Click to play videoIndia has a woman President, a woman is heading the ruling party, one has even touched the stars and yet another is heading a successful international business enterprise, but safety for women on Indian streets remains abysmal. [Read what figures show]
The two women, who were sexually harassed by over 60 men in Mumbai, still refuse to lodge a formal complaint with the police, saying they are not happy with the media attention the incident has been garnering.
Sources in the Mumbai police, however, claim that they have cracked the case. Two men, out of 13 detained have been identified as the molesters and are being interrogated. [Read Story]
This case, in particular, has been made tough for the Mumbai police because of the victims’ reluctance to lodge a formal complaint. [Read what the victim says]
However, this is by no means an isolated case. In fact, molestation victims rarely come forward to complain.
An instance in point is last year’s infamous molestation case during the New Year’s Eve’s revelry at the Gateway of India. A lack of a primary complainant forced the Mumbai police to charge the five accused of theft, instead of molestation. Even though a chargesheet had been filed in the case, the trial is still awaited.
Legal experts believe problems that stall police investigations into cases of sexual molestation are usually the lack of a primary complainant. However, another problem appears to be the attitude of the police themselves, to such cases, an attitude which was revealed when Mumbai’s Police Commissioner D N Jadhav accused the media of making a mountain out of a molehill. “Keep your wives at home if you want them safe,” he said, “These kind of small things can happen anywhere.”
Despite the Commissioner’s casual stance, the Mumbai police have responded with creditable efficiency in this case, even requesting the public to help them, for a cash award. However, the question remains: Do hooligans think they can get away with molestation?
Debating the issue on CNN-IBN’s Face the Nation were lawyer and social activist, Flavia Agnes; criminal lawyer Majid Memon; Inspector General of Police (CID, Maharashtra) Meeran Borvankar and fashion designer Rina Dhaka.
From the looks of the New Year’s Eve attack on the two women, it has become apparent that molesters are completely unafraid of the law, especially in light of the attitude revealed by very senior police officials. [Read Story]
IG (CID) Meeran Borvankar unequivocally refuted the idea that molesters are fearless because of the police’s attitude.
According to Borvankar, glaring loopholes appear in such cases because there are no formal complaints being made.
“Lack of victims coming forward and witnesses not being available are the soft spots for such cases,” she said.
Lawyer Flavia Agnes did not disagree that there are few witnesses and fewer complainants for such cases, but she felt that the police themselves do not display an adequately serious attitude for a matter as delicate as sexual molestation.
“It’s not a question of laws not being tough enough. I think there is no prompt action,” she said.
Agnes demanded to know why the complaint had not been registered when the two women had been brought to the police station. She implied that such a lax attitude on part of the law-enforcers demonstrated their lack of seriousness.
“Of course, women don’t come forward. But there is no seriousness on part of the police, either, and I think that’s one of the biggest problems we’d be facing today,” she insisted.
Agnes pointed out that the police had done their job so well only because propitiously, there happened to be a press photographer present at the site.
| SHAMEFUL PAST |
|---|
 Manic MumbaiTwo years in a row, New Year revelry in Mumbai has gone awry. This year, in a city which boasts of being safe for women, a mob of 70 to 80 men groped and molested two women on a busy main street in Juhu early on New Year's Day. |
 Bad BeginningA New Year event last year at Mumbai's most famous landmark, the Gateway of India, made news after it went horribly sour. Drunk revellers stripped and molested a woman in public view, as her friend watched helplessly. (Picture courtesy Mid Day) |
 Safe Haven Turns HellMumbai is turning into a city that is getting increasingly and notoriously unsafe for women. The Maximum city is slowly but surely losing its reputation of being a safe haven for women. (Picture courtesy Mid Day) |
“Surely, there must have been many such cases in the city on New Year’s Eve and on many other occasions. But they never come to light because there is not enough evidence!” she said.
The police’s attitude has often been found lacking, earlier. At times, they refuse to believe a woman’s complaint; at times, they have even interpreted the crime as a tiff between two romantic partners. A number of women who go to complain are not given a hospitable environment in police stations, all of which keep complainants from taking recourse to the police.
Meeran Borvankar accepted that there were some aberrations in these situations but insisted that Mumbai Police, Maharashtra Police, the entire Indian police force are very sensitive to women’s issues.
“Why are you forgetting that they got you very good convictions in both the rape cases by Chandrakant Pawar and Sunil More?” she demanded, naming Jyotsana Rasam and others who had been instrumental in getting the accused policemen convicted.
Changing the Lingua Franca?
But even if the police force is sensitised to women’s crimes, the laws themselves sound outdated.
The sections that govern crimes against women – 294 of the Indian Penal Code, which speaks of ‘obscenity in public’, and 354 (IPC) and 504 (IPC) – speak of the ‘violation of modesty of a woman’.
The implication inherent in such archaic phrasing is that only a ‘modest woman’ can be considered as being ‘violated’, suggesting by inference that ‘immodest’ women cannot consider their molestation an act of violation.
It was suggested that a change in legal language be in order, with crimes such as sexual molestation being given the umbrella term of ‘crimes against women’, instead of ‘outraging the modesty of women’ or ‘eve-teasing’.
