Aastha Gupta(838)- week 9

RAPE CULTURES IN INDIA- PRATIKSHA BAXI

The writer talks about what are the reasons that rape culture is so accepted in India and actually in a way propagated. She says it’s a ‘public secret’ that women are harassed and targeted in the streets. In her article she has focused on how it’s the fault of the politicians, judiciary and the city planners that the rapists do not fear doing these crimes. In Mathura rape case, the accused were not convicted on the grounds that the girl’s character was questionable since she was running away with her boyfriend and was not a virgin so she could have sex with anybody. The guidelines set in Vishaka case were faulty as well, as we read in Sexcapades by Ratna Kapoor. 

The judiciary does not see rape as a political violence, it’s seen more like sex, someone’s uncontrollable lust, a pathological problem. A girl’s whole life is ruined, her mental health is ruined, and all that politicians do is politics even on a case such as rape. Police officials before registering a case tries to deter the girl from filing one by saying things like you will have to come to court and give the whole account of what happened to you in front of everyone. Everyone around a girl tries to stop them from raising their voices since families want to do face saving and because girls in our society are seen as ‘ghar ka maan’. They don’t want to give girls the power to take matters into their hands since the city belongs to heterosexist men. High class women still have a chance of getting justice; Dalit women do not even have that.
The convicts of Nirbhaya Rape case were hanged in 2020, after 8 years when she is no more. Justice delayed. Every small action promotes rape culture in India.