Rapping up the rape

It is difficult to express an opinion about what has become to know as the Delhi rape case without offending somebody.
The girl, now known as Nirbhaya, “the fearless one”, has produced more coverage and opinion that any recent event in India that I can remember. When an air ambulance flew her from Delhi to Singapore last week one would have though by the headlines that the future of the whole of India was at stake. The whole question of rape is now a talking throughout the country. Protests against lax rape laws almost brought Delhi to a halt.

As may be expected women were the most vociferous, carrying banners reading, “you can get raped but not protest against rape”. Their demand was “death to all rapists” and “hang rapists”. What was singularly lacking in these demonstrations was any emotional argument about what was to be done regarding the increasing number of rape cases in the country.



The fact is that most rape cases do not even go to trial and those that do tend to end in acquittal. This is not solely an Indian problem, it happens all over the world. The issue is that in most cases of rape, the perpetrator is known to the victim, making it hard except in the most brutal of cases for the victim to make a complaint. Although it is easy to react to the latest rape case with indignation and outrage, what is really needed is a total change in men’s attitude towards women.

" Suggestions that all women should be taught self-defence are only applying sticking plasters to the problem. Feminists rightly complain that women should have every right to move about freely without first having to prepare themselves for a violent attack, nor dedicate the time to learning Kung Fu "

Encouraged, unfortunately by their mothers, Indian men have a patriarchal belief in the inferiority of the feminine sex. Any attempt to change this meets with strong resistance and will probably take generations to alter. Suggestions that all women should be taught self-defence are only applying sticking plasters to the problem. Feminists rightly complain that women should have every right to move about freely without first having to prepare themselves for a violent attack, nor dedicate the time to learning Kung Fu.

Equally, suggestions that they should not wear provocative clothing because this inflames men’s desires is considered just as ludicrous. Surely sexual equality, feminists argue, mean that women should be as free to wear what they want as men do. The issue is fraught with pitfalls as the son of the Indian president, Jangipur Mukherjee, found when he described the protests in Delhi as “agitation by highly dented, hand painted women who come to TV studios and walk and talk with lighted candles but have little connection with the ground reality”. His statement made on a Bengali TV channel went viral on the social media triggering an avalanche of outrage from women activists and political leaders who saw Mukherjee’s statement as an example of the very mindset that encourages violence against women.

" The little social research there is on international approaches to the problem suggest that the only way to reduce the incidence of rape is to ensure that the victim is encouraged to report what happened to her "

The little social research there is on international approaches to the problem suggest that the only way to reduce the incidence of rape is to ensure that the victim is encouraged to report what happened to her; that she is given a sympathetic hearing by the first police officer who interviews her; that forensic evidence is collected as soon as possible and court proceedings are completed as quickly as sensitively as possible.
Canada has also had great success in increasing convictions by introducing different categories of rape, but even the recent mention by a British MP of trying such a system caused national outrage, highlighting the fact that this is just as intricate an issue as ever.
Khaleej Times