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CRIMES AGAINST WOMEN: The Indian Scenario

- the drivers, factors and influences

Research paper submitted by:

Akanksha Oza Aradhya Dubey Tulja Kedia

TY-E

ABSTRACT India has witnessed an increase in the Crimes against women over the past few years. The aim of this report is an attempt to correlate crime rates to some of the socio economic variables such as female to male sex ratio, work participation and literacy among females; analyze the other factors involved in the numerable crimes and suggest remedies that could be implemented at a National level A research based on secondary data that mainly consisted of reports and official data was used to study the trend of crimes against women and their causes. The results indicate that the assumption economic growth has not translated into the abolishment of traditional practices and regressive attitudes; there is also a clear link between sex ratio and violence as a whole. It is concluded that India has witnessed an increase in the Crimes against women over the past few years evident of the fact that female literacy probably becomes an effective agency against violence only when literacy spreads extensively.This crime against woman situation cannot be improved in a short duration; due to various cultural, economic and social factors. Like the ingrained patriarchal mind-set, the economic dependency, increasing alcohol consumption, wave of migrant laborers in big cities, the clash of cultural values due to a media

3 explosion within 2 decades. It is recommended that Media takes an active step towards shaping minds and attitudes of the Indian common- man towards violence against women in the right direction. One of the basic lessons of social science is that a complex phenomenon such as violence against women rarely, if ever, has a unique explanation, a single driving causal mechanism. Rather, such phenomena are over-determined, plausibly explainable by a multitude of different hypotheses, which arent necessarily mutually exclusive nor exhaustive.

INTRODUCTION Over the last Decade, there has been increasing violence that has been targeted towards women. Rape cases and cases of violence against women have increased over the years. This indicates that Indias story of economic development has not translated into the social sphere and women are still subject to traditional institutions and their regressive practices. For instance, the paradox in the state of Haryana is evident of how development can be a contradiction if it doesnt change unwarranted cultural beliefs and practice. Despite constitutional provisions and safeguards to protect the rights of women by ensuring equality of opportunity and building a gender-just society, the state has the a growing incidence of rapes/gang rapes, eveteasing, molestation, abduction, rampant foeticide, child marriages, honour killings, diktats by khaps, violence against girls in natal families on the choice of their marriage partners and property issues, etc. This report addresses the social issue of Crimes against women, the economic and social impact of such crimes and provides recommendations as to the kind of change that needs to be brought

4 about. Crime according to this report is defined as any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life. This study restricts itself to a statistical and spatial analysis of national/state/district level data available on crimes against women compiled by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB). There is also an attempt to correlate crime rates to some of the socio economic variables such as female to male sex ratio, work participation and literacy among females. However, the scope of such an analysis is limited as the crimes against women are underreported in India. The extent of underreporting varies across time and space. For example, Rape is grossly unreported while dowry deaths rarely are left unreported. Therefore such a discrepancy will lead to further problems such as a region with high unreported data can be classified as one with low crime rate and vice versa. All literature that was cited to support information presented in both the introductory and indicator chapters appear in a References Cited list at the end of each chapter in which they were used. The References Consulted list that appears at the end of the compendium includes those sources which were helpful in developing the compendium, but which were not used directly to support information presented. VARIABLES Rapes Child Marriage Literacy Ratio Sex Ratio

5 Female Work Participation Dowry Importation Of Girls METHODODOLOGY This research was conducted through a secondary data; a statistical and spatial analysis of national/state/district level data available on crimes against women compiled by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB). There was a preliminary analysis of possible socioeconomic correlates of crimes against women, lead by a close study of the kinds of crimes committed in India. For this purpose, four indicators were chosen; female literacy (percent), female work participation rate (percent) and sex ratio (number of females for thousand males) and age factor ( percentage of crimes). The factors, influences and recommendations have been interpreted through close study and analysis of a series of data available. RESULTS Presenting the data, there was no relationship that could be detected between crimes against women and female literacy rates. The relationship between crimes against women and sex ratio are very clear and are evident of the fact that lower sex ratio leads to a greater number of crimes against women. There is a clear indication of a positive relationship between the incidence of rape, molestation and sexual harassment with female work participation. The correlations between female work participation and crime rates indicate that women who go out are more vulnerable to violence. The influencing factors included education, media and society acceptance, which showed a close relationship between the number of crimes committed and the above, mentioned factors.

