-Vidhit Verma
Rape has been considered to be an act usually committed against one sex and the laws in India certainly tilt towards woman rather than protecting every citizen and gender.
Despite expanding the definition of rape under the Indian Penal Code to include non-penile vaginal acts of penetration, the said definition continues to conform to a gender-specific notion of rape, based on a predetermined characterization of the victim-perpetrator framework on the basis of genders. Implicating a binary notion of gender, this results in gross injustice and it therefore, becomes imperative to adopt a human-rights-based approach in defining the offence of rape, and negate the role of gender in identifying the victims and perpetrators of an act of rape, and establish equity.
This argument may be pillared on a state’s obligation to not discriminate on the basis of sex, the recognition of transgender rights, and an assessment of the common grounds for opposing gender neutrality in Indian rape laws.It can be said that crimes against women in India have a lot to do with centuries of patriarchy and a skewed sex ratio.
However, the perpetrators often enjoy impunity at the risk of women’s rights and security.
In 2013, one of the most brutal and fatal gang rapes in New Delhi led to not only massive and supremely angry nation-wide protests, but also led to landmark reforms to the existing rape laws. By taking into account the gender and patriarchal attitudes in Indian society, the new laws reform changed the landscape of justice for women by taking a tough stand on crimes against women. In the aftermath of the Nirbhaya gang-rape and death, the Justice Verma Committee was formed in 2013 to review sexual offence laws.
As a consequence, Indian women can now file a rape charge online. Cops are duty bound to register a case immediately upon complaint. Rape remains the fourth most common crime against Indian women so these changes were necessary, and critical.To see the crime as merely a man violating a woman, as it currently is currently being seen, however, is an injustice to those whose story does not fit this ambit.
There is thus, still a great need for further change to India’s rape laws.
On the same idea, a private members’ bill has been introduced before the Rajya Sabha. This bill would introduce amendments in the criminal laws to make sexual offences gender neutral. Re framed language in sexual offence laws would aim to change ‘any man’ and ‘any woman’ to ‘any person’ – a step forward to make the laws gender neutral. “Men, women, and other genders can be perpetrators and also victims of these offences. Men, women and others need to be protected”.
In understanding the need for this change being pitched, one must first understand what exactly constitutes rape. International law has evolved from viewing it just as penile-vaginal to penile-orifice and then to penetrative-orifice, all within a non-consensual context. By the last legal definition, the physical violation with blunt objects undergone by Nirbhaya at the hands of her gang rapists would be classified as rape.It would by current Indian legal standards as well.
Yet, for instance, if there were to be such an act committed by a woman against a man or even another woman, it would not amount to rape. To be sure, it would be an assault-based crime of some form, but not rape. This, even though the victim would have been forcefully penetrated in a sexual manner by her assailants.The same result would also come about if the victim were a child, as the law would allow for a charge of sexual assault, but not one of penetrative sexual assault, which is codified as male-only.
Many parliamentarians and some activists argue that only members of one sex can rape and only the other can be raped, for rape is only ever patriarchal. The Indian laws are thus very limited in this regard, bringing to light this shortcoming.
Statistically with regards to the existence of both male and female survivors, the US’s Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta has estimated that 18.3% of American women and 1.4% of American men have experienced rape at some point in their lives. Both percentages are likely to be underestimations due to stigma attached to reporting the crime. Ideally, India would be able to provide its own numbers for statistical comparison.
However, given that rape by legal definition cannot be committed against men, there is no good way of determining just how many male survivors exist in India.Considering the argument that equity in a society is cardinal to its good governance, in addition to those discussed above, such a change and broadening of the definition of rape under Indian laws may also be deemed essential. What also need to be considered is that even though women suffer from such crimes in incomparable numbers, the law cannot turn a blind eye to the victims or the perpetrators of other genders.
In conclusion, the impulse to view the rape narrative as exclusively that of a man violating a woman does an injustice to those whose dismal stories and sufferings simply do not fit the mold that is easiest for us to understand and therefore,an imperative need to redefine norms of the society is felt which would help only if the laws are not made to favor any gender rather to determine the acts that constitute this heinous crime which could be committed against any person.
Humans for Change 