Delhi gangrape case: Nirbhaya, December 16 and after

The verdict of the fast track court is welcome as the four accused have been expectedly held guilty for raping the para-medical student on December 16, last year. Fifth accused died in Tihar jail while the juvenile accused was pronounced guilty and given a three-year sentence in rehabilitation/remand home.

While the verdict must be hailed for it came out in only a week to nine months’ time, it must not blind people’s vision to the spate of crime in Delhi in the past eight or nine months since the 23-year old girl was brutalized on the city road in a public vehicle and left to die. Her friend survived the incident.

Delhi continues to be an unsafe city for women. It has witnessed 239.26% rise in rape cases and 495% increase in molestation cases. This shows that there has been no improvement in this city being unsafe for women even eight months after the Nirbhaya incident.

In 2012, 433 rape cases were recorded in Delhi whereas till 15 August this year, 1,036 cases had already been registered in Delhi. Similarly, cases of molestation have witnessed a rise of 495.01%. Last year, 381 cases of molestation were registered which shot up to 2,267 in the past eight months.

The figures are telling and there is an urgent need to fix responsibility for the spate of crime against women in Delhi. The police had claimed to be enforcing a slew of measures to make the city safer for women. But, it is quite apparent that all the measures announced by the Delhi Police were taken only in files not on ground.

The measures announced by police including new women helpline numbers, creation of women help desk in police stations, establishment of all women police stations and liaison with rape crisis intervention centres have actually created confusion because there has been no coordination amongst the various cells put in place for the purpose.

There are four helpline numbers operational in the city. It is expected that a woman in trouble would choose from one among the four numbers, 100, 1096, 1091 and 181 when she is in trouble. But, if a woman is in the situation as that of the para-medical student, would she be able to make a call? If someone dials a wrong number she is asked to dial to the other number, herself.

While there is an urgent need to fix responsibility for this state of affairs, the Delhi Police lacks adequate number of personnel especially women police personnel. Women officials in Delhi Police are overworked. They have their own issues that hamper providing safety to women in the city.

Contrary to the government’s reply to Parliament on the working conditions for women police personnel in Delhi police, the women officials have no separate room to stay at night in case they work till late or are in the night-shift; they don’t get dropped home even at odd hours; women officials also complain that they do not get enough leave.

If the police personnel work under such condition, they cannot be expected to come to the rescue of a victim of any crime. Moreover, in Delhi itself, a policewoman complained of molestation and was, in turn, told to forget the incident and move over. This is nothing but a crude reminder of the gender disparity and insensitivity within the police establishment and society at large. This mindset is to be fought against alongside taking some real slew of measures ensuring speedy delivery of justice, which intrinsically calls for police and judicial reforms. Some may argue that if the latter happens, the former will definitely follow. But, till that happens, the social and media outrage against cases of crime against women must continue.