Before It’s Too Late For Justice: What Still Remains To Be Done For The Rape Laws In India?

21 hours ago

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Four women every hour. That’s the gruesome statistic for rape cases in India as per the the NCRB data. Worse so, the road to justice in India is dark which makes justice more elusive for the Women. The question then is, what remains to be done? How many times more till the protests on the streets turn to concrete systematic deterrence in the society? How many more names to be added in the list of ‘Victims’ till the bells of justice actually ring ? And what remains left for a survivor who is stripped off her dignity and is also blindsided by the State?

Illustration by The Geostrata

TIP OF AN ICEBERG

It is indeed a horrific time to be in a country where women are worshipped but also where public outrage repeatedly screams of lapses in women safety. A society where the first pitstop for reducing crimes against women is to confine them under four walls, blame her clothes and question her sexuality. Flavia Agnes argues that rape laws themselves are based on same old notions of chastity, virginity, premium of marriage and fear of female sexuality. In a country where sociological revisit is the need, the only hope that remains is the justice system but when that too is doctored, there is very little to hope for.

The NCRB data points towards 29,536 rape cases in the Crime in India report of 2024. This means there is a reported daily average of 1,210 cases of all crimes against women on a daily basis. But even this is just the tip of an iceberg. The gap between recorded cases and reality is staggering too.

With social stigma of shame, inaccessibility and insensitivity of police and fear of exclusion, many crimes go unreported. Perpetrator data on rape cases provide insight into the relationships within which violence against women occurs and it shows that the accused was known to the survivor in 96.8 percent of rape cases registered in 2024.

Friends or intimate partners constituted the largest category of known perpetrators. By contrast, only 3.2 percent of cases involved an unidentified offender. This means that it is further challenging for the victim to resort to the courts. The conviction rate is therefore, less than 30% and even in those cases, the wait is unusually long.

Data shows that roughly 2% of the cases that were sent to trial end in conviction in the same year. In 2024 alone, nearly 40, 000 cases were taken up for investigation but only 25,000 were charge sheeted while the rest went into cold boxes of pending police investigation, transfer of case to another investigative agency or unwarranted investigation. This made the total rape case tally to reach 2,06,777 cases by the end of the year, 90% of which remained pending. These numbers are staggering since they reflect a dire need for a time-bound justice delivery system and not merely a law.

WHEN SYSTEMS ARE SEXIST

The routine acquittal of rapists on the pretext of ‘lack of evidence’, ‘final report false’, ‘mistake of the fact’ shows what goes inside a courtroom against a victim. Very recently, the Supreme court had reprimanded lower courts for refraining from using patriarchal language like ‘lack of penetration evidence’, ‘lost chastity’ and ‘outraged modesty’. Even the judges are of the opinion that it is the honor of the victim that gets stolen and not that of the rapist.

Adding to this is the premise of Sexual history of the victim. Courts repeatedly have tried to penalize women and render relief to the accused on the grounds of ‘Promiscuity’ of the women. The trial court in Tukaram v State of Maharashtra (also known as Mathura’s rape case) acquitted the two accused policemen on the ground that the victim has raised no alarm, there was no visible injury mark on her thereby it could be assumed that she has consented and not protested, therefore no rape is committed. In short, the societal expectations of a virgin and chaste woman as a worthy and decent being remains strongly ingrained.

Tampering the evidence is the easiest way to get away with a crime and in cases like this, where time matters a lot, evidence collection becomes even more crucial. The interval between an assault and medical evaluation remains a primary determinant of evidentiary recovery. When victims delay presentation or undergo routine personal hygiene routines, vital macroscopic and microscopic evidence degrades rapidly and can jeopardize the whole trial. Reports show that 60% of survivors examined within 72 hours exhibited corroborative physical or forensic findings, whereas only 2% examined after 7 days retained corroborative evidence.

In a review of Supreme court judgements, 35% of analyzed sexual violence and homicide appeals involved mishandled forensic samples or conflicting laboratory analyses, prompting the court to commute sentences or acquit defendants on the grounds of reasonable doubt. The need is to ramp up the evidence collection system along with the sensitization of ground technicians, lab workers and officers involved.

