“Delhi gang-rape case: Would have burned my daughter alive for
premarital sex, defence lawyer says” in bold letters headlined Times of India
on the 14th of September 2013. The battle lines were always drawn fine and
clear and the agenda, if one might want to call it, was clear. The case doesn’t
end. They refuse to bury it. Refused when she succumbed in Singapore, refused
when the convicts were nabbed, refused when one was put in juvenile home,
refused again when the sentence was pronounced and now refuse to bury it when
the defence lawyer passes his defence. And maybe this is one agenda that none
have qualms with the media setting in. In fact, there comes a sharp remark on
the other establishments of the country for failing in what they were supposed
to do.
Pick up any newspaper any day and you won’t fail to miss at least a few
‘stories’ on sexual assault, harassment, molestation or even rape. As for statistics, National Crime
Record Bureau says two women are raped in India every hour. Double in a decade.
What is appalling that now it’s out in the open, which otherwise I would
appreciate, but an open that’s far scarier than truth. Has the society
degenerated? Are we crumbling by the day? It is tough to answer that. And
perhaps even intensive research might fail to resolve the proposition. We have
evolved as a society, have become far more open. Is it because many more cases
are now reported that we feel we have stooped much lower? Whatever the case may
be, the baton is with the media which is running a tireless lap fighting for
half a lot. If, today’s newspaper, September 16th headlined black
flags for Akhilesh in Muzaffarnagar, right next to it on the front page is “4
year old raped in school bus.” Page 4: “Step-father held for torturing 3 year
old girl.” Page 5: “No jeans or noodle straps: Karnataka to women employees”
with an insert of Times View slapping the incident. Same page, number 5:
“Mechanism to monitor child abuse cases.” Page 6: “Man abducts toddler, run
over by train”, a Mumbai story where the police is now probing whether the girl
was sexually assaulted. Page 7: “Robbers brutalize woman in Una dist. ...Insert
coins, currency note in private parts.” This again has an insert: “Jawan held
for rape attempt in train.”
These are
reports in one newspaper on one day. If this wasn’t enough, the world media
keeps a vigil right here. Many argued of the steaming up the issue, yet what
remains is the account of what happened. “The story you never wanted to hear” –
Michaela Cross, a US student on an exchange program to India, had her blog
creating ripples across media around the world and dire consequences in India.
All news channels and papers picked it up, wrote about it, spoke about it,
discussed it and called in experts. But what came about it? Is this the first
time a report as such has been released? Remember Scarlett? The much stretched
case of Scarlett Keeling, a British teen, brutally raped in Goa and buried 5
years thence after a prolonged case between the British foreign office,
Scarlett’s mother and the Goan authorities,
passing the buck as usual and in the process maligning the character of a
fifteen year old girl. The first reports that surface are clear and bold:
“British teen raped, killed on Goa beach” Mumbai, March 02, 2008, Hindustan
Times. And then with the probe initiate the media’s agenda of setting thing
right. In another case of the same bucket, Indian Express: “German girl rape:
Goa minister’s son still at large” Panaji, October 15, 2008.
Rewinding in
history a little might set the frame right. January 23rd, 1996, a 25
year old law student, Priyadarshini Mattoo, was found raped and murdered at her
house. And the time it took for her culprit to be framed guilty? A decade! On
October 17, 2006, the Delhi High Court after a tedious and much profiled
hearings, sentenced Santosh Kumar Singh, the son of a police inspector-
general, guilty on both counts of rape and murder and later sentenced him to
death. The case is of much significance as the 1999 acquittal of Santosh Kumar
Singh led to massive public rage and outcry. Public pressure increased much so
after the acquittal verdict of another murder, Jessica Lal case, where a
politician’s son, Manu Sharma, was released, despite the incident occurring in
the presence of dozens of people. NDTV led a campaign then fighting for
Jessica. Priyadarshini’s case too caught the heat and public demonstrations
accentuated the media pressure and turned the traditional lax pace of monthly
hearings to day to day trail and a judgement was reached in 42 days. Santosh
Kumar Singh was found guilty.
