
The conviction rate for rape cases in India was at a dismal 2.56 percent in 2022. The number is integral to the public discourse on crimes against women, yet is often forgotten amid a clamour for the harshest of punishments
The pattern of this discourse has become so familiar that several state governments have chosen to amend laws dealing with serious crimes against women and children to extend the terms of punishment and introduce the death penalty for certain categories of crimes.
Tamil Nadu recently joined West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra in passing bills to that effect. The legislations passed by the Tamil Nadu assembly do have some thoughtful additions—they make bail harder to obtain for those accused of certain offences and introduce a provision for protective orders. However, by and large, the focus of such laws is to increase penalties and make them more stringent.
The DMK government introduced the bills after the opposition put it on the back foot over a sexual assault of a student on the campus of Anna University, allegedly by a supporter of the ruling party. Then, in a grievous violation of the survivor’s privacy, the FIR was briefly in the public domain and became widely shared.
Accused by some of intentionally leaking the FIR to shame the survivor, the police placed the blame on a glitch at the National Informatics Centre that allowed the document to be leaked. The silver lining is the almost-universal praise given to the survivor for courageously coming forward despite the perpetrator’s attempts to blackmail her into silence.
Gender-based violence is a complex societal phenomenon that requires thoughtful responses. Knee-jerk legislative reactions, often undertaken for political reasons, may briefly silence critics; but they do little to address the problem. Reforming society must be a long-term goal, but reformation of the justice system is vital, too, and cannot be lost sight of.
Strengthening punishments or introducing more courts—as Tamil Nadu has announced—will have little value if the personnel issues that leave courts understaffed are not addressed, and if investigation and prosecution are not time-bound and efficient. It is not the stringency of punishment that deters; rather, it is the certainty of being caught and held to account.