Lawyer Majid Memon agreed but added that not just a change in the phrasing of the law was required, but prescribed punishments needed to be changed, as well.
“These two men who have reportedly surrendered may be released on bail because these are bailable offences. And if they are released on bail, there will again be a hue and cry that they are let off so freely,” Memon pointed out.
“Women in our country need to be protected and they must feel free to move anywhere, anytime, without any fear. And at the same time, those who believe that they can tease a woman or outrage the modesty of a woman must have a constant fear of the law,” stated Memon.
The ‘Good’ versus the ‘Bad’
In the two sections of the IPC that governed cases of sexual molestation, one speaks of ‘outraging the modesty of a woman’, which goes on to imply that only a modest woman can be outraged, and if she, for example, goes to parties or wears a mini-skirt and is set upon by men, then she forfeits public sympathy.
“Or she’s asking for it, as they assume,” interpolated fashion designer Rina Dhaka.
Even a term like “eve-teasing” carries with it the connotations that the girl is a temptress who tantalises, Eve-like, and the men are blameless.
Flavia Agnes agreed that the legal phrasing was lamentably archaic.
“What we need to say is that there are sections for assault, for sexual offences. Rape is one kind of sexual offence, attacking a woman in public is another kind of sexual assault,” said Agnes, adding that the need of the hour was a comprehensive law.
“We need to have a law which is much more comprehensive. We have been asking for such a law since a long time, but the Law Commission has not responded to it, legislature has not responded to it, because the language itself is such – that a woman’s modesty should be capable of being violated. So, who are these ‘good’ women who are capable of being violated and who are these ‘bad’ women who can be molested?” she wondered.
Agnes went on to raise a hugely pertinent point – that foreign women have increasingly become targets for sexual assault.
“Somehow, we think that foreign women can easily be violated because they don’t have the same kind of modesty and Indian women are ‘our women’, a particular brand of women, who need to be protected,” she pointed out, adding that sub-conscious labels like ‘our women’, ‘foreign women,’ ‘good women’ and ‘bad women’ needed to be done away with.
This just goes onto show that people who perpetrate such crimes simply feel that they are doing the right thing because they are doing it to so-called ‘bad women’.
In the West, it is increasingly being realised that the leisure industry needs to be intelligently policed. Whether it was the Jessica Lall murder case that took place during a party, or the Pune rave party where youngsters were indulging in drug abuse, leisure industry is the site for violent crime. It may be necessary for Indian police to now find innovative ways of policing events and opportunities for leisure, such as at New Year’s Eve in parties and clubs and institute preventive policing.
Meeran Borvankar felt that, on the contrary, episodes such as the Pune rave party was a success story for Pune police.
“Sometimes we have to lay live traps,” she explained, adding that it was one of the most successful traps.
Borvankar also raised the point that there is also the responsibility of media to publicise convictions and show that the law machinery was still working.
“If hooligans are fearless, some part of it is because media fails to publicise the conviction rate of such cases, which is pretty good,” she said.
But in this case, the media galvanised the entire nation into reacting violently to such kind of incidents, particularly in the wake of Commissioner Jadhav’s comments.
“I think because of the media focus, police are forced to respond. A case like this would have gone unnoticed, if the women had gone to the police station alone and tried to file a case,” said Flavia Agnes.
But the role and responsibilities of the media do not end there. Popular media can be considered guilty of legitimising violence against women by playing up the tapori type who harasses women, making it appear romantic and fun instead of the criminal act that it is.
Agnes agreed with the view.
“Yes, media to a certain extent, but Bollywood to a great extent,” she stated.
Heroes in several movies harbour a notion that they if they tease the heroine, the girl would eventually respond and fall in love with them.
“I think all roadside-Romeos harbour this notion,” said Agnes, adding that this kind of thinking is extremely dangerous for women in India.
She added that the media should not let itself be used for titillation, and particularly in the wake of cases such as this, should highlight the preventive measures women ought to take.
“What are they safety precautions that they could be taking? It is not a question of dress code – what they are wearing or what they are not wearing – but if the mob is approaching them, then what precautions could the girls take? Would the girls have called their own parents, or somebody for help immediately?” she said,
Laying the blame. Or maybe not
Victims of sexual crimes, especially in this case, can hardly be blamed for not wanting to come forward.
“It would not be proper on anybody’s part to blame them,” said Maijd Memon. “You can imagine: one of the women got married a day before and if she is exposing herself to be a victim of this kind of activity, it would definitely have a serious impact on her future, her career, her relatives. A woman would shy away from this,” he explained.
Menon agreed to the police’s complaint that women do not speak out about the atrocities done to them, that they have to be encouraged somehow by social activists and suchlike.
“But if there are not enough clues forthcoming from the victims themselves, the matter does not end there,” he said, adding that evidence could still be collected from other quarters
“Even that can bring about convictions,” he pointed out.
Meanwhile, women ought to be a little more careful and realistic about the environment of India.
SMS POLL: Do hooligans think they can get away with molestation?
YES: 96 per cent
NO: 4 per cent
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