The Maharashtra Cabinet on Wednesday approved two bills that contain provisions for stern punishments, including the death penalty, for crimes such as rape, child abuse and acid attacks bills – the Special Court and Machinery for Implementation of Maharashtra Shakti Criminal Law, 2020, and the Maharashtra Shakti Criminal Law (Maharashtra Amendment) Act, 2020, – will be tabled during a two-day Winter Session of the State Legislative Assembly and the Legislative Council, which begin from December 14 According to the draft bill, those found guilty of crimes such as rape, child abuse and acid attack will be sentenced to imprisonment for at least 10 years. This time period may extend to the remainder of their natural lives or to death sentences in cases that have characteristics of being heinous in nature, the draft said the draft bills also propose bringing down the time frame for completing an investigation into the crimes from two months to 15 working days and for completion of trials to 30 working days from 60 days. Special police teams and separate courts will be set up for inquiry and trial for cases of crime against women and children, the draft bills said
A rape reported every 15 minutes……this is just not a number its true fact released by government of India.
Here are some reasons behind increasing violence against women;
- A Thomson Reuters Poll 2018 called India the most unsafe country in the world. Women reported nearly 34,000 rapes in 2018 (these were reported, every day many go unreported). Of these, over 85 per cent led to charges, and 27 per cent to convictions, according to the National Crime Bureau (NCRB) report released by the Ministry of Home Affairs. It shows that while cases are registered, most stay inconclusive giving no justice for long periods of time.
- The “Crimes in India -2019” report by NCRB shows that crimes against women have gone up by 7.3 per cent last year. The crime rate registered per lakh women population is 62.4 per cent in 2019, up from the 58.8 per cent figure of 2018.
- Our deep-rooted cultural, tribal and customary rituals put men in a position of power leading to ‘sexual slavery’ for women.
- Caste-based violence against women is prevalent in India where the society is divided not just by class, gender but also by a very hierarchal caste system putting privilege and power in the hands of some castes, more so in the hands of men of the higher caste.
- We don’t have laws against marital rape, as a result, an abusive husband gets away and a woman is forced to stay in the marriage without any support from the system.
- While the minimum age required to get married in India is 18, child marriage and marriage of minor girls is rampant. 27% of girls in India are married before their 18th birthday and 7% are married before the age of 15. According to UNCIEF, India has the highest absolute number of child brides in the world – 15,509,000.
- Female foeticide is widespread in India. This is due to sex-selective abortion, childhood neglect of girls and infanticide. In India sex-selection is banned but despite that rampantly done.
- Another deep-rooted issue is our mindsets. This further makes India unsafe for women. Women are seen as the lesser sex. Society perpetuates the notion that boys should be put ahead of girls because apparently when they grow up they will ‘earn for the family’ while women will be married off and be ‘given away’.
Conclusion-
strict and stringent law will be very helpful to control this inhuman activity and rising violence against women. Just like Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra government is also making efforts to get this bill passed and from all the sections of society, its been welcomed. But the question arises , will it resolve this issue? and the answer is absolutely no. As a society, we need to take some things on our own and take responsibility towards our responsibility.
Author-
Raman R.Tirpude
STR- ITC LTD
MBA,BE(MM & HR)
Member -Central human commission, India and SUB editor At YUVA weekly newspaper.
Nagpur.Maharshtra
raman's blog 