With workshops by experts on gender sensitization and development of scientific acumen, the field officers can be better equipped to deal with cases like this. Moreover, lapses in evidence collection on behalf of the investigating officer must be dealt with punitive measures in order to ensure accountability.

IS THE CURRENT LAW MECHANISM ENOUGH?

Under Indian law, codified under Section 63 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) (which succeeded Section 375 of the Indian Penal Code), rape comprises specific non-consensual sexual acts and penetrations committed by a man against a woman. Prior to the legal reforms introduced following the 2012 Delhi gang-rape case, Section 375 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) adopted a relatively narrow definition of rape. The subsequent amendments broadened its scope to include a wider range of non-consensual penetrative acts, recognizing the diverse forms that sexual violence can take.

However, during the trial of offences of rape, a Principal offence rule is utilized. Under this rule, if a person is charged of murder and rape, his trial would continue under murder only placing it as a higher order crime. This makes rape a visibly less criminal offence in the eyes of law.

During the time of investigation, there have been instances of police officers cautioning families against the filing of an FIR. Cases of custodial rape are also reported inside the Police stations where conviction rates remain disturbingly low. The need thus arises to reform police training and representation while significantly increasing the share of female officers from current levels of roughly 6.5%. Even though fast track courts do exist, the output is very low.

There is a need to increase the gender budget to not only set up more courts in each state and assign the task of monitoring these cases to the National Commission For Women but also to ensure that this accessibility reaches the rural areas of India too. In recent past, the NCW has also been under scrutiny for not delivering its mandate which would further require a regular annual audit report of the sexual violence cases to be submitted and scrutinized in the parliament itself.

The fact remains that the women in rural India often bear a double burden of being a woman and a lower caste too. By implementing Justice Verma recommendations and operationalizing dedicated Rape Crisis Centres and removing legal immunities such as the marital rape exception, the effectiveness of courts can go a long way.

WHAT IF DETERRENCE IS THE ONLY WAY?

The first solution that comes into our mind is of course correction through education. Thus, we believe that compulsory courses shall be conducted on gender sensitization for all personnel employed and engaged by the state in its various institutions, including the police. Advocates have urged law enforcement to protect public safety and prevent community harassment.

Accountability measures must include ensuring a safe reporting environment, which requires addressing and eliminating instances of misconduct by officers against complainants. They must register all first information reports, an initial written document recording the offence and attend to complaints. CCTV cameras should also be set up in all police stations and swift action must be taken against errant police personnel.

Moreover, schools and colleges should inculcate teachings of not only “Good Touch, Bad Touch," but also "Good See, Bad See”. Moral science curriculum from an early age should include lessons on respecting boundaries and the importance of Consent. In Colleges and other academic and non-academic institutions, Gender Sensitivity workshops should not be treated as an annual affair, rather they must repeatedly be taught to students, teachers as well as for the staff members.

An example of transforming it into an engaging exercise would be to ask participants to fill a questionnaire that can help judge the stereotypes the audience is pre-disposed to and tailoring the workshop to address those specific issues in more detail. By making a limited tier of Convicted offenders openly accessible on the National Database on Sexual Offenders public, India will come closer to the U.S Model, where the registry is fully public. A US Justice Department study of South Carolina found that registration and notification appeared to avert new, first-time sex crimes.

Rape laws should reflect strict deterrence in the minds of criminals. If punishment will go stricter, the fear of offence would automatically instill fear in the minds of offenders.

CONCLUSION

India does not lack laws against rape; it lacks a system that reliably delivers punishment. The stringent laws and strict punishments are important to deter people from committing rape, perhaps the most violent crime against women, but the actual solution to this problem is much more than just promulgation. Deterrence works through the expectation of being caught, convicted and punished quickly. Harsher sentences on paper change little while FIRs are refused, samples sit unexamined and witnesses are pressured into turning hostile.

The task, therefore, is to make every stage run on a clock, with a named official accountable when it is missed. Pair that certainty with severe, mandatory penalties for the worst offenders, and a social base that teaches consent early. Until then, the protests will keep returning, and the gap between the law’s promise and its delivery will keep falling on women.

The fight for justice this time, shall not stop at the doorstep of the parliament, rather begin from there. The movement shall continue to march till it remembers that