6 IINTERPRETATIONS OF RESULTS Rapes: Rajasthan has witnessed 30% increase in rape cases from November 2010 to November 2012. The cases witnessed in 2012 till November were 1,908, while in the corresponding period in 2011, it was 1,719 cases. In 2010 there were 1,467 cases reported from January to November. according to 2011 statistics from India's National Crime Records Bureau, rape has been the country's most rapidly growing crime since 1971. Increasing by a staggering 792 per cent in those 40 years, rape dwarfs the rise in other serious crimes such as murder (106 per cent), armed robbery (27per cent) and kidnapping (298 per cent). Child Marriage: Several studies have shown that child marriage is associated with increased risk of sexual and/or physical abuse, early pregnancy, and STIs. Girls who marry before the age of 18 are also less likely to be enrolled in school. Child marriage is documented as a violation of human rights in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights since a child is unable to make informed decisions about a life partner and enter into a marriage with free and full consent. Girls and women who are married before age 18 are also more likely to experience violence and abuse. Literacy rate: There seems to exist no correlation among crimes against women and literacy rates as indicated by the scatter plot. However, states such as Kerala, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Nagaland, and Mizoram indicate that female literacy may only be a deterrent at a higher level. That is, female literacy probably becomes an effective agency against violence only when literacy spreads extensively.

7 Literacy rate has been on the rise: After the 2011 census, literacy rate India 2011 was found to be 74.04%Error: Reference source not found. Literacy rates and Crimes against women are assumed to share an inverse relationship. However, there is a paradox that can be seen; that is with an increase in literacy rates over the years, crime rate has been increasing as well, therefore implying that Literacy rate and Crimes against women share a positive correlation. This must mean our economic development has not been translating into the social sphere. However, even such an inference has limited scope because an increase in literacy rate can mean that there is greater rate of awareness and implies a greater reporting than that was possible when the literacy rates were lower. There seems to be a problem with the definition of Literacy. In the census enumeration, A person, who can read and write with understanding in any language, is treated as literate. The giveaway is that it is not necessary for the literate person to have received any formal education or to have attained any minimum educational standard.Error: Reference source not found Therefore it is evident of the fact that it is fairly liberal and leaves a lot of room for discrepancies. Moreover, the data on literacy collected through census enumeration classifies all individuals into only two categories, i.e. literate and illiterate as it is based on self-declaration of the respondent, It does not make any distinction between the proximate and isolated illiterates. Therefore, the census data thus suffer from obvious limitations, as these are not based on any objective measure to test the literacy status of the respondents.Error: Reference source not found Sex Ratio: It has been established that young, unmarried, low status males are more prone to committing violent acts against women. This theory has been backed by the consistency seen when studied in various

8 countries. In India, a study carried out between 1980 and 1982 showed a strong correlation between crime rates in individual states across the country and the sex ratio in those states. The authors concluded that there was a clear link between sex ratio and violence as a whole, not just violence against women as might be assumed when there is a shortage of females.Error: Reference source not found. The United Nations has revealed shocking figures stating that 1 in 3 women are beaten or raped during their lifetime. Over a billion women have been subjected to violence on this planet. Even the National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB) states that one crime is committed against women every three minutes, which would mean about 480 women are violated on a daily basis." In Rajasthan, discrimination against women is so deep-rooted that the child sex ratio is 883 girls for every 1000 boys. On an average there are over five rapes takes place in a day and over 32 women deal with domestic violence on a daily basis. These are just the reported cases. There are thousands of crimes that go unreported as there is a culture of silence and denial as far as crimes against women are concerned. In India's states where the sex ratio is highly skewed in favour of males, the daily reports of rape and gang rape are consistent with notions that a surplus of men, devoid of the feminising influence of sisters, girlfriends and wives, are driven towards committing violent crimes against women. In fact, it might well be said that to deny the link between the country's masculinised sex ratio and national average of 22 women raped each hour is to live in disgraceful disregard for the lifelong suffering the crime inflicts upon girls and women.

Female Worker Participation: The correlations between female work participation and crime rates indicate that women who go out are more vulnerable to violence. Talking about positions in politics, women are significantly under-

9 represented in these institutions too in India, accounting for only 10% of the membership of national legislatures in 2009. Over the period 1985-2007, only 5% of state legislators on average were women. Women were also significantly disadvantaged in terms of human development. In 2007, India was ranked 114 out of 182 countries on the Gender Development Index of the UNDP. India had only 933 women for every 1000 men due to pervasive neglect and high rates of female infanticide; the Economist magazine estimated the number of missing women in India to be greater than 100 million in 2009. Only 54% of women in India were literate in 2001, compared with 76% of men. However, the positive aspect of higher work participation rates is that dowry deaths in those districts are much lower.

