We understand that there are issues of greater concern, like demonetisation and a cashless economy which is steering the thought discourse across our State. But here, on this Sunday morning, can we, for a moment, force ourselves to think of two little girls, daughters of Goa, who have been subjected to the most heinous torture and victimisation by their own relatives.
One is 16, but has lost the twinkle in her eye and dream of adult hood and woman hood. She has been raped for two years by at least one relative and then was raped last week by another. And then there was a third man to rape her too.
The other – and it’s difficult to hold back tears, as this is written – is just four. Yes, you read that right. She was sexually abused and this falls very much under the definition of the rape laws. This too, happened in our very Goa.
While governments are quick to insist that rapes are not an indication of a law and order failure but reflect the demise of our social fabric, governments must realise that the failure to affect severe punishment in record time in previous cases, ensures that there is no fear. The records gathering dust in several police stations will trace the sad story of how perpetrators of the worst form of violence on humanity, rape, have not been brought to book. And this extends to all forms of related torture like beatings, threats, seizure of property and so on.
Herald’s archives are full of such stories. In Siolim, a woman whose husband and father ended their lives because of the constant torture of a senior minister (the complainant’s version), over property, has had to wait for week over a year, for any action, which has been non-existent. It took a lot of courage for her to go this far.
Another woman, who was dragged, beaten and rods inserted in her private parts by relatives in a slum area near Mapusa faces a situation where the criminals (including a woman) are free and there is very little heard of in her case.
Coming back to these two cases, the investigation should extend to how relatives of the 16 year old were violating her, without the immediate family knowing. It must also be ascertained, by sensitive NGOs who are interacting with the victim, why she did not or could not complain earlier. Under no circumstances should any of the three alleged rapists, get a single window of opportunity to escape intense scrutiny and finally a conviction.
Turning to the four-year-old’s rapist, even a greater degree of state action is needed. Zero tolerance should be displayed and nothing but the severest of punishments, should be fought for, like in the case of Nirbhaya the Delhi student who was raped on a bus died and a murder charge was registered and four adult convicts were sentenced to death. The Goa police should show courage and probe this case, secure conviction and then use these convictions to start re-open a nationwide debate on whether there should be capital punishments for rapists. Agreed there are two sides to this argument but when more such brutalities emerge, it is difficult to drag oneself to the middle ground. At the same time the law and order apparatus cannot keep pushing away a hard reality that this is not just a societal issue. This concerns them too and it is their failure.
Post the Delhi rape case (the Nirbhaya case) December 2012, a judicial committee went into ways to amend laws to provide quicker investigation and prosecution of sex offenders.
The committee submitted a report which indicated that failures on the part of the government and police were the root cause behind crimes against women. In 2013, six new fast-track courts were created to hear rape cases after the Criminal Law (Amendment) Ordinance, 2013.
The Goa government needs to very seriously look at much faster investigation of rape cases without political interference, and establishing fast track courts only to handle crimes against women.
And finally, an appeal goes out to civil society and all media friends that our eternal vigil will finally make the above happen. Our role is the most vital and we must not fail.
