WOMEN, I TOLD, IS THE PERSONIFICATION OF SELF SACRIFICE, BUT UNFORTUNATELY TODAY SHE DOES NOT REALISE WHAT TREMENDOUS ADVANTAGE SHE HAS OVERMAN.
-MAHATMA GANDHI
It's not just a statement but a precursory outlook of that great man who had a future vision. Even if we disregard we still have to admit, that the outlook of women in today’s standard is never the less too atomic, in regard to the respect paid towards, Goddess Lakshmi or Durga. This remark made may sound a bit harsh but it’s exactly as it appears to be. Now bringing up another harsh reality of the societal scenario is the increase in the number of violence against women. Globalization and genuine feminism had outshone the women of the chances and opportunities to stand equally, who previously were restricted to the four walls. Apart from this, it should rather be called nothing less but the diplomatic behavior of the society which on one hand, talks about the change in the thinking of patriarchal society and on the other witnesses, such as rampant growth in the violence against women. We are in the 21st century, where we acknowledge the female gender as independent and self-sufficient. Every other day we find a debate on national television over women empowerment, promoting them for literacy, convincing them to come down in politics to show their nimble qualities to run a government. Simultaneously, it does not matter, how orthodox we are but the moment we hear of gender-discrimination, we are ready to debate over it. It does not even matter how nefarious, we are but hearing of rape cases, taking candles in our hands our legs are always ready for a march. These are just a few, there is a long list of examples that prove that this inhuman senseless society is ready only to talk over women's safety but is not on the path of enactment.
THE QUESTION
There have been a number of laws made for protecting the right and safety of women but the question arises that, are they commensurate enough to make the women feel safe? Did the laws on any circumstances dwindle the rate of crimes committed? Are the laws remodeled with the newfangled crimes?
I wished it had a positive answer but unfortunately, taking the current scenario into consideration, the only answer left is no! The thoughts presented or the questions asked, can be negated by talking about the legality of the legislation of our country, but everything said or stated have been remarked taking the stats and the current scenario into consideration.
THE LAWS WITH THE FLAWS
There has been a constant support to the statement that there have been many laws made for the protection and safety of women in India. The only problems with these laws are, either they have been outdated, inaccessible to the mainstream, or have not been made according to the thought process are the criminals. This statement is made not on the verge of any hatred or anger against the legislation of a country but possibly because of its helplessness before the crimes being committed. When it comes to rape, domestic violence, dowry death we certainly have laws which more or less work accordingly. But to some of the crimes, no effective law has been constituted to deal with them, REVENGE PORN, being such a crime. As already mentioned there have been a number of laws that have been made or framed for the protection of the rights and the safety of the women by the legislation. Few of which are-:
1) IMMORAL TRAFFIC PREVENTION ACT, 1956
2) DOWRY PROHIBITION ACT, 1961
3) INDECENT REPRESENTATION OF WOMEN ACT, 1986
4) DOMESTIC VIOLENCE ACT,2005
5) SEXUAL HARASSMENT AT WORKPLACE ACT, 2013
6) THE INDIAN PENAL CODE 1860
7) CRIMINAL PROTECTION ACT, 1872
And many more…….
IMMORAL TRAFFIC PREVENTION ACT, 1956
Talking about the oldest prevailing laws of women safety, the IMMORAL TRAFFIC PREVENTION ACT of 1956, stands the oldest act made for the safety of women. In the year 1950, the Government of India after being ratified by the international convention for the separation of immoral traffic in persons and expectations of the prostitution of other the legislation of a country passed the SUPPRESSION OF IMMORAL TRAFFIC IN WOMEN AND GIRLS ACT, 1956 that was also called SITA.
Now basically this act was framed and constituted for the safety of women from being dragged into the immoral profession of prostitution and trafficking. This law made the trafficking and sexual exploitation of a person a punishable offense. However, this law became so outdated that unfortunately, India has to biggest Red-Light areas in the whole of Asia.
Taking into regard the step taken by the legislation from preventing women to be dragged into prostitution was a very necessary one, but the outdating of the law can be just imagined from the survey of the government in 2015 that said around 76% of all the people that were included in human trafficking in India women and girls. It is estimated that more than 20 lakhs women and children are trafficked for sex into the red light district in India. The stats have never come down and had rampantly increased in the year 2018-19. It is very sad to find that the country which has the oldest law to prevent prostitution and trafficking has the biggest area of sex workers in the whole of the continent.
