A 16-year-old Dalit girl committed suicide on Saturday after she was allegedly gangraped in Sachcha Kheda village in Haryana’s Jind district. This was the tenth case of the gruesome offence in the small state in a short span of time. A newly married 19-year-old woman was abducted, held for four days, and repeatedly raped by four men in Gohana town near Sonipat, about 200 kms from the state capital, on Wednesday. Two days earlier, a 15-year-old mentally challenged Dalit girl was raped in the same town. The victims in most of these cases were from the Dalit communities.
It is not mere coincidence that the small central Indian state has the worst sex-ratio in the country and demographic imbalance could be a contributory factor behind the increasing incidents of rape and molestation of women in Haryana and other similar states. The spate of recent violence against women also reflects the inadequacy of present law on rape and sexual exploitation of women, and the ineffectiveness of law enforcement agencies against culprits, who usually hail from powerful sections of society.
As a category in criminal law, rape is one of the most heinous offences against society and public morality. As Justice Arijit Pasayat of the Supreme Court famously said in one of his eloquent judgments: “While a murderer destroys the physical frame of the victim, a rapist degrades and defiles the soul of a helpless female.” The UPA government is reported to have cleared a Bill for amending the law to provide for much stricter punishment for rape and sexual molestation. The new law should be brought on the statute book without delay and provide for capital punishment in special cases, involving custodial rape and rape against children. The government must also ensure that police register every rape case reported to it, complete the investigation within a stipulated time frame and provide protection to the victim. There should be special courts for speedy trial of rape cases. A rapist deserves no sympathy and must be given deterrent punishment.