Curbing Sexual Assault
The initiative by the Union government to fight the menace of sexual assault by passing an ordinance appears to be sincere. There are some issues that remain for the Bill on sexual assault which will eventually replace the ordinance to deal with. Finance Minister P Chidambaram said on Monday the Bill, after the Select Committee has given its recommendations, would include issues on which there was no ‘immediate consensus”. Hopefully, the Bill will be passed in the forthcoming Budget Session of Parliament.
Some women’s groups had sought to stall the promulgation of the ordinance since some of the issues raised by them were not addressed in the law. These included marital rape and the demand to hold command officers accountable for sexual assaults by their subordinates, for example. While holding officers accountable for rape by subordinates is a progressive, reformist idea, given the Indian reality such a dramatic change cannot be brought about effectively overnight. A massive exercise to hasten societal change in terms of attitudes to power and women with a special focus on the roles and responsibilities, not to mention sensitivity, that ought to be displayed by those in uniform, is a must. Obviously, it is the worst breach of trust ~ quite apart from the heinous nature of sexual assault itself ~ when those who have been Constitutionally mandated to protect us are guilty of such abuse.
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But the general collapse of the system of administration, governance and values has led us to a pass where it would be debatable to expect a superior to pay for the sins of his/her junior though ordinarily s/he holds moral accountability for the deeds of omission and commission by his team. In any case, those immediately in-charge of women under their care must be held accountable for any misdemeanors and/or crimes. The prosecution of security personnel charged with sexual assault under the Indian Penal Code is a much-needed reform even where the Armed Forces Special Powers Act 1958 is in force, but rushing into it is not.
The case of policemen guilty of sexually assaulting and/or exploiting women in their custody, however, is a different matter altogether as the police is only the armed wing of the civil administration and as such is not fighting the battles, internal and external, the armed forces are and that too many a times in adverse conditions. In the wake of the nationwide protests and expressions of outrage, it is worrisome that this aspect has had little effect on the policymakers. This may have stemmed from the government’s reluctance to introduce police reforms, which they apparently fear will weaken their political clout on the force.
The government in rushing through the ordinance, especially when Parliament is scheduled to meet in three weeks for the Budget session, had also come in for some criticism till Chidambaram’s explanation on Monday that the government was keen to ensure it acts immediately as the Justice JS Verma Committee that submitted its recommendations in record time had urged it to do so. The minister added that since criminal law can only be applied prospectively, it was thought proper to go ahead with an ordinance, since promulgated, to ensure that no time is lost in the new laws coming into force. The Bill against sexual assault will include all the clauses of the ordinance and other recommendations of the Verma Committee on which the government will seek the broadest possible consensus, Chidambaram added.
Also for the Bill to consider, is that there ought to be a deterrent which penalizes false accusations regarding sexual crimes appropriately, regardless of whether the complainant is male or female. For, as the disclosure from the fast-track courts set up in Delhi for speedy trial of sexual assaults has brought to the fore, many men had apparently been locked up in concocted cases of sexual assault with six such courts having so far disposed of 27 cases with convictions in 12 cases, including a death sentence, while acquittals were ordered in as many as 15 cases wherein the allegations were found to be false.
