2014

Manthan Topic: Walk to equality: Ensuring safety and

empowerment of women

Team Members:

Aditya Daipuria, Nishank Jain, Prachi Thakur,

Aditi Gupta and Pranav Singh

College Details:

Bansal Institute of Science and Technology,Bhopal

Introduction: Problem Statement

• Women inequality in India in terms of social, spiritual, political, educational, gender, or economic strength has been a major problem over the decades.

• Even after the years of independence, the present day statistics show backwardness, bad face and failure of the constitution even after being ensured with lots and lots of rights, provisions and laws ensuring safety for the women including right to equality which is still absent today for women in reality. According to the census 2011, India's sex ratio of 940 is the second lowest among the ten most populous countries of the world.

• The National Crime Records Bureau reported in 1998 that by 2010 growth in the rate of crimes against women would exceed the population growth rate. The crimes consists of acid throwing, child marriage, domestic violence, dowry, female infanticide, rape, sexual assault and trafficking.

The reason behind choosing this topic is that in last five years, India has degraded its culture and thinking for women and crimes has been increasing day by day. Ex. In our daily newspaper, 8 to 15 news are related to rapes and sexual assault.

Table showing the women’s and men’s positions on equality

Major steps adopted by the Government to ensure safety of the women:

By way of Criminal law Amendment Bill, 2013 • Definition of 'rape' revisited and additional phrases inserted • The word sexual assault has been replaced back to rape. The offence is no

longer gender-neutral, only a man can commit the offence on a woman. The clause related to touching of private parts has been removed.

• Compensation to victim to meet medical expenses • Failure of a public servant to record information in relation to sexual

offences should be specifically penalized under the Act • Rape by armed personnel accepted with harsher punishment • Death penalty for persistent vegetative state or death of the victim accepted • Voyeurism accepted. • Stalking accepted. • Clause for acid attack have also been inserted. • New section-376(F) under IPC has been inserted under which- the offence

of breach of command responsibility wherein senior officers can be punished with not less than 7 years RI if they fail to ensure their

juniors act according to law in registering rape FIRs and investigation.

• New section-376(F) under IPC has been inserted under which- the offence of breach of command responsibility wherein senior officers

can be punished with not less than 7 years RI if they fail to ensure their juniors act according to law in registering rape FIRs and investigation. • Post special commissioners for women's safety in conflict area.

Punishment of the offence and maturity of a mind should be decided on the basis of the acts done by that person rather than by age and sparing him .

• Giving him the defense of being a juvenile/ minor by age. • Other steps taken: a) Fast- track courts. b) Women judge and council to be appointed for rape cases trials c) Increased number of appointments for lady cops. d) Reservation for women.

Educational Inequality: • Though it is gradually increasing, the female literacy rate in India is less

than the male literacy rate. • According to a 1998 report by the U.S. Department of Commerce, the

chief barriers to female education in India are inadequate school facilities (such as sanitary facilities), shortage of female teachers and gender bias in the curriculum (female characters being depicted as weak and helpless).

• Under the Non-Formal Education programme (NFE), about 40% of the NFE centers in states and 10% of the centers in UTs are exclusively reserved for females. As of 2000, about 300,000 NFE centers were catering to about 7.42 million children. About 120,000 NFE centers were exclusively for girls.

Proposed Solution: STEPS THAT SHOULD BE ADOPTED 1) As proposed by JVC report, sex education should be introduced, which was absent in the ordinance: # Students from the age of 12 must be introduced by sex education and basics for being secure and safe. 2) Travelling of women in public transport must be made safer: # Public transports must be made safer by the use of CCTV cameras, safety tools like security alarms. Buses must be equipped with special health care kits also with a tight security system be it a machine or armed force. 3) Measures to prevent politicization of law enforcement agencies should be taken. 4) Legal awareness camps and nukkad nataks should be organized to spread awareness. # Nukkad Nataks and camps will provide knowledge and will create open mindedness amongst people and will enlighten the fact that suppressing these topics can never avoid crimes but making people aware of it, can. 5) Legalization of prostitution: # This is the major change that should be accepted. Regular checkups could be conducted and diseases and violence against women could be prevented. LAWS THAT NEED TO BE AMENDED 1) Marital rape should be regarded as an offence. 2) Bring sexual violence by personnel in uniform under common law. 3) Sexual Harassment at Workplace bill should be made as law.

LAWS THAT NEED TO BE AMENDED 1) Marital rape should be regarded as an offence. # In 2006, it was estimated that marital rape could be prosecuted in at least 104 countries (in four of these countries, marital rape could be prosecuted only when the spouses were judicially separated),

and since 2006 several other countries have outlawed spousal rape. In many countries it is not clear if marital rape may or may not be prosecuted under ordinary rape laws. Several countries in Eastern Europe and Scandinavia made spousal rape illegal before 1970, but other countries in Western Europe and the English-speaking Western World outlawed it much later, mostly in the 1980s and 1990s. Most developing countries outlawed it in the 1990s and 2000s. 2) Bring sexual violence by personnel in uniform under common law. 3) Sexual Harassment at Workplace bill should be made as law.

Implementation and Impact of the solution:

• Awareness among people can be improved by large scale camps by influential parties even by political parties.

• Rehabilitation for victims:

1) Personal counseling of the rape victims

2) Providing the feeling of belongingness and empathy rather than sympathy.

• Counseling will help the victims to overcome from their deeds and know about their sins and make them good citizens and lead their lives without letting themselves down.

• Acceptation of legalized prostitution will lead to a systematic organization of health related problems as well as registration of people in prostitution and their local checkups and making people aware of the diseases.

• Educational camps for women/girls should be held in village areas to provide village people good opportunity at for free.

• Small skits all around the states should be organized on different topics like dowry, trafficking of girls and should let people know about the seriousness of the matter and the legalized penalties taken against it.

Challenges in the proposed cause:

• Irrelevant myths and past culture regarding controversial existence women in village people and all around the world is the biggest problem.

• Narrow mindedness of people.

• Slow amendments by Government.

• Youth unawareness.

• Improving confidence among women who has been molested or assaulted in any way.

Conclusion:

The concluding idea here would be focused on the demand for need of implementation of the present law. Law was also present yesterday, it is today and it will be there tomorrow as well. But today's need is not demanding more laws but just the strict implementation of the present and already made law which ensures presence of law with the justice executed, not the law without being executed.

References: • Wikipedia.

• National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB)

THANK YOU HAVE A NICE DAY!