On the Pernicious Impact of Patriarchal Attitudes in India
On 5 December 2019 in Unnao a 23-year-old woman, on her way to testify in court against her alleged rapists, was kidnapped and set alight by a group of men. Having suffered 90% burns she later succumbed to her injuries, prompting widespread condemnation and protests. Among the 5 individuals arrested on suspicion of murder were 2 of the alleged rapists that she was on her way to testify against. The targeted, brutal, and public nature of this attack has left many in India reeling, not least because it occurred less than a week after a 27-year-old Vet was kidnapped, raped, and subsequently murdered in Hyderabad. In the aftermath of both murders the conversation has predictably been fraught and emotive with various commentators calling for tougher sentencing for rapists, but it is the author’s opinion that such calls are fundamentally misguided. This is because they fail to grasp the fact that, at root, India’s crisis of sexual violence against women is underpinned by a deeply seated patriarchal mentality. It is the aim of this article to explore the relationship between this mentality and the causes of, as well as the mainstream response to, India’s current crisis of sexual violence against women.
A statistical overview: violence against women in India
Internationally, India is now seen as a country which is particularly dangerous for women. Following the 5th December murder in Unnao, a number of countries, including the United Kingdom and the United States of America, issued revised guidance for female travellers. The guidance published by the United Kingdom is particularly notable as it explicitly states that female travellers “should exercise caution when travelling in India,” before citing “recent sexual attacks” as the basis of this revised guidance. Yet, beyond the immediate international alarm generated by the recent attacks, human rights observers and academics have increasingly seen India as a country in which women are particularly vulnerable. For example, as far back as 2011, a survey by the Thompson Reuters Foundation of experts, academics, and aid workers, covering areas as diverse as sexual violence against women and access to healthcare, ranked India as the fifth most dangerous country in the world for women. Alarmingly this same poll, when repeated in 2018, saw India claim the ignominious title of the most dangerous country in the world for women. In so doing India, in the space of less than a decade, had leapfrogged countries such as Somalia, Saudi Arabia, and Afghanistan which have traditionally been seen by some as among the most repressive countries in the world for women.
It may be objected that these surveys are of limited use, as they only measure an international perception about the safety of women in India rather than the reality on the ground. However, a closer look at the statistics collated by both the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) and the International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS) reveals that these surveys do in fact accurately reflect the daily experiences of women in India. According to the latest statistics available from the NCRB pertaining to 2017, there were more than 32,500 cases of alleged rape registered with the police nationally, which equates to a distressing figure of more than 90 cases of alleged rape per day. In a short period of 4 years, the number of reported rapes of children more than doubled from 8,541 in 2012 to 19,765 cases in 2016. Astonishingly, these figures ought to be caveated by the fact that India’s most recent family health-related survey, the National Family Health Survey 4 (NFHS-4) conducted by the IIPS in 2016, concluded that more than 70% of rape cases go unreported. Such under-reporting is most often attributed to the patriarchal climate in India, which stigmatises women and female sexuality, ensuring that when women are subjected to sexual violence they maintain a studied silence. However, whilst this may be partly true, it is also the case that these norms are often extrapolated beyond the family level to the judiciary and the police, and as such, institutional barriers, such as the unwillingness of the police to register crimes against women, play a role in reinforcing this prejudice.
Furthermore, whilst it is understandable given recent events that the conversation has centred on cases of rape and sexual violence against women, it is important to understand that the deeply seated climate of patriarchy in India has ramifications beyond rape. For instance, NFHS-4 found that 52% of women polled and 42% of men believed that it would be justifiable for a man to beat his wife in at least 1 of 7 specified circumstances (including where a wife “neglects the house or children” or where a woman “goes out without telling” her husband first). Beyond violence, patriarchal attitudes exert their influence on women in other restrictive ways. For example, less than half of the women surveyed in NFHS-4 (41%) stated that they had the freedom to travel alone to certain specified places (the market, health facilities, and areas outside their neighbourhood) and only 42% of women had access to money which they alone could determine how to use. These statistics reveal, in the author’s opinion, that there is still a significant section of the Indian population who, in the context of marriage, believe that a man has the right to “control” his partner's behaviour.
Examining the response to the Unnao incident
Within hours of the brutal rape and murder in Unnao, protests had broken out across India and politicians had begun to chart what is now a depressingly familiar course calling for tougher sentencing for those found guilty of rape. Some MPs, such as Jaya Bachchan, went further stating that those found guilty of rape ought to be "publicly lynched." Such reactions are, in the author's view, entirely misguided. This is not least because those found guilty of rape in India may already be subject to capital punishment. Leaving aside any debate on the efficacy of capital punishment as a deterrent, it is clear that in India any such deterrent value is fatally undermined by an overburdened, inefficient, and ill-equipped judicial system. In 2017, only 18,000 rape cases were heard, which left a backlog of over 127,000 cases pending. Consequently, many victims face several years of waiting, during which they may be subject to intimidation or pressure to withdraw their charges before their cases reach a court of first instance. It must be admitted that the government has attempted to remedy this situation through the introduction of so-called "fast-track" courts, though the success and quality of this mechanism is yet to be determined. However, at root even the most efficient judicial system and draconian laws would have a decidedly minimal impact in limiting rape in India unless such laws were accompanied by a change in the patriarchal attitudes that exist in India.
