By S Paul
Not a single day goes by without us not learning about rapes of women; a baby of 2 years and even an old woman of 80 plus age. We have started to become worse than bestial. Our culture gives the females of our species a place even above our trinity. The Shakti personifies the ‘Devi’ associated with all the three forms of Super Gods. Yet the material form of that Devi is considered a means of appeasing the lust of the chauvinistic male in our human society. We give so much reverence to our mothers but view all other mothers (even the future mothers) carnally. How come our thinkers, our social reformers, our intellectuals are not coming out with voluble protest and suggestions to stem this evil? Does it take a few more “Nirbhayas’ or a young doctor’s brutish fate to arouse their reactions? Here is a case where the human rights proponents have thoughtlessly led our judicial system into rearing such monsters whom we treat with kid gloves, sustain them with our tax monies and let them loose again hoping that they would have become humane.
Consider these statistics available online. Murders (including those by the rapists) are at the top and then come rapes in the list of most crimes being committed in our country. There are, on the average, 86 rapes and rapes a day with murders that are reported and are subjected to the procedures of the laws of our country. That is more than 30,000 cases a year. Many go unreported due to the fear of social stigma of the victim or threats by the committers. Most of the accused are given 20 years maximum punishment or a life term; both of which may get commuted or remitted. Many of them get out for various reasons after serving only a few years of sentence. The reason may again be commutation or remission or even overcrowding of jails. Has anyone cared to imagine the trauma that a surviving victim of rape undergoes if by chance or deliberately she comes face to face her violator? Also, can we not imagine the crowd of such heinous perpetrators that we, the taxpayers, including the victims, are sustaining in our jails? Should our society afford the burden of these monsters?
Why are punishments given? Mainly to make the offender regret and change and, also, for the others in society to fear such a retribution. The increasing numbers of such a crime does not indicate it. I feel we need an immediate rethink for a drastic change in our attitude towards such criminals. A policy of no mercy ought to be adopted. Let us not ape what the other nations do to their rapists. Let us also not now accommodate the dictates of the proponents of Human Rights but adopt our own indigenous method of treating this menace. If we refer to our ancient wisdom available in the Upanishad based Dharmashastras which are the derivatives of Dharamsutras from Vedas, it defines the punishment very specially for Sexual Crimes against women. The Matsyapurāņa liberally states that a woman who is raped is innocent while a man who commits rape should be put to death. Our belief in the appearance of an Avatar to avenge a wrongdoing or punish the perpetrator, especially of a crime against women, is now the moral guide to our faith and tradition. There is no mincing of words when it comes to which side one has to stand with where violation of a woman’s modesty is concerned. Ramayana was centred on the plight of Sita who was abducted with malicious desire. Even those who sided with the culprit met with death. Similarly, Mahabharata was centred on Draupadi, whose dignity was violated by the people who should have protected her. Ultimately, the perpetrators of the crime and those who supported them found their fall mostly culminating in their death.
So, the current set of punishments not being effective as remorse – correction or a deterrent, our laws need to be changed. To accommodate the UN based Human Rights on human life let rapists live but, as was done by some rulers in history, their genitals are mutilated so they can never use them for quenching their carnal lusts and /or they should be branded visibly so that they carry this stigma of being recognised and hated for the rest of their lives because they left a stigma for life on their victims. Some ancient rulers used to get two fingers of a hand amputated because cattle-like branding can be erased by Plastic /Cosmetic surgery these days. Alternatively, to ease the burden on the rest of the society, including the victim, of paying to support their criminal lives in or out of jail, such perpetrators should be legally put to death. Even an eleven year old precocious boy who has raped a girl child should be subject to this or other punishment since he has become mature enough to perpetrate such an act. Since such a crime arouses the public ire, the criminal may even be handed over to them for lynching.
All these thoughts are barbaric but then how do we stop or even make it a rare occurrence in our progressive society? Should our children’s freedom to access the polluting media be stopped? Can our films and TV programmes be subject to strict censorship? Can there be a biomedical treatment for such offenders to permanently destroy their libido? It is time that we do a rethink about how to handle this crime and its criminals before it becomes endemic among youth who may be frustrated. Since our nation is boasting about our abundance of youthful generation such a neglect may cost us dearly in terms of our social degradation, making them vulnerable to subversion by vested interests including increase in their addiction to drugs and our international reputation. As for branding them with a lifetime stigma we may use medical methods. The most commonly used antiandrogen is cyproterone acetate (Androcur) CPA, which is taken orally as a tablet and is also injectable. Cyproterone is licensed for control and permanently inhibits libido in severe hyper sexuality and/or sexual deviation in adult men.
This is the time to think and act by us people and our governments otherwise such a crime may become endemic; affecting our development and may also become a means of idle men to enjoy their life in the safe confines of our prisons at public’s expense. Perhaps it would make our governments create more prisons giving employment to many more. This is written in great anguish.
