rey is the motive word when it comes to crime against women. This is because in our societies particularly in India the male dominates and to exercise as well as reinstate that domination, he ‘preys’ on women and children particularly the girl-child. This picture has not changed over the years, though we hear about women empowerment and liberation, which is limited to a very small extent of minuscule urban, educated and accomplished woman. Crime against women and the girl-child otherwise occurs relentlessly with the male on the hunt looking for prey and pounces on the unwary, gullible and defenceless female gender randomly when opportunity arises irrespective of time and place. Even the assumption of the insulation against crime that is believed against the urban, educated and accomplished woman is shaken when they personally encounter attacks, which is when the glass screen shatters and they are left cowering helplessly in front of the perpetrator like any other victim of the female gender.
The reason for doing this study was that the author was deeply disturbed in 2012 when the Nirbhaya incident occurred where an innocent girl in the prime of her life was attacked by goons in the middle of our capital city, Delhi with unimaginable bestiality and who lost her life as a consequence of the bestiality and violence inflicted upon her. Outrage followed in all sections of Indian society and pious words of sympathy and resolve were mouthed by all and sundry including politicians with the promise that the attackers would be punished exemplarily; our justice system would be fast-tracked for delivery of sentences; and existing laws strengthened and made harsher for crimes against women. Despite these high-sounding proclamations in the Nirbhaya case, though death sentencing has been announced for the attackers, even after 7 years they continue to remain in prison and it is the girl’s family that has to chase our justice system to implement the death sentence. Not only that during the time the rapists were incarcerated in Tihar jail awaiting trial and sentencing, permission was given to foreign TV agencies to interview them which opportunity they used with rare gusto and boasted about their action in raping the poor girl. It was also lately in the press that Nirbhaya’s male companion on that fateful night used to charge for TV appearances under the specious plea that he also had to make a living. After Nirbhaya, rapes and crimes against women continued across the country with monotonous regularity and there was no let-up on either the frequency of incidence or the extent of inhumaneness meted out to the poor victims though the succeeding incidents did not approximate the horror of Nirbhaya.
There is therefore a need to change this psychology wherein crimes against women and children are perpetrated with freedom and assumed impunity, which has to stop.
This is all the more necessary in the context of the Nirbhaya like rape-murder-set on fire incident in Hyderabad in this month, December 2019 followed thereafter with the Unnao incident in UP where both girls met with horrifying deaths.
