Has India become rape capital of the world?
Over the years, India has done immense development almost in all sectors whether it is defence, technology, health and education. Unfortunately, the only thing which has not changed over the years is the increasing rapid rate of rapes.
Rape is the fourth most common crime against women in India. According to the 2021 annual report of the National Crime rate Bureau (NCRB), 31,677 rape cases were registered across the country, or an average of 86 cases daily, a rise from 2020 with 28,046 cases, while in 2019, 32,033 cases were registered. Of the total 31,677 rape cases, 28,147 (nearly 89%) of the rapes were committed by persons known to the victim. The share of victims who were minors or below 18 – the legal age of consent – stood at 10%.
Rape and Sexual violence is a massive problem in India. Approximately 33,707 victims if rapes per year are reported. The majority of rape victims are between 18 years and 30 years. About one out of three victims is below 18, and one in ten rape victims is under 14. In India, a woman is being raped after every 20 minutes. New Delhi has the highest number of reported rape crimes among Indian cities. Last year, on average four rape cases each day were reported in the city.
Rape of minors
Using a small sample survey, Human Rights Watch projected that more than 7,200 minors – 1.6 in 100,000 minors – are raped each year in India. Among these, victims who report the assaults are alleged to suffer mistreatment and humiliation from the police. Minor girls are trafficked into prostitution in India, thus rape of minors conflates into a lifetime of suffering. Of the countries studied by Maplecroft on sex trafficking and crime against minors, India was ranked 7th worst
India has been characterised as one of the “countries with the lowest per capita rates of rape”. The government also classifies consensual sex committed on the false promise of marriage as rape. The willingness to report rapes may have increased in recent years, after several incidents received widespread media attention and triggered local and nationwide public protests. This led the government to reform its penal code for crimes of rape and sexual assault. There are lot of incidents of brutal rapes in India which are terrible and spine chilling.
Incidents of Brutal Rapes in India
The 2012 Delhi gang rape and murder, commonly known as the Nirbhaya case, involved a rape and fatal assault that occurred on 16 December 2012 in Munirka, a neighbourhood in South Delhi. The incident took place when Jyoti Singh, a 22-year-old physiotherapy intern, was beaten, gang-raped, and tortured in a private bus in which she was travelling with her male friend, Avnindra Pratap Pandey. There were six others in the bus, including the driver, all of whom raped the woman and beat her friend. She was rushed to Safdarjung Hospital in Delhi for treatment and transferred to Singapore eleven days after the assault, where she succumbed to her injuries 2 days later.
The incident generated widespread national and international coverage and was widely condemned, both in India and abroad. Subsequently, public protests against the state and central governments for failing to provide adequate security for women took place in New Delhi, where thousands of protesters clashed with security forces.
Similar protests took place in major cities throughout the country. Since Indian law does not allow the press to publish a rape victim’s name, the victim was widely known as Nirbhaya, meaning “fearless”, and her struggle and death became a symbol of women’s resistance to rape around the world.
All the accused were arrested and charged with sexual assault and murder. One of the accused, Ram Singh, died in police custody from possible suicide on 11 March 2013. According to some published reports and the police, Ram Singh hanged himself, but the defence lawyers and his family allege he was murdered.
The rest of the accused went on trial in a fast-track court; the prosecution finished presenting its evidence on 8 July 2013. On 10 September 2013, the four adult defendants – Pawan Gupta, Vinay Sharma, Akshay Thakur and Mukesh Singh (Ram Singh’s brother) – were found guilty of rape and murder and three days later were sentenced to death.
In the death reference case and hearing appeals on 13 March 2014, Delhi High Court upheld the guilty verdict and the death sentences. On 18 December 2019, the Supreme Court of India rejected the final appeals of the condemned perpetrators of the attack. The four adult convicts were executed by hanging on 20 March 2020. The juvenile Mohammed Afroz was convicted of rape and murder and given the maximum sentence of three years’ imprisonment in a reform facility, as per the Juvenile Justice Act.
The another heinous rape was happened in Hyderabad when the 26-year-old veterinarian was kidnapped, gang raped and murdered by the accused on November 27, 2019, at Chattanpally in Shadnagar on the outskirts of Hyderabad. They said the accused later burned her body.
The police arrested four men based on the evidence gathered from CCTV cameras and from the victim’s mobile phone. The accused were taken into judicial custody at Cherlapally Central Jail for seven days. The Chief Minister of Telangana ordered the formation of a fast-track court to try the accused for their alleged crimes.
The rape and murder elicited outrage in several parts of the country. Protests and public demonstration against rape were organised nationwide after the incident, with the public demanding stricter laws against rape and rapists. The Minister of Home Affairs criticised the Telangana Police and stated that the government intended to amend the Indian Penal Code and Code of Criminal Procedure to introduce laws for quicker punishment by fast-track courts.
