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India's Rape Laws, Consequences, Courses of action, Key Facts, Causes …
India's Rape Laws
The Nirbhaya protests were headed by a retired supreme court judge proposing a new set of laws that would require harsher punishments for sexual crimes such as those against Nirbhaya.
There have been various previous cases not only across the world but in India as well where the case has been handled so late and with such leniency that either party died or the offender was let out on bail. This led to more people demanding justice or change in their country’s ways.
The cause of these laws being so ineffective is illiteracy. Even middle aged men that haven’t received a proper education thing that rape is consensual and that sex can’t happen without two people so there isn’t anything such as non consensual sex.
Cases such as the Aruna Shanbaug case, Mathura case, Scarlett Keeling case, Park street case, and Priyadarshini Mattoo case further induced hatred from activist and Indian citizens against the lax laws against sexual assault. Amountless cases go without the offenders being punished for their crimes which further spurred the protests and proved to the government that this wasn’t a one time case.
A whole movement began called the Nirbhaya movement that caused media coverage and made the issue popularized and important across the nation. This caused a change in the laws.
Section 375 of the IPC made punishable the act of sex by a man with a woman if it was done against her will or without her consent.
On March 21st, 2013, the rape la in the country changed. It was made tougher after the Nirbhaya case. The punishments became more stringent.
The definition of rape also included sex when her consent has been obtained by putting her or any person in whom she is interested, in fear of death or of hurt.
According to government statistics, these more strictly enforced and remade rape laws are not creating much of an affect on India, with rape still beinf the fourth highest crime against women in India.
Several crimes against women were brought under the ambit of the law. These included stalking, voyeurism, acid attacks, sexual harassment and trafficking.
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Consequences
All of these reasons lead to young girls having to worry about whether their own family and trusted friends would ever do something like this to them. Teenagers are told to stay at home past 8 and to not wear shorts outside of their homes. Women and girls in India are not allowed to live their lives freely without fear and practice their rights, which is a major consequence of the rape laws in this country.
The lax rape laws in India have led to many things, the most obvious of them being a high amount of sexual assualt cases, with rape still being the 4th highest commited crime in the country.
The patriarchal society in India is further spurred on by these laws. Children in rural places such as Haryana or Gurgaon are taught from a young age that girls aren’t to wear “provocative clothing” such as jeans or anything that doesn’t cover their skin completely.
The police also have to put undeserving people behind bars due to forceful activism. Though in the case of the Nirbhaya rape, there was mainly peaceful protesting, many women that try to defend themselves against attackers are accused of violence and jailed for something that wasn’t their fault due to the laws.
Another consequence that hasn’t even begun to be solved even after the Nirbhaya case is marital rape. This is due to both, the traditions of child marriage/ arranged marriages. In either child and arranged marriages, the two people may not want to engage in sexual activity but are forced by their families or each other, either for the purpose of reproduction or because after marriage you “have to on the wedding night” as dictated by society. The consequences of these laws is that marital rape isn’t considered as rape or non consensual by majority of the population because “they’re married, so that means they consent”.
Courses of action
One course of action that has been carried out after the Nirbhaya case was the implementation of new, changed laws. It included the very legal definition of rape changing, a review of AFSPA laws, and new offences stated under the category of sexual assault.
Local organisations are campaigning to further change the laws, smaller organisations raise funds to educate children in rural areas of the correct definitions of rape as well as to donate to rape survivors/activists.
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