A woman is the one with whom this whole world came into existence. As per thus, today she should have been occupying the most important and respectable position in the whole World. But this is not the case, because of lack of understanding and male dominance she occupies a low position when compared to men and is confined to kitchen rooms and restrictions. A woman despite of all of these restrictions has tried coming out of her shell and is craving to compete with the world. And what are we doing committing offences against her. Here she is not only a Woman, this women can be your mother, sister, wife and even your daughter.
Defining violence against Women?
Violence against Women has been recognized, at both the national and international levels, as a serious and ongoing impediment to gender equality and women’s human rights and fundamental freedoms (United Nations 1993).The 1993 UN declaration on elimination of Violence against Women has defined violence against women as:
Any act of gender- based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life (UN 1993).
This definition encompasses all types of violence against women and includes the wide array of violence perpetrated in both the public and private spheres of women’s lives.
Recent crimes showing Violence against Women:
The problem of gender-based violence is getting worse. National Crime Record Bureau statistics show crimes against women increased by 7.1 percent nationwide since 2010. There has been a rise in the number of incidents of rape & are recorded too. In the year 2011, 24,206 incidents were recorded, a rise of 9 percent from previous year. More than half of the victims are between 18 to 30 years of age. Figures indicate that 10.6 percent of total victims of rape were girls under 14 years of age, while 19 percent were teens between the ages of 14 and 18.  Alarmingly in almost 94.2 percent of cases offenders were known to the victims and those involved included family members, relatives, and neighbors.  
Under the IPC (Indian Penal Code) crimes against women include rape, kidnapping and abduction, homicide for dowry, torture, molestation, sexual harassment, and the trafficking of girls. Kidnapping and abductions are up by 19 percent and trafficking rose by 122 percent in the same period. Crimes that include the Indian term “eve-teasing” or harassment and heckling and sexual innuendoes against women in public places including streets, public transport, cinema halls, along with the rape of minors and women in tribal and villages often go unreported and unrecorded.
According to records, Madhya Pradesh, a state with a large population of tribes, has recorded 3406 rape cases, the highest number of incidents in the country in 2011.
India’s profile as an emerging modern nation has taken a beating by the recent rape cases.
Recent rape cases:
One of the biggest rape cases which has shaken the nation is one of a 23-year old female physiotherapy intern in Munirka, a neighborhood located in the southern part of New Delhi. In this case the victim was raped at the night of 16th December 2012. In this incident the victim was brutally tortured, beaten, raped. The criminals had used iron rods and bare hands to commit the crime. In this crime she was treated inhumanly that her intestines were damaged badly. The victim cried for help but did not get any from the passersby, even her male friend could not save her because he was also beaten up badly.
The partially clothed victims were found on the road by a passerby at around 11 pm (IST). She was found with injury marks all over her body and only 5% of her intestines remaining inside of her abdomen. This shows how brutal and heinous the crime was. This crime lead to many protests demanding speedy justice. Many organizations made candle light vigils in and around Delhi to pray for the victim, but all of this did not bring much of justice to the victim.
After this rape case there were many other rape cases across the Nation, some of them again happening in our capital New Delhi, and rest in other states. One such other case which is gaining importance after the Delhi rape case is of a small 5-year old girl in Delhi. In this case the little girl was brutally raped by two criminals. The condition of the little girl is improving slowly.
These are the only two cases which I have mentioned still there are many such cases going on now. There needs to be a serious need of Fast track courts to look after women issues. A death penalty needs to be given as a punishment to these criminals because they don’t stand a chance to live their life after depriving one innocent person of her Right to Live which is guaranteed to every Indian citizen under Article 21 of our Indian constitution. There are many constitutional provisions for upliftment and protection of women in our constitution but are not being implemented properly. An anti-rape bill needs to come up. There needs to be fear of law among people. Because since the Delhi rape case there are many more cases taking place. It looks like there is no proper humanity today in society. Each and every place is filled with criminals. And after these cases all we get to hear is that for crimes against women, women themselves are responsible and blame game goes on. And women are so helpless we can’t even carry a knife along and butcher them on the spot and say we were exercising Right to private defense. And if we do this we will not be given justice and taken behind the bars as criminals and not freed also. Why are these criminals given acquittal then? Is the judiciary also part of this? Whenever these crimes take place all we need to do is take them behind the bars, and not let them out and give them as stricter punishment as possible so that these crimes don’t repeat in future. And what we do is take ages for investigating and then pressurize the victim asking how it took place? Where all did he touch you, are all these scars made by the culprit and all. We don’t see how traumatized is the victim and just go on traumatizing her more badly. And luckily if we get witnesses for the incident we also trouble them. If we do this way we will not be able to solve any cases. Every morning I take up News paper to check the headlines and there is no page where I do not find a headline relating to offences against Women. I wonder when there will be a time when we the women will be able to roam out freely at any moment of time. I wonder when there will be a news paper without reports dealing with women issues. I wonder when crime rate in India goes down because soon India will be one among the most famous criminal countries. We dream of being a developed country and competing with the US, UK .All of this is possible only if we concentrate on giving speedy justice and stricter punishments because curbing crimes against women will help us concentrate on other international issues and fight against it and achieve Mr. APJ Abdul Kalam Sir’s dream of 2020.
If you think that sex-education is necessary, then stricter laws to curb crimes against women are also necessary.
The reasons which we are given for rape are:
1. The girl got raped because she was wearing a short skirt.
2. Western Culture.
3. Pub-culture
4. Male friends.
 
 
They wear short skirts because they feel comfortable in it. Well we cannot ask everyone to dress in suits or sarees. What happens when a 2 year old or a 3 year old is raped?  Would we ask them also to wear sarees? We object on the pub-culture, is there a restriction saying No entry for women’s? And the biggest thing which we do is blaming the western culture. What does western culture do? Nothing. People try new cultures because they are used to the old ones and just want to give a try to a new culture. Well it is always said that something new is worth a try. You can also see various western people trying out Indian outfits like sarees, so when they can take it why can’t we? When western people were busy figuring out about gravitational force, moon and what not we were thinking all about how man gets attracted to women and vice-versa. It is we whose worship places depict Sex as divine and not theirs. Outside the temple it is Kama sutra and inside it is Ram sutra. It is not that I support western culture I am just trying to say that Stop giving reasons for it and try to bring change. Be the change. If you are getting so attracted seeing a female why don’t you indulge yourself in self entertainment? If you are dreaming seeing a female why are you dragging her into it? What’s her fault in it; you cannot force someone to be part of your dream.
In conclusion, the children in the beginning itself should be taught to respect the women and treat them equally. At the same time the girls should be trained in self defense so that in case of eventuality they are fully prepared for it.
About The Author:-
Preetika Duggal
Post Graduate College of Law, OU, Hyderabad.

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