Rape In India
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Rape is the fourth most common crime against
women in India The status of women in India has been subject to many changes over the span of recorded Indian history. Their position in society deteriorated early in India's ancient period, especially in the Indo-Aryan speaking regions, and their subordinat ...
.Preview.
/ref> According to the 2021 annual report of the
National Crime Records Bureau The National Crime Records Bureau, abbreviated to NCRB, is an Indian government agency responsible for collecting and analyzing crime data as defined by the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Special and Local Laws (SLL). NCRB is headquartered in New ...
(NCRB), 31,677 rape cases were registered across the country, or an average of 86 cases daily, a rise from 2020 with 28,046 cases, while in 2019, 32,033 cases were registered. Of the total 31,677 rape cases, 28,147(nearly 89%) of the rapes were committed by persons known to the victim. The share of victims who were minors or below 18 - the legal age of consent - stood at 10%. India has been characterised as one of the "countries with the lowest per capita rates of rape". The
government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is a ...
also classifies consensual sex committed on the false promise of marriage as rape. The willingness to report rapes have increased in recent years, after several incidents received widespread media attention and triggered local and nationwide public protests. This led the government to reform its penal code for crimes of rape and sexual assault. According to NCRB 2021 statistics,
Rajasthan Rajasthan (; lit. 'Land of Kings') is a state in northern India. It covers or 10.4 per cent of India's total geographical area. It is the largest Indian state by area and the seventh largest by population. It is on India's northwestern si ...
reported the highest number of rapes among Indian states, followed by Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. Among metropolitan cities, the national capital of
Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders w ...
continued to have the highest incidence of rape at 1,226 cases in 2021, while
Jaipur Jaipur (; Hindi: ''Jayapura''), formerly Jeypore, is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Rajasthan. , the city had a population of 3.1 million, making it the tenth most populous city in the country. Jaipur is also known ...
had the highest rape rate (34 per 100,000 population). Kolkata had the least number of registered rape cases among metropolitan cities, with least rape rate.


Definition in Indian Penal Code

Before 3 February 2013, Section 375 of the
Indian Penal Code The Indian Penal Code (IPC) is the official criminal code of India. It is a comprehensive code intended to cover all substantive aspects of criminal law. The code was drafted on the recommendations of first law commission of India established ...
defined rape as:
§375. Rape. A man is said to commit "rape" who, except case hereinafter excepted, has sexual intercourse with a woman in circumstances falling under any of the six following descriptions:- Firstly. –– Against her will. Secondly. –– Without her consent. Thirdly. –– With her consent, when her consent has been obtained by putting her or any person in whom she is interested, in fear of death or of hurt. Fourthly. –– With her consent, when the man knows that he is not her husband, and that her consent is given because she believes that he is another man to whom she is or believes herself to be lawfully married. Fifthly. –– With her consent, when, at the time of giving such consent, by reason of unsoundness of mind or intoxication or the administration by him personally or through another of any stupefying or unwholesome substance, she is unable to understand the nature and consequences of that to which she gives consent. Sixthly. –– With or without her consent, when she is under sixteen years of age. Explanation. –– Penetration is sufficient to constitute the sexual intercourse necessary to the offence of rape. Exception. –– Sexual intercourse by a man with his own wife, the wife not being under fifteen years of age, is not rape.
The above definition excluded marital rape, same sex crimes and considered all sex with a minor below the age of sixteen as rape. After 3 February 2013, the definition was revised through the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act 2013, which also raised the legal age of minor to eighteen.
§375. A man is said to commit "rape" if he:–– (a) penetrates his penis, to any extent, into the vagina, mouth, urethra or anus of a woman or makes her to do so with him or any other person; or (b) inserts, to any extent, any object or a part of the body, not being the penis, into the vagina, the urethra or anus of a woman or makes her to do so with him or any other person; or (c) manipulates any part of the body of a woman so as to cause penetration into the vagina, urethra, anus or any part of body of such woman or makes her to do so with him or any other person; or (d) applies his mouth to the vagina, anus, urethra of a woman or makes her to do so with him or any other person, under the circumstances falling under any of the following seven descriptions: Firstly. –– Against her will. Secondly. –– Without her consent. Thirdly. –– With her consent, when her consent has been obtained by putting her or any person in whom she is interested, in fear of death or of hurt. Fourthly. –– With her consent, when the man knows that he is not her husband and that her consent is given because she believes that he is another man to whom she is or believes herself to be lawfully married. Fifthly. –– With her consent when, at the time of giving such consent, by reason of unsoundness of mind or intoxication or the administration by him personally or through another of any stupefying or unwholesome Substance, she is unable to understand the nature and consequences of that to which she gives consent. Sixthly. –– With or without her consent, when she is under eighteen years of age. Seventhly. –– When she is unable to communicate consent. Explanation 1. –– For the purposes of this section, "vagina" shall also include labia majora. Explanation 2. –– Consent means an unequivocal voluntary agreement when the woman by words, gestures or any form of verbal or non-verbal communication, communicates willingness to participate in the specific sexual act; Provided that a woman who does not physically resist to the act of penetration shall not by the reason only of that fact, be regarded as consenting to the sexual activity. Exceptions –– 1. A medical procedure or intervention shall not constitute rape; 2. Sexual intercourse or sexual acts by a man with his own wife, the wife not being under fifteen years of age, is not rape.
Even after the 2013 reform, marital rape when the wife and husband live together continued not to be a crime in India. Article 376B of the 2013 law made forced sexual intercourse by a man with his wife – if she is living separately – a crime, whether under a decree of separation or otherwise, punishable with at least a 2-year prison term. Forced sex by a man on his wife may also be considered a prosecutable domestic violence under other sections of Indian Penal code, such as Section 498(A) as well as the ''
Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act 2005 The Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act 2005 is an Act of the Parliament of India enacted to protect women from domestic violence. It was brought into force by the Indian government and Ministry of Women and Child Development on ...
''. The crime of sexual assault on a child, that is anyone below the age of eighteen, is further outlined and mandatory punishments described in ''The Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act 2012''. As CNN reported in 2020, a man convicted of raping a woman faces a minimum 10-year prison sentence. This may increase to a life sentence or even a death sentence depending on the circumstances and details of the crime. If the victim is transgender, however, the rapist is punished by a maximum of two years in prison, as defined by the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act 2019. All sexual acts between the members of the same sex, consensual or forced, was previously a crime under Section 377 of Indian penal code, after the 2013 Criminal Law reform, with punishment the same as that of rape but it was later overturned in a landmark judgement of the Supreme Court on 6 September 2018 which stated all consensual sexual acts between adults who have met the age of consent are not violative of Section 377, hence decriminalizing gay sex in India.


