In a historic flourish, the government of India has legislated a law that makes ‘rape’ a gender neutral issue. As anticipated, there are many who’ve come up strongly against the bill, their primary argument being that a man can never be raped in the strictest sense – I am of the opinion that these people are trying to view the whole subject through a narrow prism. I shall highlight two incidents, that conveys divergent views but finally support the bill for being gender neutral.
Years back, there was a teenaged boy whose dead body was retrieved from the dustbin of a fairly reputed school, predominantly meant for girls, at Kochi. The young boy used to supply milk to the girls’ hostel of the school and over a weekend, he was found missing. Autopsy report clearly concluded that he’d a cardiac arrest due to excessive sexual activity which was evident from the clues that were available. It was finally established in a court of law that a group of five girls of the school–all from affluent families with their parents abroad in the Gulf region, making a fortune – had indeed scripted the entire sordid tale and were party to the gruesome murder.
The second tale is still worse and depressing. Somewhere in northern UP, a nine year old child who was a victim of sodomy, was found to be brutally murdered after the crime. The paradox was that the culprit was apprehended, but the subsequent legal process let him walk away freely, because the defence counsel took advantage of the loophole in the then existent law that did not cover ‘forcible sodomy’ under the ambit of rape.
Having laid out my argument in favour of the present bill, I only hope that this present piece of legislation encompasses the entire gamut of instances covering similar wrongdoings including acts of sexual harassment, so that future cases, do not fall by the wayside by what is euphemistically termed, as loopholes in the law! It’s also my fond hope that the law would ensure that all cases of similar nature are dealt with in a sensitive manner by everyone concerned, as the individual has already undergone severe psychological trauma and can be further battered by insensitivity.
I was saddened by the experiences of a woman subjected to rape and I quote from what she said, “What pains me is not that I was physically violated against my will, but somewhere in the melee, my body responded due to biological reasons of which I’d no control. For that reason, I feel dirty and can never forgive myself”. Unquote.
And as Perry Mason says, ‘the prosecution rests.’
Years back, there was a teenaged boy whose dead body was retrieved from the dustbin of a fairly reputed school, predominantly meant for girls, at Kochi. The young boy used to supply milk to the girls’ hostel of the school and over a weekend, he was found missing. Autopsy report clearly concluded that he’d a cardiac arrest due to excessive sexual activity which was evident from the clues that were available. It was finally established in a court of law that a group of five girls of the school–all from affluent families with their parents abroad in the Gulf region, making a fortune – had indeed scripted the entire sordid tale and were party to the gruesome murder.
The second tale is still worse and depressing. Somewhere in northern UP, a nine year old child who was a victim of sodomy, was found to be brutally murdered after the crime. The paradox was that the culprit was apprehended, but the subsequent legal process let him walk away freely, because the defence counsel took advantage of the loophole in the then existent law that did not cover ‘forcible sodomy’ under the ambit of rape.
Having laid out my argument in favour of the present bill, I only hope that this present piece of legislation encompasses the entire gamut of instances covering similar wrongdoings including acts of sexual harassment, so that future cases, do not fall by the wayside by what is euphemistically termed, as loopholes in the law! It’s also my fond hope that the law would ensure that all cases of similar nature are dealt with in a sensitive manner by everyone concerned, as the individual has already undergone severe psychological trauma and can be further battered by insensitivity.
I was saddened by the experiences of a woman subjected to rape and I quote from what she said, “What pains me is not that I was physically violated against my will, but somewhere in the melee, my body responded due to biological reasons of which I’d no control. For that reason, I feel dirty and can never forgive myself”. Unquote.
And as Perry Mason says, ‘the prosecution rests.’
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