| by B.Raman
( December 19,
2012, Chennai, Sri Lanka Guardian) In our country, crime against women is not
treated seriously by the police. Its prevention, investigation and prosecution
are given low priority. This was so during the days of the British. This has
been so since we became independent.
Our Police
Regulations, which lay down how the Police should function, were originally
drafted by the British. The Regulations as drafted by the British did not
categorise any offence against women as
heinous requiring mandatory supervision by a senior police officer. The
responsibility for investigation and prosecution used to be left to a Thanedar
ora Head Constable with no supervision at senior levels.
One does not
know whether the Police Regulations have since been revised to categorise rape
as a heinous offence on par with terrorism, dacoity and murder requiring
mandatory supervision at senior levels. If not, this is the first step that has
to be taken to underline the gravity of the crime.
Every police
officer holding independent charge is required to submit to his superior a
fortnightly report of crime in his jurisdiction. The past proformas of this
report when I was in service did not provide for a separate section on crime
against women. The Government should prescribe a separate Fortnightly on crime
against women indicating the measures taken for prevention and the progress of
investigation and prosecution.
The attitude of
policemen from the constable upwards upto the DG of Police has to change. It
has to be ingrained in the minds of policemen during their training that a rape
should be treated as seriously as an act of terrorism or a murder. This change
can be brought about only by having a separate and special training capsule on
crime against women in our police training institutions. When I was trained as
an IPS officer in the Central Police Training College at Mount Abu in 1961-62,
crime aginst women was given very low attention in the syllabus. The syllabus
has to change giving the same importance to crime against women as to other
categorized heinous offences.In the final examinations, there has to be a
separate paper on crime against women.
The annual
confidential reports of police officers, which determine their promotion,
should have a separate column to assess their performance with the regard to
the prevention, investigation and prosecution of crime against women.
There are very
few instances of habitual rapists. Most rapists are one-time offenders. They
rape in a momentary loss of sanity and self-control in the presence of women.
They commit the crime under the sudden onset of a mad urge to rape. It is very
difficult to identify potential rapists and anticipate their crime. Despite
this, prevention is the most important aspect of dealing with crimes against
women. Prevention has two aspects----prevention by women themselves through
appropriate self-defence measures.A self-defence measure which can be fairly
effective is the use of mini tear-smoke cartridges. These cartridges should be
made easily available in the market for purchase by women. There is a
possibility of other criminals like dacoits etc misusing these cartridges for
overcoming their victims, but this is a risk which has to be faced to enble
women better protect themselves.
Prevention by
the police has to be through enhanced anti-rape patrols in areas susceptible to
commission of rapes such as transport buses, parking lots and deserted streets
at nights. Since rapists operate more at night than during day time, these
patrols should be intensified at night. Intensified anti-rape patrols would
also have a salutary effect on other crime.
The police
should set up a separate anti-rape control room and widely publicise its
telephone number. Every woman should save this number in her mobile and
activate it immediately on apprehending danger.
If rape is
categorized as a heinous offence to be treated on par with terrorism, this
would lead to changes in the way we react to it and deal with it with the
creation of anti-rape squads for prevention, investigation and prosecution and
anti-rape tribunals for speedy trial.
Since rape is an
offence committed in moments of sudden insanity and loss of self-control, fear
of death penalty may not be an effective deterrent, The only effective penalty
will be to put all rapists out of circulation through mandatory life
imprisonment.
( The writer is
Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt of India, New Delhi, and
presently, Director, Institute for Topical Studies, Chennai, and Associate of
the Chennai Centre For China Studies. E-mail: seventyone2@gmail.com. Twitter:
@SORBONNE75 )