Rape statistics

One rape was reported every 16 minutes in India in 2019. This figure was 15 minutes in 2018. In 2019, the national average rape rate (per 1,00,000 population) was 4.9, slightly less than 5.2 in 2018 and 2017. However, the small dip may be attributed to data for
West Bengal West Bengal (, Bengali: ''Poshchim Bongo'', , abbr. WB) is a state in the eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabitants within an area of . West Bengal is the fourt ...
not being available. As of 2019,
Nagaland Nagaland () is a landlocked state in the northeastern region of India. It is bordered by the Indian states of Arunachal Pradesh to the north, Assam to the west, Manipur to the south and the Sagaing Region of Myanmar to the east. Its capital cit ...
(0.8),
Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is a States and union territories of India, state in southern India. It is the List of states and union territories of India by area, tenth largest Indian state by area and the List of states and union territories of India ...
(1.0), and
Bihar Bihar (; ) is a state in eastern India. It is the 2nd largest state by population in 2019, 12th largest by area of , and 14th largest by GDP in 2021. Bihar borders Uttar Pradesh to its west, Nepal to the north, the northern part of West Be ...
(1.3) had the lowest rape rates among the
states of India State may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State * ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States * ''Our S ...
, while
Rajasthan Rajasthan (; lit. 'Land of Kings') is a state in northern India. It covers or 10.4 per cent of India's total geographical area. It is the largest Indian state by area and the seventh largest by population. It is on India's northwestern si ...
(15.9) had the highest rape rate. These statistics do not take into account rapes ending in murder and attempts to rape, which are counted separately by
police in India Indian law is enforced by a number of agencies. Unlike many federal nations, the constitution of India delegates the maintenance of law and order primarily to the states and territories. At the federal level, some of India's paramilitary ...
. *Due to non-receipt of data from West Bengal in time for 2019, data furnished for 2018 has been used Sources :


Rape of minors

Using a small sample survey, Human Rights Watch projects more than 7,200 minors – 1.6 in 100,000 minors – are raped each year in India. Among these, victims who do report the assaults are alleged to suffer mistreatment and humiliation from the police. Minor girls are
trafficked ''Trafficked'' is a 2017 American thriller drama film directed by Will Wallace and starring Ashley Judd, Sean Patrick Flanery and Anne Archer. Plot In California, Sara is eighteen and has to leave her foster home; she is offered training to be a ...
into prostitution in India, thus rape of minors conflates into a lifetime of suffering. Of the countries studied by
Maplecroft Maplecroft is a global risk and strategic consulting firm based in Bath, England. Its work includes analyzing risks affecting global business and investors. Maplecroft is regularly quoted in the media, particularly on political risk, economics, a ...
on sex trafficking and crime against minors, India was ranked 7th worst. *Due to non-receipt of data from West Bengal in time for 2019, data furnished for 2018 has been used Sources :


