Death penalty for child rapists : Understandable but agreeable ?
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: April 23 2018 -
The death penalty. The logic behind the decision of the Union Cabinet to pass the ordinance that awards the death penalty on anyone who rapes a child up to the age of 12 is understandable but is it agreeable ?
President Ram Nath Kovind certainly seems to think so and hence the concurrence given to the ordinance while to many child rights activists the death penalty will only increase the chances of acquittal of the rape accused, since most cases of child rapes are committed by family members and hence may go unreported.
To give weight to their stand, the activists have pointed out that 95 per cent of the rapes are committed by family members and the conviction rate is only around 24 per cent.
Moreover under the POCSO Act, which deals with rapes of minors, the conviction rate stands at 20 per cent.
The stand of the child activists is also understood for as statistics say and if the accused are family members then the death penalty could dissuade many families from reporting incidents of rape.
On the other hand there is the stand of the father of Nirbhaya, the victim of the infamous 2012 rape in Delhi, who has gone on record to say, ‘Rape is rape, be it of minor or an adult. Why the ordinance has the provision for death penalty for those found raping children below 12 years only ? All rapists should get life term or death penalty, irrespective of the age of victim.’
The late lady’s father even went a step forward to allege that the death penalty has been passed with an eye on the coming 2019 Lok Sabha election.
Whatever the take from different stakeholders, the truth stands that the series of rapes of minors has benumbed the senses of the people and come July, when Parliament meets for the Monsoon session, one can see the ordinance being enacted.
Only time will tell whether the death penalty will have a positive impact and whether India will see a drop in the cases of minors being raped and killed, but already an important decision has been taken.
There will be more debates in the coming days, but the decision of the Government must have surely come like sweet music to the family members of the victim of the Kathua rape case as well 9 year old child of Surat, whose mutilated body after rape was discovered some days back.
Another question is whether just a law is enough to tackle the cases of rape across the country.
Here it becomes important to acknowledge that rapists are also products of society and hence the need to study and understand the value system that society teaches the young kids.
And the value system must start from what is taught or passed on to the young children from within the family.
When girls are treated as second class citizens, as punching bags for the male members of the family, as objects to be lusted after and for the males to assert their ‘superiority’ and use the female body to settle a score with others, then rape will continue.
This is what has been happening.
In Manipur too the decision of the Centre should have far reaching consequences.
Remember it is not without reason why a particular armed outfit has taken it upon itself to hand out the death penalty to all rapists.
Herein lies a tale, a very significant tale.
* Comments posted by users in this discussion thread and other parts of this site are opinions of the individuals posting them (whose user ID is displayed alongside) and not the views of e-pao.net. We strongly recommend that users exercise responsibility, sensitivity and caution over language while writing your opinions which will be seen and read by other users. Please read a complete Guideline on using comments on this website.