Two decades ago in 2002, when angry Opposition members in the Lok Sabha had demanded capital punishment for rapists, the then deputy prime minister LK Advani had said: “I feel punishment for rape should be death but the government would want the opinion of state governments as well as political parties.”
Significantly, Advani had also said he had supported stringent action against rapists in 1998 also but it was opposed by NGOs and some state governments. Many had then feared that sexual assault survivors could be murdered as they could identify the criminal.
But what about the Kolkata victim or thousands of girls across India who have been sexually assaulted and killed?
Was it possible for a three-month-old baby, raped in Lakhimpur Kheri on December 22, 2003, to identify the victim? Parents had to show the mutilated sexual organs of the infant to convince the authorities to lodge a complaint of sexual assault.
Now, when the beleaguered West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee has demanded capital punishment for the rapist in a letter to the prime minister, the government can galvanise consensus through discussion on what their own leader had said 22 years back. It is possible that political parties may budge from their position on capital punishment for rapists, given the countrywide public outrage triggered by the crime in Kolkata.
While all political parties promise the safety of women in their manifestos, given the available technology, they can now scan the background of their representatives and office bearers to ensure no one accused of rape or any crime against women is fielded in an election or given a party post.
Former police officer and now BJP MLA Rajeshwar Singh said criminals should never be given election tickets. Political offences like cases of road blocking or demonstrations are fine as they could be part of agitations but crimes against women and heinous crimes like murder, attempt to murder, kidnapping and extortion should be viewed seriously.
Former IAS officer and anti-corruption crusader Vijay Shanker Pandey said: “Political parties need to throw out sexual offenders as well as those with a criminal background. But this is not going to happen under the current leadership of any political outfit… For them, ethics, morality, integrity and the country’s interest have no place in their scheme of things.”
The central government must take a decision on this issue after arriving at a consensus that cuts across party lines.
Even court interventions and verdicts in high-profile sexual assault cases and despite fast-track courts for such crimes, women have continued to be brutally assaulted at homes, in public places and now in hospitals.
As far back as 1973, when cases of sexual assault on women in public places were negligible, a senior professor of surgery at the prestigious King George’s Medical College in Lucknow, RP Sahi, had told interns to ensure the safety of their women colleagues in the hospital, especially at night.
Over the years, the problem of lack of safety for women — even in hospitals — has only compounded. Most hospitals, especially the big ones, remain unsafe for female attendants: There are corners in the premises of big hospitals that are deserted at night and are often not well-lit. CCTV cameras are useful but might not be able to stop a crime from being committed. Thus, there is a need to relook at the structural design of big hospitals.
Senior journalist Sharat Pradhan, a former member of the ethics committee at the Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences in Lucknow and Kalyan Singh Cancer Institute, said hospital authorities hardly spare a thought to the gnawing fear that prevails among women around empty corridors late at night.
“What is required is constant pressure on authorities for pre-emptive measures. While planning the hospital building, reasonable attention should be paid to the allocation of spaces with the security of women in mind. Sadly, this does not appear to be any consideration in the minds of the planners either, ” Pradhan said.
Social activist Madhvi Kukreja suggested a mobile app for quick messaging and suggested the deployment of additional security in hospitals at night.
Kavita Mayank, founder director of Apollomedics, in Lucknow, suggested the installation of security systems like biometrics, scanners, ID card access to monitor entry and exit points, a robust visitor management system to track and monitor visitors, well-lit changing rooms for doctors and nurses with panic buttons, location of nurse stations in well-lit accessible areas besides an emergency call button in the patient’s room.
School and college students submitted a bunch of suggestions to ensure women’s safety in public spaces during a month-long HT campaign in 2016 on the problem. The suggestions were subsequently submitted to chief minister Yogi Adityanath in 2017. The suggestions are easy to execute if the government, as well as the public, come together to take on the offenders.
One suggestion was the debarring of offenders from accessing any government scheme – from ration to jobs and access to subsidies – as done in some countries with the help of digital identity markers.
Here I quote a few lines from a poem written by Trisha Verma, a school student that summarises the agony of the young girls amid public outrage.
“In the aftermath, with her shell cracked and the filament bust, Twisted and crumbled by the hospital gathering dust, the pests scatter, anonymous in the dark of the night, Her halo blackened by the blight which they allegedly call ‘Insect Instinct’ — the first few lines read as, “Caught between uncertainty and duty, she prevails, she inhales, and she prays, Oh God, please, today is not the day.”
Sunita Aron is a consulting editor with the HT based in Lucknow. You can find her on X as @overto. The weekly column, Keeping up with UP tackles everything from politics to social and cultural mores in the country’s most populous state. The views expressed are personal.