Estimates of unreported rapes

Most rapes go unreported because the rape victims fear retaliation and humiliation, both in India and throughout the world. Indian parliamentarians have stated that the rape problem in India is being underestimated because many cases are not reported, even though more victims are increasingly coming out and reporting rape and sexual assaults. Few states in India have tried to estimate or survey unreported cases sexual assault. The estimates for unreported rapes in India vary widely. The
National Crime Records Bureau The National Crime Records Bureau, abbreviated to NCRB, is an Indian government agency responsible for collecting and analyzing crime data as defined by the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Special and Local Laws (SLL). NCRB is headquartered in New ...
report of 2006 mentions that about 71% rape crimes go unreported.
Marital rape Marital rape or spousal rape is the act of sexual intercourse with one's spouse without the spouse's consent. The lack of consent is the essential element and need not involve physical violence. Marital rape is considered a form of domestic vi ...
is not a criminal act in India though sexual intercourse with wife aged between 15 and 18 years is considered as rape. Madiha Kark estimates 54% of rape crimes are unreported. A UN study of 57 countries estimates just 11% of rape and sexual assault cases worldwide are ever reported.


Convictions

About one in four rape cases in India result in convictions.


Notable incidents


Ajmer rape case

In 1992, the
Ajmer rape case The Ajmer rape case involved the serial rapes and blackmailing of girls by local gang in Ajmer, Rajasthan in 1992. It is one of sexual exploitation scandals. The scandal involved young girls. The news of the scandal broke after a local pape ...
was one of India's biggest cases of coerced sexual exploitation, with more than a hundred underage schoolgirls estimated to have been sexually molested and raped. Most accused were from the
Ajmer Dargah Ajmer is one of the major and oldest cities in the Indian state of Rajasthan and the centre of the eponymous Ajmer District. It is located at the centre of Rajasthan. It is also known as heart of Rajasthan. The city was established as "''Aja ...
of
Moinuddin Chishti Chishtī Muʿīn al-Dīn Ḥasan Sijzī (1143–1236 Common Era, CE), known more commonly as Muʿīn al-Dīn Chishtī or Moinuddin Chishti, or by the epithet Gharib Nawaz (),Blain Auer, "Chishtī Muʿīn al-Dīn Ḥasan", in: ''Encyclopaedia o ...
.


2012 Delhi Gang rape case

The gang rape of a 23-year-old student on a public bus, on 16 December 2012, sparked large protests across the capital Delhi. She was with a male friend who was severely beaten with an iron rod during the incident. This same rod was used to penetrate her so severely that the victim's intestines had to be surgically removed, before her death thirteen days after the attack. The following day, there was an uproar in the Indian parliament over the incident. MPs in both houses had set aside their regular business to discuss the case and demanded strict punishment for those who carried out the attack. The Leader of the Opposition in the
Lok Sabha The Lok Sabha, constitutionally the House of the People, is the lower house of India's bicameral Parliament, with the upper house being the Rajya Sabha. Members of the Lok Sabha are elected by an adult universal suffrage and a first-past ...
, Sushma Swaraj, demanded that "the rapists should be hanged". Thousands of people, mostly young, participated in a massive demonstration on 22 December in protest. Police arrested six men suspected of rape.


2013 Mumbai gang rape

In August 2013, a 22-year-old photojournalist, who was interning with an English-language magazine in Mumbai, was gang-raped by five persons, including a juvenile, when she had gone to the deserted Shakti Mills compound, near Mahalaxmi in South
Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second- ...
, with a male colleague on an assignment. This caused protests throughout the country since Mumbai with its very active nightlife was previously considered a safe haven for women. The city sessions court found the accused guilty and sentenced death penalty to the three repeat offenders in the
Shakti Mills gang rape The 2013 Mumbai gang rape, also known as the Shakti Mills gang rape, refers to the incident in which a 22-year-old photojournalist, who was interning with an English-language magazine in India, Mumbai, was gang-raped by five people including a j ...
case, making them the first in the country to get the death sentence stipulated under the newly enacted Section 376E of the Indian Penal Code.


