Pranav D Week 9

Rape Culture by Pratiksha Baxi

In this piece, Pratiksha Baxi analyses sexual violence as a systemic reality as opposed to individual incidents. The opening paragraphs list the social realities that women face in public, from horrific instances of rape in private buses to poor city planning and inefficient authorities who police women regularly. Baxi argues that along with a host of other factors, these lay the foundation for a world that is not welcoming to women. The judiciary does not acknowledge the social realities of rape but simply views it as an offence of its own.

Politicians, who are supposed to be the representatives of the people, do not do much for the cause either. Instances of rape are either trivialised or analysed very superficially, and given partisan twists instead of reformed. Chests are beaten and the death penalty is sought, since rape is considered worse than death. But as Baxi points out, such a view is only dehumanising many who have survived it. The statistics indicate that the death penalty for rape would lead to more harms than benefits, since more victims are likely to get killed, and fewer cases will be reported when the rapist is known to the victim. Additionally, in the larger context of serious crimes, it has shown that the death penalty has no significant deterrent effect. In the history of independent India, as Pratiksha Baxi points out, paradigm shifts have always been at the heavy cost to women, whether it was the development agenda that worsened sexual harassment by introducing the workplace as another sphere, or the situation in Kashmir with the AFSPA. Tracing these important markers, she highlights the causes, attributes and parts of the rape culture in India.