woman in India this camp goes for the kill and often makes remarks such as “All men are rapists” moreover this community plays a great socio-political game through which they bring reservation for women in every possible field(education, jobs even entrance exam fees). Now, this extreme polarization of women-centric law and behaviors has given a free hand to the evil mind. Minor marital strifes got turned into dowry/domestic violence cases, relationship break up got reported as rape, rejected job promotions are being filed as workplace sexual harassment.
No matter how many cases a woman files against a man, if we take a glimpse at the official statistics it will unravel the truth of this system. NCRB (National Crime Records Bureau) every year publishes a comprehensive “Crime in India” report, which holds all the records of arrest/convictions/discharge and acquittal against any particular crime. One can totally agree with the viewpoint of the Indian court mentioning Rape being the most heinous crime of all.
“Such sexual offences, in my opinion, are worse than murder/ culpable homicide, since the assault in such cases is not just on the body of the victim but also on the soul, mind as well as the whole persona of the victim,” – Delhi High Court
So let’s look into the NCRB data to find out how many rape case arrests happen every year and how many cases result in a conviction/sentencing. Now one has to keep in mind that the speed at which the Indian judiciary operates it takes at least 3 to 4 years to conclude a case in court (Although there are examples that case runs for several decades). So if a case got registered in 2016, the earliest we can expect judgment is 2019.
Now in 2016 NCRB Crime report on page no 610. NCRB(2016) it is mentioned that 47619 male was arrested in the offense of Rape. Now if we assume that these people were tried in an Indian court for at least 3 years and somewhere around 2019 their judgment came, so let’s look into the 2019 NCRB report (Vol 3) – we can see there were 5733 convictions on the rape case. That essentially means out of 47619 people 41886 were wrongfully detained and tried for the most heinous crime one can ever commit. Being accused of such a heinous crime technically takes away all the freedom for life. As a society which respects the chastity and moral of the women with the highest order, it assumes that “No woman will ever risk her chastity by accusing a man of rape”, it will automatically presume a man being guilty – even if he is pronounced innocent by the court. But no matter how much India is being portrayed as archaic and shamelessly patriarch by feminists and western media, any given statistics in the right light or ground reality will draw a completely different picture – only 12% of the arrests (5733 out of 47619) end up in conviction. Will the police and judiciary ever be able to pay for the lost dignity of the rest of the 88%? The female predators who implicated their lover, live-in partners into such a mess, is there any provision of Indian law to bring them to justice? The answer is “NO”. The repeated plea for forming “Men’s commission of India” have fallen on deaf ears.
In India men are being ostracized, losing jobs, marginalized, and discriminated against by these archaic laws and misused machinery, how is a man supposed to get redemption if he is falsely implicated? Media is supposed to hide the identity of a sexual assault victim, but there are numerous cases where media demonize a man if any woman even points a finger at him in social media handles like Twitter. Have we ever seen a post in any newspaper apologizing to those men whom they have tried in the media itself and convicted with social stigma?
How can we call a country the biggest democracy of the world if it cannot withstand its own social change in law machinery? Also, it is the responsibility of international media to put up the correct statistics and let the world know the true picture of Indian society and manhood. In 2019 the USA reported 98,213 sexual assault cases compared to 32,033 rape cases in India, barely looking at the number, and considering the fact that the USA has 75% less population than India, the numbers are outrageously high for a so-called first world country. Will the western media ever dare to ask these questions and make the true documentary “USA’s daughter”?
This is not the first time this issue is being raised, there were numerous times this alarming situation has been observed by multiple top media houses and NGO’s but sadly our honorable Indian court never really took cognizance of this said fact. Sadly the feminism lobby is so powerful in India that it has the capacity to even force an honorable high court judge to expunge his remark. Karnataka high court once questioned the behavior of a complainant lady while evaluating a bail application
“..she has also not objected to consuming drinks with the petitioner and allowing him to stay with her till morning; the explanation offered by the complainant that after the perpetration of the act she was tired and fell asleep, is unbecoming of an Indian woman” .. Karnataka High Court
But sadly the judge had to retract his own words with sheer pressure of the draconian lobby (Read more.). It is a question to the collective conscience of the society – how long will this vilification go on for a common man, are lawmakers of our nation will take any note of this situation?