Dowry: In this Act, dowry means any property or valuable security given or agreed to be given either directly or indirectly (a) by one party to a marriage to the other party to the marriage; or (b) by the parents of either party to a marriage or by any other person, to either party to the marriage or to any other person, at or before [or any time after the marriage]in connection with the marriage of the said parties, but does not include] dower or mahr in the case of persons to whom the Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) applies. The payment of a dowry gift, often financial, has a long history in many parts of the world. In India, the payment of a dowry was prohibited in 1961 under Indian civil law and subsequently by Sections 304B and 498A of the Indian Penal Code. These laws were enacted to make it easier for the wife to seek redress from potential harassment by the husband's family. Dowry laws have come under criticism as they have been misused by women and their families. In India, there are civil laws, criminal laws and special legislative acts against the tradition of dowry. Someone accused of taking dowry is therefore subject to a multiplicity of legal processes.

10 The cases of Dowry Deaths have increased by 2.7% during the year 2011 over the previous year (8,391 cases). 26.9% of the total such cases reported in the country were reported from Uttar Pradesh (2,322 cases) alone followed by Bihar (1,413 cases) (16.4%). The highest rate of crime (1.4) was reported from Bihar as compared to the National average of 0.7. Importation of Girls An increase of 122.2% has been observed in Crime Head as 80 cases were reported during the year 2011 as compared to 36 cases in the previous year (2010). Madhya Pradesh (45 cases), Bihar (10 cases) and Karnataka (12 cases) have together contributed more than two-third of total such cases at the National level.

FACTORS AND INFLUENCES Violence in Gendered Media: Theres little to argue on the fact that media texts still silently 'mirror & resonate 'patriarchal dominance that exists within societies, tailored for its vast male audiences. The media promotes a white, upper middleclass, male view of the world that urges the rest of they handle the important stuff (Douglas 1994, 11). Women are continually being depicted in popular media as stereotyped, docile, hapless beings; fighting to co-exist and survive in a 'mans world. S.K Srivastava and Sweta Agarwal (2004) raise the question: Do the visual media have any relation with the crimes being perpetrated on women today? In their paper, they explain how the images of women are being projected as pitiable, tortured beings tormented by malevolent atrocities by the visual us to sit passively on our sofas and fantasize about consumer goods while

11 media, in a country like India where women are traditionally given high esteem and worshipped as archetype deities. Rape, murder, dowry deaths, female infanticide its an endless list. It must be said that most of the violence and crimes perpetrated on women goes unreported in India, like elsewhere around the world. Such crimes, which do make it to the news bulletin, depict just a fraction of the reality and are extremely small in numbers compared to crimes perpetrated on men. Indian Cinema is littered with imageries of women being projected as fragile beings; as housewives, mothers, sisters, struggling working-women, prostitutes etc., with limited freedom and social acceptance, enslaved, tortured brutally, raped and murdered by villains- its a vicious catacomb. Films like 'Mirch Masala and 'Ram Teri Ganga Maili show how women were exploited and enslaved under the Zamindari System and by the social elites. This calls for a globalized socio-media reform, both intrinsically and extrinsically. Global media institutions should intrinsically cleanse their own ideologies, policies and priorities first, so that they can extrinsically trigger a reformation, intrinsically within societies. Most of the global media organizations are owned & run majorly by men. Women working in the media do have limited freedom and role to play. It is absolutely critical that the media breaks free from the patriarchal clutches and start taking feminist perspectives into serious considerations, so that it can infuse healthy attitudes towards feminity within the society. Harnessing strong public opinion, governmental & public policies towards VAW and 'Femicide are paramount; a task that should be

12 carried out by the media. Its a tall, tough ask but a concerted start is needed. The goal is that one day women will be able to walk down the street, enter their homes, attend college classes, obtain successful careers and go about their day without fear (Bull,2007). Unreported crimes: In the Indian context, there are multitudes of reasons why the cases go unreported. The social stigma attached with rape and sexual assault in a patriarchal society is too big to bear by a girl/woman or her family. Hence silence is more comfortable than going through the ordeal. 94% of the rapes are committed by someone known to the victim. So social pressure forces the girl to be silent. To add to it, if there is less than 30% conviction rates of sexual assault cases, people will tend to lose faith in the system and not report things at all. The medical procedures to verify the rape are very old and often add to stigma. Quoting a report by a Human Rights group in India. "Rape survivors in India are still being subjected to controversial forensic examinations including the so-called finger test, says Human Rights Watch in a report published today. The author of the report told RNW that the practice is unscientific, degrading and leads to rape victims being abeled loose women. The test is used to determine whether a rape survivor is sexually active, or as officials often state, habituated to sexual intercourse. It involves a doctor inserting one or two fingers in a rape victims vagina to determine the presence of the hymen and the laxity of the vagina. If two fingers can pass, an examiner will often use this as proof that the woman is sexually active. The test has been widespread since the mid-20th century. Its use dropped off after 2003 when Indias evidence law was amended to prohibit the cross-examination of rape victims based on their