Ranaghat case

On 14 March 2015, a 71-year-old nun was gang-raped in
Ranaghat Ranaghat is a city and a municipality in Nadia district in the state of West Bengal, India. It is the headquarters of the Ranaghat subdivision. It is compact but one of the densely populated cities of West Bengal. It is known for its handloom in ...
, West Bengal by intruders at the Convent of Jesus and Mary. The six intruders were recorded on CCTV during their crime of ransacking the chapel, destroying religious items, looting cash and the gang rape. Six men were arrested and charged with the crime by 1 April 2015, and identified to be
Bangladeshi Bangladeshis ( bn, বাংলাদেশী ) are the citizens of Bangladesh, a South Asian country centered on the transnational historical region of Bengal along the eponymous bay. Bangladeshi citizenship was formed in 1971, when the ...
Muslims Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abraha ...
.


Delta Meghwal rape case

On 29 March 2016, the corpse of Delta Meghwal, a 17 year old
Dalit Dalit (from sa, दलित, dalita meaning "broken/scattered"), also previously known as untouchable, is the lowest stratum of the Caste system in India, castes in India. Dalits were excluded from the four-fold Varna (Hinduism), varna syste ...
girl, was found in her hostel's water tank. Following the registration of the police case the hostel warden, physical education teacher and principal were arrested by Bikaner police and kept under judicial custody. The State eventually acceded to a CBI inquiry after the issue became politicised.


Kathua rape case

On 17 January 2018,
Asifa The International Animated Film Association (French: ''Association Internationale du Film d'Animation'', ASIFA) is an international non-profit organization founded in 1960 in Annecy, France, by the best known animation artists of the time such a ...
, an 8-year old minor girl, was raped and murdered in Rasana village near
Kathua Kathua is a city and municipal council located in Kathua district of Jammu Division of the Indian union territory of Jammu and Kashmir, near its border with Punjab, India and Himachal Pradesh. The city is headquarters of Kathua district and is ...
in
Jammu and Kashmir Jammu and Kashmir may refer to: * Kashmir, the northernmost geographical region of the Indian subcontinent * Jammu and Kashmir (union territory), a region administered by India as a union territory * Jammu and Kashmir (state), a region administered ...
. The incident made national news when charges were filed against eight men in April 2018. The arrests of the accused led to protests from groups, one of which was attended by two ministers from the
Bharatiya Janata Party The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP; ; ) is a political party in India, and one of the two major Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. Since 2014, it has been the ruling political party in India under Narendra Modi ...
, both of whom have now resigned. The rape and murder, as well as the support the accused received, sparked widespread outrage.


Unnao rape case

The Unnao rape case saw an allegation that lawmaker
Kuldeep Singh Sengar Kuldeep Singh Sengar is an Indian politician and former member of Legislative Assembly belonging to the Bhartiya Janta Party from Unnao district, Uttar Pradesh who has been convicted of rape, murder, attempt to murder, criminal conspiracy and c ...
had raped a 17-year old girl in 2017. In 2018, the alleged victim's father was jailed under the Arms Act, and died in prison after being allegedly beaten up by Sengar's brother and several others. Also in 2018, a witness to the alleged assault, Yunus, died and was immediately buried by his family with no autopsy and no communication to police or investigators. Yunus' wife and family said Yunus had been ill and died a natural death. The uncle of the alleged victim was arrested and jailed in 2018 due to an 18 year old gun-firing case. In 2019, a truck with blackened license plates hit the car in which the alleged victim and others were riding in. As a result, the victim's paternal and maternal aunts were killed. The alleged victim and her lawyer were critically injured. The police officers assigned to provide security for the alleged victim were not present, with the explanation that there was no space in the car in which the alleged victim was travelling in.