All four accused were killed on 6 December 2019, under a bridge on the Bengaluru-Hyderabad national highway, while they were in police custody. According to the police, the suspects were taken to the location for a reconstruction of the crime scene, where two of them allegedly snatched guns and attacked the police. In the ensuing shootout, all four suspects were shot dead. Some accused the police of extrajudicial execution, while hundreds of thousands of people celebrated the men’s deaths.
On 14 September 2020, a 19-year-old Dalit woman was allegedly gang-raped in Hathras district, Uttar Pradesh, India, by four upper caste men. She died two weeks later in a Delhi hospital.
Initially, it was reported that one accused had tried to kill her, though later in her statement to the magistrate, the victim named four accused as having raped her. The victim’s brother claimed that no arrests were made in the first 10 days after the incident took place. After her death, the victim’s body was forcibly cremated by the police without the consent of her family, a claim denied by the police.
The case and its subsequent handling received widespread media attention and condemnation from across the country, and was the subject of protests against the Yogi Adityanath government by activists and opposition.
On 14 March 2015, a 71-year-old nun was gang raped in Ranaghat, West Bengal, by intruders at the Convent of Jesus and Mary. The six intruders were recorded on CCTV during their crime of ransacking the chapel, destroying religious items, looting cash and the gang rape. Six men were arrested and charged with the crime by 1 April 2015, and identified to be Bangladeshi Muslims.
There is numerous such incidents- 2014 Badaun Rape case, 2017 Unnao rape case, 2020 Balrampur gang rape, Kathua Rape Case, 2013 Mumbai rape case, Delta Meghwal Rape case 2016 and many more.
Even last month on March 5, Spanish Vlogger was Gangraped by 7 men in Jharkhand. Four people in connection with the case have been arrested by the Jharkhand police till now, while the search is on for the other accused. Justice Sujit Narayan Prasad took suo moto cognizance of the case, and directed the police to file reports regarding the case on a regular basis.
#WATCH | Deoghar, Jharkhand: On the alleged Spanish women gang rape case, BJP MP Nishikant Dubey says, “…In this state, neither Adivasis nor Dalits are safe…Now this has become an international matter that a Spanish woman comes with her husband to India, and it comes to light… pic.twitter.com/pGCMXJkBTw
— ANI (@ANI) March 2, 2024
The couple, Vicente and Fernanda, announced to their followers in a series of Instagram Stories that they had been attacked. Fernanda was allegedly raped by seven men while Vicente was bashed and had a knife held to his throat.
This was a shameful act and criticised by many people in India and abroad as well.
Rajasthan reported the highest number of rape cases
The northern state of Rajasthan reported the highest number of rape cases across India in 2022, at over 5.3 thousand. Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous state, ranked second that year, while the union territory of Lakshadweep recorded the lowest number.
The highest number of rape cases is found in Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Kerala and Chhattisgarh. In 2018, Madhya Pradesh was highest at 5,433. Similarly, Rajasthan was highest by 5,997 in 2019 and 5,130 in 2020. Even though so many cases are reported, the conviction rate is rather very low. In 2018, the conviction rate was 27.2% and 27.8% in 2019.
Even though many rapes are not being reported in the country, it is an issue that continuously makes news headlines, some leading to public protests. According to reports published in Times of India (2008), rape is the fastest growing crime in India. In the past few years, the report from the ministry suggests that India stands at the third rank on the list of crimes against women.
One of the main reasons behind raising rape is due to the male-dominated society. Women have a low representation in such societies and many men think that women are only born to be used. Hence, women are limited to household activities, sexual activities and so on.
Other reasons of rising rape cases are due to the ignoring the relationship between poverty and violence, the stigma and blame attached to rape, lack of proper gender education, and also the difficult path to justice.
How laws work for Rape Cases in India?
In India, laws related to rape are primarily defined in the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and have undergone amendments over the years to address various aspects of sexual violence. As of my last update, here are some key points regarding the laws for rape in India:
Under Section 375 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), rape is defined as the act of a man having sexual intercourse with a woman without her consent, or with her consent if that consent has been obtained by putting her or any person in whom she is interested in fear of death or of hurt.
The laws have been amended over time to broaden the definition of rape and make punishments more stringent. For example, the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2013, was a significant legislative step taken after the Nirbhaya case, which introduced amendments to the IPC, the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), and the Indian Evidence Act.
Punishment for rape can vary depending on the severity of the crime. The minimum punishment for rape is imprisonment for seven years, which may extend to life imprisonment. In cases where the victim is under 16 years of age, the punishment can be more severe, including life imprisonment or death penalty.
The age of consent in India is 18 years. Sexual intercourse with a person below this age, even if consensual, is considered statutory rape.
As of my last update, marital rape is not explicitly recognized as a criminal offense in India, except under certain circumstances. There have been debates and a call for its criminalization, but it remains a contentious issue. The law provides for the protection of the identity of the victim of rape. The victim’s name cannot be disclosed in any public or media forum, and her privacy must be respected during the investigation and trial process