13 general immoral character. However, according to the HRW report, the test is still described in some medical jurisprudence textbooks and used in many cases. The author of the report, Aruna Kashyap of Human Rights Watch India, told RNW that the test is often used to label victims as loose women, which makes it less likely that their attackers will be prosecuted Its humiliating for a woman to be identified as being habituated to sex as it will be difficult for her to have the police take her complaint seriously, she says A former chief public prosecutor is quoted in the report as saying that the finger test is relevant for the defence especially if the [rape victim] is unmarried. If the medical report says that two fingers have passed, the defence can show that shes habituated [to sex]. This shakes the testimony of the victim.

FACTS IN INDIA

Every 20 minutes a woman is raped in India according to the number of registered rapes (this figure it much higher as most rapes go undocumented) India is ranked third in rape after US and South Africa 228,650 of the 256,329 violent crimes recorded in 2011 were against women Conviction rate for rape cases is 26.6% Each week countless victims of rape commit suicide because of the way they are treated following the rape by the police, doctors, their own parents and the community While conducting medical examinations, many doctors record unscientific and degrading findings from the archaic two-finger test. A doctor inserts two fingers into a womens vagina to determine whether the hymen is broken. The findings from this test are admissible in court, often blaming womens behaviour for the offense.

14 Victims are often encouraged to marry their rapists Police and armed forces were the perpetrators in 30 out of 600 media articles of violence against women between September 2011 to November 2011 Over the past five years, India's leading political parties have offered tickets to 27 candidates accused of rape and a 260 candidates facing charges for crimes against women (assault, harassment, etc.). Today, two members of parliament and six members of the various state legislative assemblies are facing rape charges, while 36 others face charges for lesser crimes against women

CONCLUSION Even though India has witnessed commendable economic progress; it has not translated into the social framework with women being the most vulnerable group to violence and crimes. The recent rape case in Delhi and the many others that are now gaining focus are evident of this fact. The conclusion is that even though literacy seems to become an effective agency against violence only when literacy spreads extensively, the definition of literacy is conspicuous and moreover literacy should not only mean standard education but also education with reference to morals, broader thinking with reference to changing regressive practices and traditional mindsets. This will further the cause of changing sex ratio and bring about female worker participation that is necessary in order to be able to create a virtuous cycle of non violence against women. Media can play an enormous role in educating not only the youth and coming generations but also the adults. It has the power to mould the society by affecting the thinking process. But as Narendra Modi said, the media these days is busy selling beauty products. And other than that, it shows soaps where women are vamps and trying to

15 harm other women or whatever. I dont watch much of TV (actually, stopped somewhere in May 2011) but almost all soaps are kind of enhancing the negative side of humanity killing the emotions necessary for people to coexist. This wont change unless the viewers want change as the media houses want profit at any cost. Still, if they want, they can dedicate some 10 minutes of prime time for educating people.

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REFERENCES 1. World Health Organization Statistics and data: http://www.who.int/gho/countries/ind/en/ 2. The Times of India: http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2013-01-06/jaipur/36173782_1_girl-childfemale-feticide-dowry-deaths http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2013-02-14/jaipur/37098834_1_pledgefight-bhanwari-devi-women 3. V. Rukmini Rao and Lynette Dumble - January 17, 2013: http://wunrn.com/news/2013/01_13/01_14/011413_male.htm 4. Population reference Bureau: http://www.prb.org/igwg_media/violenceagainstwomen.pdf 5. National Crime Record Bureau http://ncrb.nic.in/cii2010/cii-2010/Chapter%205.pdf 6. Ghosh, Biswajit and Choudhari, Tanima (2011): Legal Protection Against Domestic Violence in India: Scope and Limitations. Journal of Family Violence. Vol. 26. 2011. P. 319-330. 7. Heise, Pitanguy and Germaine (1994) Violence against women: the hidden health burden. World Bank Discussion Paper. Washington. D.C. The World Bank. 8. Sheela Saravanan (2000): Violence against Women in India. Institute of Social Studies Trust, 2000. P. 1.

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