Jammu and Kashmir

There have been allegations of rape and
mass rape Mass sexual assault is the collective sexual assault of individuals in public by a group. Typically acting under the protective cover of large gatherings, victims have reported being groped, stripped, beaten, bitten, penetrated and raped. Egy ...
in
Jammu and Kashmir Jammu and Kashmir may refer to: * Kashmir, the northernmost geographical region of the Indian subcontinent * Jammu and Kashmir (union territory), a region administered by India as a union territory * Jammu and Kashmir (state), a region administered ...
. Reports have shown that rape has been carried out by both Indian armed forces and Islamist militant groups.Preview.
/ref>Preview.
/ref> The rapes by Islamic militants have been reported since the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947. On 22 October 1947, Pashtun militants invaded Baramulla in a Pakistan army truck, and raped women including European nuns.Preview.
/ref> In March 1990, Mrs. M. N. Paul, the wife of a BSF inspector was kidnapped, tortured and gang-raped for many days. Then her body with broken limbs was abandoned on a road.
/ref> The
International Commission of Jurists The International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) is an international human rights non-governmental organization. It is a standing group of 60 eminent jurists—including senior judges, attorneys and academics—who work to develop national and inte ...
have stated that though the attacks had not been proven beyond a doubt, there was credible evidence that it had happened.Preview.
/ref> In 2011, the State Human Rights Commission (SHRC) asked for the reopening of the case. Militant organisations such as
Hizb-ul-Mujahideen Hizbul Mujahideen, also spelled Hizb-ul-Mujahideen ( ar, حزب المجاھدین, ), is an Islamist militant organization operating in the Kashmir region. Its goal is to separate Kashmir from India and merge it with Pakistan. * * * It i ...
,
Jamiat-ul-Mujahideen Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen ("Assembly of Mujahideen--Bangladesh", abbreviated: JMB; bn, জামাত-উল-মুজাহিদীন বাংলাদেশ) is a terrorist organisation operating in Bangladesh. It is listed as a terror group by ...
and
Harkat ul-Ansar Harkat-ul-Mujahideen- al-Islami ( ur, ; HUM) is a Pakistan-based Islamic jihad group operating primarily in Kashmir.Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front The Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) is a militant separatist organization active in both the Indian-administered and Pakistani-administered territories of Kashmir. It was founded by Amanullah Khan, with Maqbool Bhat also credited as a co- ...
has been accused of
ethnic cleansing Ethnic cleansing is the systematic forced removal of ethnic, racial, and religious groups from a given area, with the intent of making a region ethnically homogeneous. Along with direct removal, extermination, deportation or population transfer ...
of using murder, arson, and rape as a weapon of war to drive out hundreds of thousands of Hindu
Kashmiri Pandits The Kashmiri Pandits (also known as Kashmiri Brahmins) are a group of Kashmiri Hindus and a part of the larger Saraswat Brahmin community of India. They belong to the Pancha-Gauda, Pancha Gauda Brahmin group from the Kashmir Valley, a mountai ...
from the region.Preview.
/ref>Preview.
/ref> Following the rise of rapes by the Indian armed forces and militants, HRW has submitted that the victims of rape suffer ostracism and there is a "code of silence and fear" that prevents people from reporting such abuse. According to the HRW, the investigation of case of rape by Indian forces and militants is difficult because many Kashmiris are reluctant to discuss it for the fear of violent reprisals. :Also published as a book:


Northeast India

Human rights groups allege that the Indian armed forces under the protection of the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958 have carried out a large amount of rapes in the
Nagaland Nagaland () is a landlocked state in the northeastern region of India. It is bordered by the Indian states of Arunachal Pradesh to the north, Assam to the west, Manipur to the south and the Sagaing Region of Myanmar to the east. Its capital cit ...
,
Assam Assam (; ) is a state in northeastern India, south of the eastern Himalayas along the Brahmaputra and Barak River valleys. Assam covers an area of . The state is bordered by Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh to the north; Nagaland and Manipur ...
and
Manipur Manipur () ( mni, Kangleipak) is a state in Northeast India, with the city of Imphal as its capital. It is bounded by the Indian states of Nagaland to the north, Mizoram to the south and Assam to the west. It also borders two regions of Myanm ...
provinces.Preview.
/ref> Karlsson writes that there are reports that much of the violence against civilians, including sexual assault, is inflicted by the rebel groups and armed criminal gangs in the region.


Uttar Pradesh

There is wide discrepancy among reports of rape and sexual assault. For example, according to the
People's Union for Civil Liberties People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) is a human rights body formed in India in 1976 by Jayaprakash Narayan, as the People's Union for Civil Liberties and Democratic Rights (PUCLDR). Background Indian emergency Jayaprakash Narayan was a G ...
(PUCL), the majority of those assaulted in 2007 were poor women from remote areas and
Dalit Dalit (from sa, दलित, dalita meaning "broken/scattered"), also previously known as untouchable, is the lowest stratum of the Caste system in India, castes in India. Dalits were excluded from the four-fold Varna (Hinduism), varna syste ...
s. SR Darapuri of the PUCL alleged, "I analysed the rape figures for 2007 and I found that 90% of victims were Dalits and 85% of Dalit rape victims were underage girls." Darapuri allegations do not match with the data compiled by National Crime Records Bureau of India, which found 6.7% of rape and sexual assault victims were Dalits in 2007, where nearly 16% of Indian population is classified as Dalit. There were 391 cases of rape of Dalit victims reported in Uttar Pradesh in 2013 or about 1 per 100,000 Dalits in the state of about 200 million people (21% of which is classified as Dalit).