DOWRY PROHIBITION ACT, 1961
Again one of the oldest laws that were made for the daughters of a country who were being exploited for dowry by their in-laws. Dowry Prohibition Act, enacted on May 1, 1961, intended to prevent the giving or receiving of a dowry. Under the Dowry Prohibition Act, dowry includes property, goods, or money given by either party to the marriage, by the parents of either party or by anyone else in connection with the marriage. The Dowry Prohibition Act applies to persons of all religions in India. This was again thought of a brilliant Idea by the legislation to prevent the giving and intake of the dowry that had been ritual from ages.
Unfortunately, this law again failed when the stats came around. It was found that that the cases reported from the year 2005 to 2016 were reportedly increasing in the case of dowry intake and the women who lost their lives were around the count of 7600.
PROTECTION OF WOMEN FROM DOMESTIC VIOLENCE ACT, 2005 (PWDVA)
PWDVA defined domestic violence for the first time. The definition includes not just physical abuse, which is more identifiable and is easier to prove (for example, using medical records), but also aspects like emotional and sexual abuse. It even includes the threat of violence as part of the definition.
This act was so well constituted that it was thought to be a ray of light over the darkness of the violence that was faced by the women from ages. Again there was reportedly an increase in the number of domestic violence, that was really unbelievable. According to the stats between 2005 and 2016, there was around 88,467 casualties due to domestic violence that took an average of around 22 deaths per day. This was really heartbreaking to be found in a country like India where women are preached like Goddesses.
SEXUAL HARASSMENT OF WOMEN AT WORKPLACE (PREVENTION, PROHIBITION, AND REDRESSAL ) ACT, 2013
Also came to be known as the VISHAKA GUIDELINES, this act was mainly constituted to protect women from the harassment at the workplace. The sacked focused mainly on the safety of the women working and came with guidelines that constituted the right of equality and realism of working without discriminating anyone on the basis of gender. This act was framed for the security of women to increase the participation of the female gender in every stream without any hesitation or fear.
This was one of the best laws that came into consideration by the legislation but were again let down due to the repeated cases of the casting couches in various industries, the Bollywood industry being the one of it. According to the stats it was found that there was a continuous increase in the filing of cases of the harassment at the workplace which included an enormous increase of 14% in 2019 taking the count to 823 from the previous year that was 722.
THE CRIMES UNANSWERED
The title may sound a bit weird but there are few crimes for which no particular laws have been made and are still being dealt with under the Indian Penal Code or the IT Act. One of which that had been in the news continuously is REVENGE PORN.
The word REVENGE PORN deals with, “the revealing of sexually explicit images or videos of a person posted on the internet, typically by the former sex partner without the consent of the subject in order to cause them distress and embarrassment”. This was made as a topic of discussion because according to an article in a newspaper said, India records a rising trend of REVENGE PORN. This is not a case where things can be let to go lightly. According to the stats, there has been an enormous increase of 28% of the cases of revenge porn as compared to the last decade. The motive behind the perpetrators of the revenge-porn is not only money or attention but also enjoying a powerful position over someone who is helpless or unable to stop them. Calling this crime just against the female gender would be a stereotype but of all the cases filed around 85% of the cases are against women or girls from the age of 18 to 28. This stat of the crime shows that the mentality of society is still patriarchal.
Now, when it is said that this crime is unanswered it’s because India does not have any laws explicitly dealing to REVENGE PORN. It is either dealt with under the Indian penal code for the Information Technology Act which is certainly not sufficient to deal with such a ferocious crime.
SITUATION IN THE LOCKDOWN
In this hard-dwelling time, of the lockdown where life expectancy has fallen so short, every person specially, the middle class is left financially and mentally unstable that has led to an enormous increase in the stats of violence committed against women. According to an article by THE HINDU, it was found that “Domestic violence, harassment, child sexual abuse, and cyber frauds are on the rise during the lockdown period. Nearly 2,500 women in Delhi called emergency helpline numbers which trigger the Emergency Response Support System of the state police. Of these calls over 600 were classified as “women abuse”, 23 calls reported rape, while a majority — 1612 — pertained to cases of domestic violence. It is so shocking to find that even in lockdown the women are not safe and the stats presented show the scenario only of the CAPITAL. With this, we can imagine the cases pertaining to the whole of the country.
CONCLUSION
All the stats being presented and the cases being reviewed, we are not in any situation to question the legality of the legislation or to make laws for the victims. We certainly have highly qualified officials who certainly are doing their job to the best. All we want is to bring their attention to the increasing number of crimes. In a nutshell, we would just like to bring it into the notice of the government that we certainly need new laws that are sufficient enough to deal with the newfangled prime after all we are on the verge of becoming a superpower. Once these stats come down and we see positivity all around we can hold our head high and say that WOMEN SAFETY IN OUR COUNTRY IS NOT JUST TALKED ABOUT BUT ALSO ENACTED.
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