In this entry, I will be analysing the open letter sent by Upendra Baxi, Vasudha, Raghunath Kelkar and Lotika Sarkar to the Chief Justice of India. In this letter, the scholars express their bitter disappointment with the handling of the Mathura Rape case by the Supreme Court. The case revolves around the custodial rape of a minor, and the Supreme Court's reversal of the High Court's decision, that resulted in a conviction.
The Supreme Court's decision as laid forward by the scholars seems incogent and fails to take into account circumstances of the victim, rather leaping to the conclusion that it was consensual sexual intercourse. They dismiss the case of the victim, attempting to find fallacies: There was no resistance by the girl, the intercourse was a peaceful affair and her cries for resistance are a bundle of concocted lies.
What this points to is a failure of deliverance of human rights to a victim of the most heinous form. Moreso, it highlights a culture of disbelief of the victim (even when they are children, and when the circumstances laid out by the judge seem extremely implausible), an attitude of looking at the woman as a morally flawed character, and all sexual intercourse is of a consensual nature, that has from time immemorial pervaded through the ranks of society. In light of such practices, it is not hard to see why rape remains a crime which isn't very frequently reported, as it is extremely traumatic for a survivor to go forth.
It begs very introspective questions: Why do we not believe survivors? Why is it that we believe that the survivor 'wanted it'? Why isn't there a shift in the patriarchal attitudes of the system?
It is imperative we look inwards, now more than ever.
The Supreme Court's decision as laid forward by the scholars seems incogent and fails to take into account circumstances of the victim, rather leaping to the conclusion that it was consensual sexual intercourse. They dismiss the case of the victim, attempting to find fallacies: There was no resistance by the girl, the intercourse was a peaceful affair and her cries for resistance are a bundle of concocted lies.
What this points to is a failure of deliverance of human rights to a victim of the most heinous form. Moreso, it highlights a culture of disbelief of the victim (even when they are children, and when the circumstances laid out by the judge seem extremely implausible), an attitude of looking at the woman as a morally flawed character, and all sexual intercourse is of a consensual nature, that has from time immemorial pervaded through the ranks of society. In light of such practices, it is not hard to see why rape remains a crime which isn't very frequently reported, as it is extremely traumatic for a survivor to go forth.
It begs very introspective questions: Why do we not believe survivors? Why is it that we believe that the survivor 'wanted it'? Why isn't there a shift in the patriarchal attitudes of the system?
It is imperative we look inwards, now more than ever.
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