During riots

In recent years, variety of rapes have taken place during the communal riots. During the post 2002
Godhra train burning The Godhra train burning occurred on the morning of 27 February 2002, in which 59 Hindu pilgrims and '' karsevaks'' returning from Ayodhya were killed in a fire inside the Sabarmati Express train near the Godhra railway station in the Indian ...
, in the certain parts of Gujarat, rape was carried out by rioters. Thirteen rape and assault cases were reported during the 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots.


The partition of India

During the
partition of India The Partition of British India in 1947 was the Partition (politics), change of political borders and the division of other assets that accompanied the dissolution of the British Raj in South Asia and the creation of two independent dominions: ...
, some 100,000 women claimed to have been kidnapped and raped.Preview.
/ref>


Disputed rape cases


Potential abuse concerns

In April 2013, Judge Virender Bhat has suggested that the legal proposition of relying upon the sole attestation of the victim became "an easy weapon" to incriminate anyone in rape case. Justice Kailash Ghambhir of the
Delhi High Court The High Court of Delhi (IAST: ''dillī uchcha nyāyālaya'') was established on 31 October 1966, through the ''Delhi High Court Act, 1966'', with four judges, Chief Justice K. S. Hegde, Justice I. D. Dua, Justice H. R. Khanna and Justice S. ...
stated that penal provisions for rape are often being misused by women as a "weapon for vengeance and vendetta" to harass and blackmail their male friends by filing false cases to extort money and to force them get married. ''Saamna'', the mouthpiece of the
Shiv Sena Shiv Sena ( IAST: ''Śiva Sēnā'') () was a right-wing to far-right Marathi regionalist and Hindu ultranationalist political party in India founded in 1966 by cartoonist Bal Thackeray. Originally emerging from nativist movements in Bom ...
in an editorial noted while supporting the Deputy Inspector General Of Police in Mumbai in an alleged rape complaint that it has become "a fashion to create sensation by charging someone for rape and molestation" while Shonee Kapoor, founder of Sahodar Men's Right Group, demanded that the name of the accused should not be made public till conviction. In 2014, as per a report submitted by Delhi Commission for women 53% of reported rapes in 2012-13 were found to be 'false'. This report considered the cases that were dropped before going to trial as false, and failed to differentiate between the cases dropped due to coercion and cases where it was clear that women were lying. According to an investigation by ''
The Hindu ''The Hindu'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper owned by The Hindu Group, headquartered in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. It began as a weekly in 1878 and became a daily in 1889. It is one of the Indian newspapers of record and the secon ...
'' that only considered the cases that went to full trial found that out of 460 such cases in Delhi district courts in 2013, only 2% (12) were found to committed by strangers. 41% (189) of these cases were filed by parents to criminalize and end consented sexual relationships, 24% (109) were filed under 'breach of promise to marry' and 30% (141) were found to be committed by acquaintances and relatives.


Notable cases

In 1991, the 4 Rajputana Rifles unit are alleged to have entered the village of Kunan Poshpora and raped between 30 and 100 women aged between 13 and 70.Preview.
/ref> The Indian government carried out three inquiries into the allegations and concluded that it had been a hoax. In May 2014 two girls aged 14 and 16 were allegedly gang raped and murdered in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, though later investigations have alleged suicide as the cause of death in this instance. Two police officers were suspected of involvement in the crimes. The alleged gang rape was widely reported in the press both in India and globally.


