Pratiksha Baxi, in her article, Rape Cultures in India, speaks out about the intolerable forms of sexual violence faced by women from all backgrounds in public spaces for decades in Delhi. She brings to light the lack of importance the government gives to women’s safety and how city planner’s act as enablers to the crime. Though the offense of rape has been placed in the penal code as ‘offence against human body’ it has not been considered as an act of violence. Instead, it has been interpreted as unconsented sexual relation, reducing it to the lust and deviance of the rapist and posits women as objects that fulfill this desire.
The parliamentary discourse on rape is used as a tool for politics and thus reaffirms rape culture. There is a massive irony associated with the political parties, particularly the right-wing, demanding harsher laws to punish the rapists without acknowledging that they themselves have been responsible for the formation and propagation of rape culture in our society. Being raped is seen to be a matter of shame for the survivor, rather than for the perpetrator. The name and face of the survivor is thrown around in the media, but the identity of the rapist is always protected. The only way to overcome the celebration of rape culture in India is as she concludes, by a heightened intolerance to sexual violence by men and women alike from all walks of life.
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