CRIMES AGAINST WOMEN
On a regular statistics, 70% of women have experienced physical & sexual violence from their partners, more than 50% of the women are killed by their partner in 2017, every three out of four girls are subjected to human trafficking, 51% of adult women accounts of human trafficking, 71% of girls are accounted to human trafficking, 15 Million adolescent girls aged between 15 to 19 had experienced forced sex
By Anuja Tripathy
INTRODUCTION
“The true republic: men their, rights, and nothing more; women, their rights, and nothing less.” -Susan B. Anthony
India is a Democratic, Republic & Secular Country, where all the Citizens are served with Justice, Liberty & Fraternity, but if we go deep down into this we will get to know that women are always kept under certain restrictions & as a result of which their Liberty gets affected. Women are not allowed to enjoy their freedom & liberty because of the increasing rate of crime against them outside their home, not only in India, the crimes against women are increasing worldwide.
There is a huge difference made by the society between men & women which now seems to take a form of behemoth which is now feeding or affecting the female strata of the society. If it continues the same way, there would be high rate of crime against women & rarely people will be punished because the act of men or any other person against a women were never considered as a crime nor it is considered as a crime today.
The women who are deprived of employment, money or basically backward classes women faces huge amount of atrocities served by their partners, & as they are economically backward with no education & knowledge that the behavior they get from their partner is a crime & therefore they have no knowledge that they can file a complaint against it to get justice. Hence the fear of economic security they are forced to tolerate these atrocities. Therefore the first & foremost thing to be served to the women’s of India is a minimum level of education to understand what is right & what is wrong served to them. So the utmost necessary is ‘to act now rather than to regret later’.
MEANING OF CRIMEs AGAINST WOMEN:
“The semantic meaning of ‘Crimes against women’ is direct or indirect physical or mental cruelty to women. Crimes which are ‘directed specifically against women’ and in which ‘only women are victims’ are characterized as ‘Crime against women’.
Married women are not even safe at their matrimonial home, because they face cruelty by the husband & relatives by using of force, mental torture & even to some extent the matrimonial home of the women tries to kill the women which force them to either suicide, or leave their matrimonial home reside with their parents or anywhere. Cruelty by husband & relatives, dowry death, these are the matters for which a family welfare committee is also organised for the reduction of the crimes under these matters. The family welfare committee is present in each district headed by the District Magistrate which looks after these matters.
Even in today’s date the dowry death is prevalent. People still accuses women for more & more dowry using violence as a weapon on women (physical, mental & social). Therefore no matter where the women is, she is not safe anywhere. Even if a woman is of immoral character, it doesn’t give any right to anyone to violate her right or rape her or molest her or commit any such action which is crime against women. If a woman wears a short dress why it is considered that she is of easy virtue & harass her for no reason. Can an outfit decide her character? There are several question raised and remained unanswered and these unanswered questions are the reason behind the increasing rate of crimes.
CRIME RATE IN INDIA:
On a regular statistics 70% of women have experienced physical & sexual violence from their partners, more than 50% of the women are killed by their partner in 2017, every three out of four girls are subjected to human trafficking, 51% of adult women accounts of human trafficking, 71% of girls are accounted to human trafficking, 15 Million adolescent girls aged between 15 to 19 had experienced forced sex. Women faces various violence against them some are: domestic violence, dowry death, cruelty by the husband & relatives, sexual harassment at workplace & at public places too. Women today are safe nowhere.
Even children’s now-a-days are also game birds & they are being preyed by the hunters outside, & the children’s suffering from these mental traumas has no knowledge of what is happening with them. Although there are many Acts & Statutes which has various provisions to protect the women who falls prey of & also children from being a game bird. The National Crime Records Bureau Report of India on 2012 stated a reported crime rate of 46 per 100,000, rape rate of 2 per 100,000, dowry homicide rate of 0.7 per 100,000 & the rate of domestic cruelty by husband or his relatives as 5.9 per 100,000.
CRIME RATES ACROSS THE WORLD:
The cruelty or violence a women faces is not only prevalent in India but also in other countries like south Africa, Syria, Sudan, Iraq, Pakistan, Yemen, Afghanistan, Etc. South Africa is the highest statistics of gender based violence in the world, rape & domestic violence are also included. Syria in recent years is named as one if the worst country for women in terms of sexual violence, harassment, coercion into sex & there is a lack of access of justice in rape cases.
Talking about Sudan according to UNICEF 34% of women aged from 15 to 49 believed that violence against the wife by the husband or the partner are justified under certain circumstances and also 34% of women ageing from 20 to 24 were married or in union by the time they were 18. Similarly in Iraq at least 36% of married Iraqi women are subjectred to some form of abuse at the hands of their husbands. Violence against women including honor killings, child marriage, rape, acid attacks & other forms of domestic violence is reportedly remaining prevalent in Pakistan.
According to world report 2017, women in yemen is not awarded with equal rights of divorce, inheritance or child custody as men. Approximately 2.6 million women & girls are at risk of gender based sexual violence. According to Human Right’s report 37 % of Afghan women are literate & one third girls are married before they turn 18, also the country’s maternal mortality rate is high.
LAWS FOR SAFEGUARDING THE WOMENS:
There are certain Acts which were brought into effect for the protection of the women of our country. There are some women – specific legislation:
- The Prohibition of child marriage Act, 2006.
- Special Marriage act,1954
- Dowry Prohibition Act,1961
- Sexual Harassment at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition & Redressal) Act, 2013.
- The Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, 1956.
- The Commission of SATI (Prevention) Act, 1987.
The crime under The Indian Penal Code, 1860 specifically for safeguarding the women’s are :
- Rape (Sec 376).
- Kidnapping & Abduction (Sec 363-373).
- Dowry Death (Sec.302, 304B.)
- Cruelty by Husband & Relatives (Sec.498-A).
- Molestation (Sec.354).
- Sexual Harassment (Sec.509)
- Importation of Girls (Sec.366-B).
CONCLUSION:
I am a women & I see thousands of women facing these problems or we can say they suffer from these atrocities every now & then. India is an Independent Country & so are its citizens, then why the society bars the women to enjoy their independence & freedom? Why they are always treated as others property? If a woman is unmarried she is considered as property of her parents & if she is married she is considered as her husband’s property. It has been years we are independent but these cultures are still prevalent which bar the liberty of the women. It’s high time now it needs to get stopped.
If a women ever says NO for anything that means NO, but this NO doesn’t stands relevant for those women unless stands relevant for the male dominated society. Our country has witnessed various crimes against women even before independence from SATI to Rape, from domestic violence to acid attack. Out of these all my question is how much more to witness? With this changing society can’t we change the stereotyping mind set of the people outside.
So Crime against women is a social aspect and a never ending topic because it is not only prevalent in India but it is a wide spread worldwide problem faced by every 8 out of 10 women’s. Until & unless the crime against women which is a serious crime stops the topic cannot be concluded.
Also Read: TYRANNY OF UNELECTED INFLUENCING JUDICIARY?
Leave feedback about this