Tourist advisories

Rape cases against internationals have led several countries to issue travel advisories that "women travellers should exercise caution when travelling in India even if they are travelling in a group; avoid hailing taxis from streets or using public transport at night, and to respect local dress codes and customs and avoid isolated areas". In March 2013, a Swiss couple who were cycling from
Orchha Orchha is a town, near city of Niwari in Niwari district of Madhya Pradesh state, India. The town was established by rajput ruler Rudra Pratap Singh some time after 1501, as the seat of an eponymous former princely state of covering parts of c ...
to
Agra Agra (, ) is a city on the banks of the Yamuna river in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, about south-east of the national capital New Delhi and 330 km west of the state capital Lucknow. With a population of roughly 1.6 million, Agra is ...
, decided to camp for a night in a village in
Datia District Datia District is in Gwalior Division in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. The town of Datia is its district headquarters. History It is an ancient town, mentioned in the Mahabharata. Sahadeva; one of the Pandava brothers had won this kingdom ...
. There they were physically assaulted by eight locals, robbed, the man was overpowered and tied up, while the 39-year-old woman was gang-raped in front of her husband at the village. The Swiss government issued a travel advisory in 2013 about the "increasing numbers of rapes and other sexual offences" happening in India. The news coverage of the rapes and updated travel advisories have worried Indian tourism industry. Some media reports stated that high-profile rape cases had led to tourist numbers to drop 20 to 30 per cent compared to previous year. The
Assocham The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India () is a Non-governmental organization, non-governmental trade association and advocacy group based in New Delhi, India. The organisation represents the interests of trade and commerce in ...
agency found that of 1200 businesses surveyed more than 70% reported cancellations by female tourists from Britain, Canada, the U.S. and Canada along with a 25% decline overall. However, tourist arrivals in India increased from 6.5 million arrivals in 2012 to 6.8 million arrivals in 2013. Tourist arrivals in 2014 observed another 10% increase over 2013 levels. In January 2015, the Tourism Ministry of India introduced emergency helplines for female tourists. The Indian government announced in April 2015, that tourists are now being given a "welcome card" by the immigration officer on arrival with resources to ensure their safety, that GPS-embedded tracking system are being introduced in all taxis, and tourist helplines in 12 foreign languages have been instituted. In a non-tourism related case, Russia issued travel advisory to its citizens after a Russian national was raped in December 2009. The case was widely covered after a member of Indian parliament Shantaram Laxman Naik blamed the victim and the media for over emphasising the Russian rape case after, "she was raped by a state politician in his car after they had dinner together". Naik was criticised by leaders of Indian political parties such as CPI-M, BJP and SP for blaming the rape victim and media.


Legal response

The Indian law prior to the Nirbhaya Incident took into account only acts of penile-vaginal intercourse within the definition of rape and forcible acts of penetration of vagina, mouth, urethra or anus through penis or an inanimate object did not fall within the definition of rape. Many rapists were not prosecuted because there was no law to punish such acts. The definition was expanded in 2013 to consider rape as any acts like penetration by
penis A penis (plural ''penises'' or ''penes'' () is the primary sexual organ that male animals use to inseminate females (or hermaphrodites) during copulation. Such organs occur in many animals, both vertebrate and invertebrate, but males do n ...
, or any object or any part of body to any extent, into the
vagina In mammals, the vagina is the elastic, muscular part of the female genital tract. In humans, it extends from the vestibule to the cervix. The outer vaginal opening is normally partly covered by a thin layer of mucosal tissue called the hymen ...
,
mouth In animal anatomy, the mouth, also known as the oral cavity, or in Latin cavum oris, is the opening through which many animals take in food and issue vocal sounds. It is also the cavity lying at the upper end of the alimentary canal, bounded on ...
,
urethra The urethra (from Greek οὐρήθρα – ''ourḗthrā'') is a tube that connects the urinary bladder to the urinary meatus for the removal of urine from the body of both females and males. In human females and other primates, the urethra con ...
or anus of a woman or making her to do so with another person or applying of mouth to sexual organs without the consent or will of the woman constitutes the offence of rape. The section has also clarified that penetration means "penetration to any extent", and lack of physical resistance is immaterial for constituting an offence. Except in certain aggravated situation the punishment will be imprisonment not less than seven years but which may extend to imprisonment for life, and shall also be liable to fine. In aggravated situations, punishment will be rigorous imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than ten years but which may extend to imprisonment for life, and shall also be liable to fine. Section 53A of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Indian law lays down certain provisions for medical examination of the accused. Section 164A of the Code of Criminal Procedure deals with the medical examination of the victim. The revised statutes of 2013 Indian law, in section 376A, mandates minimum punishment in certain cases. For instance, if the sexual assault inflicts an injury which causes death or causes the victim to be in a
persistent vegetative state A persistent vegetative state (PVS) or post-coma unresponsiveness (PCU) is a disorder of consciousness in which patients with severe brain damage are in a state of partial arousal rather than true awareness. After four weeks in a vegetative stat ...
, then the convicted rapist must be sentenced to rigorous imprisonment of at least twenty years and up to the remainder of the natural life or with a death penalty." In the case of "
gang rape Gang rape, also called serial gang rape, group rape, or multiple perpetrator rape in scholarly literature,Ullman, S. E. (2013). 11 Multiple perpetrator rape victimization. Handbook on the Study of Multiple Perpetrator Rape: A Multidisciplinary Re ...
", the same mandatory sentencing is now required by law. The convicted is also required to pay compensation to the victim which shall be reasonable to meet the medical expenses and rehabilitation of the victim, and per Section 357 B in the Code of Criminal Procedure.
Death penalty Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...
for the most extreme rape cases is specified. The 2013 law also increased the age of consent from 16 years to 18 years, and any sexual activity with anyone less than age of 18, irrespective of consent, now constitutes statutory rape. The new law has made it mandatory for all government and privately run hospitals in India to give free first aid and medical treatment to victims of rape. As well, in May 2013, the Supreme Court of India held that the two-finger test on a rape victim violates her right to privacy, and asked the
Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders w ...
government to provide better medical procedures to confirm sexual assault. On 3 November 2015 the Allahabad High Court observed that a child born out of rape will have inheritance rights over the property of the assaulter and will be treated as illegitimate, however if the child is taken for adoption then he/she will not have any rights on the property of the biological father.