Bhanwari
devi’s case is yet another example of endless pages of pain and humiliation.
Allegedly gang raped by five men from her village Bhateri, 55 km from Jaipur,
in 1992, she fought with an undying courage and commitment for justice. It is a
story of brutal shocks and trauma and harassment and humiliation that refuse to
end with the act of rape. She is shoved away from one police station to
another, from one hospital to another for examining marks of being abused.
Absence of female representatives in the medical or police departments and
being asked to leave her ghagara
(skirt) at the police station as evidence she was forced to walk back in her
husband’s blood stained turban for 3Km at 1 in the night. Abandoned by the
family and the village she fought for her dignity. October 2, 1992, Rajasthan
Patrika, carried an editorial ‘kroor
hadsa’ (Brutal Incident). This was followed by innumerable Hindi dailies
from Rajasthan and the national ones covering her case. The case caught fire in
the media and justice delivered, such that women’s organizations propagated the
view that she attracted the ire of her rapists because of her work. Numerous
such organizations filed Public Interest Litigations in the Supreme Court under
a group name of Vishakha. The judgement of August 1997 gave basic definitions
of sexual harassment at workplace. Bhanwari devi received much support
nationally and internationally - United
Nations Fourth World Conference on
Women in Beijing
, invited her. In 1994, she received Neerja Bhanot memorial award for
extraordinary courage and commitment and in 2002, Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot
allotted a residential plot to her and a grant of Rs.40, 000 for the construction of her house
there.
Getting back
to the defence lawyer’s curt remarks on the 14th of September 2013,
the much saddening and one of the most high profile, sordid cases of rape –
that of a 23 year old physiotherapist intern in New Delhi was beaten and gang
raped, brutally, in a moving bus, on 16 December 2012. The case caught
attention nationally as well as internationally. The Delhi police was
questioned and mass protests held across the length and breadth of the country.
The media fought for her relentlessly making the case of prime importance.
India’s daughter, as was the sobriquet or Nirbhaya as she was called by many
news agencies fought for her survival, while the country prayed for her for
over a fortnight. She was airlifted to Singapore. The media followed her there
and guns were pointed towards the mute Manmohan Singh government. Sections of
the media elaborated that the move was to avoid the uncontrollable public fury
if the girl gave up within the country. News agencies across the country –
vernacular and English were onto it and fought for her justice. One of the
fastest cases solved, the four accused have been sentenced to death recently.
In fact a Justice J S Verma committee was appointed by the central government
to suggest amendments to the criminal law to sternly deal with sexual assault
cases. The Criminal
Law (Amendment) Ordinance, 2013 was promulgated by President Pranab Mukherjee, on 3
February 2013 which provides for amendment of Indian Penal Code, Indian Evidence Act, and Code of Criminal Procedure,
1973 on laws related to sexual offences. Had the media not reported and set its
agenda in such aggression, it would have passed by as any other rape, reported
daily in a daily’s page 6.
The cases
are endless and so are the perpetrations. If it is not rape it is daily
harassment and molestation that women and girls take it as a given that they’ll
go through in the country. 14th May 2013,
Ghaziabad, a woman is slapped by male police officers for allegedly drinking
and being in an obscene picture inside a car with a male companion, thrashed on
camera, taken to the police station in the middle of the night in the absence
of a female constable. So much so that a neighbourhood woman comes in and slaps
the girl in police custody, while all this is being captured on national TV
cameras, the boy from the car is standing pleasantly without being spoken to.
Huge TV panels are set for the night on every TV channel and the clip is
repeated over and over again. Many might pull a sharp remark on the
sensationalism in the media, but it was this discussion that questioned the
police and its duties, police forgetting its Indian Penal Code and the
fundamentals of survival – right to be, freedom and expression.
The agenda
is right there, rightly set and right on track. How well are we delivering upon
it, is yet to be seen. It needs persistence and involvement from all sections
of the society.
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