Such views were on full display following the Unnao incident, when filmmaker Daniel Shravan took to Twitter to declare that whilst murder is "inexcusable," rape was "not a serious thing." Shravan went on to suggest that rape "without violence" ought to be legalised and that women should "carry condoms" instead of calling the police or relying on the "Nirbhaya Act" for protection. Shravan's views are notable for a number of reasons: firstly, he clearly trivialises sexual violence against women and the trauma that it causes by declaring that rape is not "serious”; and secondly, he suggests that women ought to submit to sexual violence, with an onus lying on them to protect themselves. But perhaps most damagingly, Shravan implicitly suggests that there is an inevitability about sexual violence against women and that such behaviour cannot be discouraged or deterred by the law. Although Shravan was roundly criticised for his views, it is notable that in practice he was merely echoing a view held by some in India that rape is trivial and that the burden lies on the victim to self-protect. For example, in July 2018 the BJP politician, Surendra Narayan Singh, declared that "not even Lord Ram" would be able to "prevent rapes," and in 2017 BJP MP, Kirron Kher, stated that the victim of a shocking gang-rape should have avoided boarding a rickshaw in which her assailants were seated. Such views are often accompanied by the equally debilitating narrative advanced by various members of both the BJP and its parent organisation, the RSS, including the RSS' President, Mohan Bhagwat, that rape in India is a result of "western" values. As early as 2013, Bhagwat, in stark contradiction to the evidence, opined that sexual violence against women is restricted to "urban India" and does not occur in rural India where "traditional values" are prevalent. As such, Shravan's comments ought to be viewed as existing within a well-established narrative that disempowers victims of sexual violence and seeks to paint such violence as an inevitability.
It is arguable that, beyond the comments of individual politicians, Indian politics itself has long turned a blind eye to those accused of committing crimes against women. For example, between 2009 and 2019, according to data gathered by the charity Association for Democratic Reforms, there was an increase of 850% in the number of sitting MPs with disclosed criminal cases against them concerning women in the lower house of India's parliament. No fewer than 3 incumbent MPs currently face criminal proceedings relating to rape, and in the past 5 years Indian political parties have selected 41 candidates to contest parliamentary elections who have rape cases pending against them. Whilst it must be acknowledged that the candidates and sitting MPs who have criminal charges pending against them have the right to be considered innocent until proven otherwise, it is evidently the case that the political parties which select these MPs to represent them do not view any allegation of crime against a woman as a disqualifying factor.
The rising spectre of vigilante justice
It is against this backdrop that, on the 6th December, the police shot and killed the 4 suspects that had been arrested for their alleged involvement in the rape and subsequent murder of the 27-year-old vet in Hyderabad. According to Hyderabad Police Commissioner, V C Sajjanar, the 4 suspects (who had not yet been charged with a crime) were taken unhandcuffed to the suspected scene of the crime to "reconstruct the incident." The police allege that the suspects then attacked their police escort whereupon they were promptly shot dead. Given India's troubling history with so-called "encounter killings," where the police have been known to carry out extra-judicial killings of suspects which are subsequently passed off as unavoidable police actions, and Mr Sajjanar's own involvement in an eerily similar incident which involved the killing of 3 suspects in December 2008, questions have, unsurprisingly, been raised about this police narrative.
In the aftermath of the killing of the suspects, Mr Sajjanar blithely stated that the "law has taken its own course"—except it has not. Extra-judicial killings circumvent due process and are not a solution to India's rape crisis. This is because they deprive victims of the essential opportunity to voice their experiences in court and the ability of the judicial system, and by extension society as a whole, to hold the perpetrators legally accountable for their actions. These killings also fail to tackle the patriarchal mentality that is the root of the current crisis of sexual violence in India, which often blames victims and excuses such crimes as inevitabilities that are unstoppable. This mentality once more surfaced when, in the aftermath of the Hyderabad incident, police advice, instead of focussing on the perpetrators of the crimes, placed the onus on women to protect themselves through statements that emphasised that women should "avoid isolated areas" and should "always wait in crowded and illuminated areas."
Conclusion
Through the recent traumatic events that have unfolded across India, it has become increasingly clear that concerted action is needed to change attitudes towards sexual violence in particular and women's rights in India in general. Far from adequately addressing the issue, it is also apparent that calls for the public "lynching" of suspects are equally unhelpful and do little more than fuel the extra-judicial killings of individuals suspected of committing rape, which further disempowers victims of sexual violence.
It is the author’s opinion that concerted action is needed to change attitudes towards sexual violence in particular and women's rights in India in general. Image source: Quartz India
The author’s opinion is that, at root, India’s crisis of sexual violence against women is underpinned by a deeply seated patriarchal mentality. Image source: Kickstarter/Eric Holland
Statistics on rape in India are alarming and are often complicated by the reality that many cases go unreported. Image source: Piyal Adhikary/EPA
Filmmaker Daniel Shravan was heavily criticised for his statements on Twitter concerning the Unnao incident. Image Source: Feminism In India/Twitter
Between 2009 and 2019 there was an increase of 850% in the number of sitting MPs with disclosed criminal cases against them concerning women in the lower house of India's parliament. Image Source: Sajjad Hussain/AFP via GETTY IMAGES
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