Laws on Sexual Assault

Laws on Sexual Assault

Well, the gang-rape of a 23 year old girl, about which I had written a while ago (Death Penalty should be imposed for rapists or not ... ... ...) has apparently been a particularly gruesome crime. There have been multiple calls for suitable modifications in the laws pertaining to crimes against women. Justice Varma's report is due any time. Laws are likely to be made much stricter, and the entirely justified pressure from the public, the media, various political parties, etc. will ensure that the enforcement authorities also take crimes against women far more seriously.

However, we should not go overboard. Here's why:

• India has a population of around 1.25 billion, of which around 600 million are males. For argument purposes, let's assume that out of these, around 450 million males (after eliminating young boys below the age of 10 and men above 75) are capable of committing crimes against women.
• On an average, there are around 24000 reported cases of rape. Admittedly, far too many cases of rape go unreported. Let's assume that the claimed statistics (of 90% of rapes remaining unreported) about unreported cases is true, which results in 240,000 instances of actual rape. Let's further assume that there are an equal number of "attempted rapes" not resulting in actual rape. This translates into 480,000 culprits who deserve some sort of punishment. Let's round it off to 500,000 criminals.
• We must remember that even a SINGLE rape or attempted rape is certainly unjustified and ought to be punished. With the severity it deserves. The above statistics implies that we have 500,000 cases more than what is acceptable in a civilised society.
• It is equally important to remember the single-most important tenet of our judicial system: "Let a 1000 criminals go unpunished. Even a single innocent person should not be convicted."
• For the folly of 500,000 criminals, we should not, by mistake, punish even one of the remaining 449.5 million men. We're talking about 449,500,000 innocent men. Believe me, that's a very large number. If you wish to talk percentages, 99.95 percentage of the men are innocent as per this calculation.
• The vast majority of these 449,500,000 innocent men will routinely be
  • Using Public Transport (buses, share autos, trains, flights, etc.)
  • Periodically be having an interaction with a woman without the presence of any witness for completely routine transactions (Just look at the variety of human beings and you'll know what I mean: A farmer, a servant / servant maid, a plumber or electrician, a teacher or a student, a doctor or a patient, a lawyer, an actor, a grocer, a nurse, a sportsman, a media professional, a housewife, a pilot, an air hostess, a sales girl, a priest, a devotee, a politician, a corporate honcho, etc.) It is going to be physically impossible to prevent all these sources of interaction between men and women, even if some crazy people assume that such interaction is undesirable and is to be restricted.
  • There will be daily instances numbering several millions where there is physical contact between men and women during the course of such interaction. Well over 90% of the above will NOT be having any form of sexual undertones. Do we desire a situation where for the folly of .05% of men, 99.5% of men and 100% of women are living in a state of fear? I hope not.
• If we create a law with the potential to punish even a single innocent male or, worse still, create a law where there is a subtle shift in the burden of proof (from assuming innocence to assuming guilt), the consequences could be catastrophic. 

There happens to be a word called Perspective in the English language. Let's not forget that in the prevailing atmosphere which is baying for the blood of any person who is even accused of a crime against women.

Regards,

N

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Creating a law-abiding society - Part 2

Creating a law-abiding society - Part 2

As I mentioned earlier, I've decided to write a series of blog posts on this subject. If you missed the first instalment, you can read it here:

• Creating a law-abiding society - Part 1

In this post, I'll address some aspects of the perennial problems faced by the traffic police - Please remember that the violation of simple traffic norms, rules, regulations and laws by you and me results in the DEATH of a few thousand Indian citizens EACH YEAR. I read a recent report which suggests that in the city of Chennai (Madras) alone, over 500 people die on the railway tracks while trying to cross the railway tracks. Apparently, a vast majority of people believe that "Trains will hit other people - not me"!

• Shortage of Traffic Police
  
  
• Willingness of citizens to "take a chance", violate traffic rules, and, if they get caught, pay either a fine or a bribe and proceed with life. An important reason for this "devil-may-care" attitude of citizens is that they see everyone else violating traffic rules and they don't see enough of them getting caught. In fact there is a social acceptance of these traffic rule violations - People who will think a 100 times before robbing a bank or committing a murder are perfectly willing to jump a red signal, go down the wrong side of a one-way street, "forget" to wear a helmet or a seat belt, travel on the foot board of buses, violate speed limits, dig up public roads to "take care" of their personal problems, throw all kinds of rubbish on the roads, use public roads as private parking lots, etc.

We need to come up with a paradigm shift in our laws so as to handle the above two problems.

Here are a few suggestions in this endeavour:

• For the Traffic Police:

 

• Introduce a "variable pay / incentive" structure for traffic police which is linked to the number of cases that they book - Till the number of cases reduces drastically, this will be a sensible suggestion to enable the traffic police to book cases and get paid official incentives rather than to get tempted to accept bribes.

• Simultaneously, introduce a very strict mechanism for punishing "bribe-takers" - Any traffic police who is found to take a bribe in excess of Re 1/= (Yes, One rupee) should be summarily dismissed from service, in addition to which the normal law will take its own course for levying appropriate penalties, imposing imprisonment, etc. based on the gravity of the crime. After all, the "law-enforcers" should not be breaking the law. There's no reason to have anything other than "zero-tolerance" for "bribe-takers". This rule will straight-away eliminate all temptations to take petty bribes. Nobody will want to risk his /her job for the sake of a small percentage of one's monthly salary. (We'll think of suitable means to tackle "big-time bribe-takers" in due course).

• For the Traffic Rule Violators: Over and above any or all the punishments that are presently applicable to violators of traffic rules, the following additional rules should be imposed.

• For every person who violates any traffic rule, a graded system of mandatory community service with a minimum of 1 week's community service MUST be introduced. These individuals who are undergoing such "community service punishment" may be used to assist the traffic police in managing traffic. This will partially enable the traffic police to "manage" their problem of manpower shortage.

• Ideally, these individuals should be forced to wear an easily identifiable overcoat, for instance, which will PUBLICLY indicate that they are undergoing punishment for violating traffic rules. This will very quickly create a stigma and break their present willingness to violate traffic norms with impunity.

• When a driver of a chauffeur-driven car (or the driver of a lorry or a two-wheeler rider) violates any traffic rule, the driver as well as the owner of the car and the passengers of that car at the time of such a violation must be held liable to the limited extent of doing community service. All other forms of punishment such as fines or imprisonment would continue to be applicable for the driver alone.

• This punishment of "community service" will be applicable to all pedestrians who happen to be violating traffic rules by, for instance, crossing the road at a place where they are NOT supposed to cross the road.

• All repeat offenders will be imposed with ever-increasing durations of punishment by way of compulsory community service.

• The moment a vehicle is found to be involved in a traffic rule violation, the vehicle will be sent over to the nearest police station. The vehicle will be returned to the owner ONLY AFTER the "community service punishment" duration is completed.

I invite suggestions from all of you to make the judicial system quick, responsive and effective in providing justice.

Regards,

N