The Abhaya Case touches the conscience of the Indian Diaspora
From A Correspondent
Auckland, August 28, 2024
When a lifesaver becomes the victim of criminal activities, society fails, laws fail, justice fails.
As per the Indian Government data released by National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), there were more than 31,000 rapes cases and 3200 attempts-to-rape cases reported in 2022, the latest year for which data is available.
The number goes even bigger if we take into account number of unreported cases, but the government does not have the information due to lack of reporting.
Depressing figures
In 2018, on average one woman reported a rape every 15 minutes across India.
The numbers have stayed high, even as the authorities ramped up the penalties, including a minimum life sentence of 10 years or the death penalty if the victim is younger than 12.
In all sense, it is a shocking stat and is regarded as the very manifestation of soft law and its even weaker implementation at the grass-root level of our so-called civilized society.
What has happened is India seems to have again come full circle after nearly 12 years since the Nirbhaya incident. We thought that our country would have turned a corner. At the time there was huge mass movement within India to seek justice for the victim and to seek ‘legislative changes which did happen then.
On August 9, 2024, a Resident Doctor at RG Kar Medical College & Hospital in Kolkata, West Bengal became one of many rape victims for the day and later was found brutally murdered in the hospital premise.
After six days, when India was celebrating its 78th Independence Day on August 15, her parents were in mourning the loss of their only daughter.
They are still grieving, the unimaginable loss and the very thought of having to lead their lives without her.
India has celebrated its Independence Day 78 times but there are numerous families like this doctor’s family who are deprived of their independence, freedom, and above all basic human rights to live a life in a civil society.
It is another scene of lamentation.
Struggling families
Raising a child in a low-medium class family with a single income from school uniform tailoring job and then educating one daughter to making her a doctor in itself would have been hard and a struggle. Then losing one’s child forever in just one-night’s horrific incident is a sheer calamity. This is an uncanny story for this doctor’s family and many more families across India.
We should hold those who do not hesitate to commit such heinous crimes.
But we all have been breathing an air of despondency after looking at the government data and facts year after year. As per the NCRB data 2022, the conviction rate of total number of rape cases that went for trial in courts was just 2.56%, whereas for cases related with attempt to rape, the conviction rate in court was just 0.92%.
These statistics are pathetic for a country that is soon going to be the third most powerful economy. The country must ensure the safety of its its women.
We need to turn the conviction rate to a much higher percentage.
If that happens, three key aspects will follow: (1) The fear of the law will be seen vividly across society and as a result, rapists will start believing they cannot get away with their crimes (2) Application of the law needs to be more consistent regardless of how powerful or influential the criminals are; as a result, all citizens will be treated equally in the eyes of law which will eventually create a vacuum in terms of crime and give back human rights to live safely (3) Current poor policing needs to be addressed. Police need to do their duty without any corrupt practices and bias; this will strengthen our country’s future.
The wait is over, it is time to act.
Let us give justice to the victim’s family by punishing the criminals and bring back hope to our next generation.
The above article was sent to us by a member of the Indian community in New Zealand with a request for anonymity, which we uphold.