National Database on Sexual Offenders (NDSO)

The government on September 20, 2018 launched the National Database on Sexual Offenders (NDSO). The database contains entries of offenders convicted under charges of rape, gang rape, POCSO and eve teasing. The portal as of now contains 440,000 entries of cases that have been reported since 2008. It's managed by the National Crime Records Bureau. The database is accessible only to the law enforcement agencies for investigation and monitoring purpose.


Fast track courts

As a result of the 2012 Delhi gang rape case, the Indian government implemented a fast-track court system to rapidly prosecute rape cases. The fast-track court system has been welcomed by some, but their fairness questioned by legal experts and scholars. The legal scholars state that the fast-track courts may not be fair in an impoverished country where millions of cases are backlogged, and there are an average of just 14 judges per million people - among the lowest in a United Nations study of 65 nations. Fast track courts divert limited judicial resources and add delays to prosecution of other crimes. They noted that Delhi state had instituted five fast-track courts in 2013 to handle rape cases, but there are no fast-track courts for murder. Mrinal Satish, of New Delhi's National Law University said, "there is a risk that in this emotional response and clamor for immediate justice, we could end up putting innocent people in prison".


Marital rape

Marital rape Marital rape or spousal rape is the act of sexual intercourse with one's spouse without the spouse's consent. The lack of consent is the essential element and need not involve physical violence. Marital rape is considered a form of domestic vi ...
 is not a criminal offence within Indian legal framework, except during the period of 
judicial separation Legal separation (sometimes judicial separation, separate maintenance, divorce ', or divorce from bed-and-board) is a legal process by which a married couple may formalize a separation while remaining legally married. A legal separation is gra ...
 of the partners. The marital rape exception, that is exception 2 of section 375 of the
Indian Penal Code The Indian Penal Code (IPC) is the official criminal code of India. It is a comprehensive code intended to cover all substantive aspects of criminal law. The code was drafted on the recommendations of first law commission of India established ...
states that sexual intercourse by a man with his own wife, the wife not being under 18 years of age, is not rape. In the 1980s, women's rights groups lobbied for  marital rape to be declared unlawful.Preview.
/ref> Government officials argued that the contract of marriage presupposes consent to sex and that criminalising marital rape in turn would degrade family values in India. Forced sex by husbands upon wives does have legal consequences in Indian matrimonial law, in that it can be treated as a matrimonial fault, resulting in dissolution of the marriage. All religious personal laws and the secular law governing marriage and divorce in India deem ‘cruelty’ by one spouse to the other to be a ground for divorce. The originally enacted
Hindu marriage Act The Hindu Marriage Act is an Act of the Parliament of India enacted in 1955 which was passed on 18th of May. Three other important acts were also enacted as part of the Hindu Code Bills during this time: the Hindu Succession Act (1956), the Hind ...
provided that in order to constitute a cause for divorce, an act of cruelty should be such that it ‘produces a reasonable apprehension in the mind of the petitioner that it will be harmful or injurious for the petitioner to live with the other party.’ Marital rape also amounts to ‘sexual abuse’ under the law regarding domestic violence enacted in 2005, under which aggrieved wives or female live-in partners can claim civil remedies, like injunction against violence, dispossession from home or direction to the husband/partner to pay maintenance. The law kicks in to regulate sexual violence in marriage only in cases when it is accompanied by extreme physical violence or when the health and safety of the wife is endangered, as in the case of minor wives. This exception has restricted application when the wife has been living separately from the husband, with or without a decree of judicial separation. In such cases, the husband can be prosecuted for rape. If convicted, the minimum punishment is imprisonment for two years and imposition of a fine (Section 376B, IPC). This clause was ratified in the year 1983, a period of great upheaval in the history of rape law reform in India, when major changes were made for the first time since enactment of rape laws by the colonial state in 1860. The parliamentary committee that gave final shape to the 1983 amendments was disinclined to treating non-consensual sex between a separated couple as amounting to rape, on the grounds that a rape charge would heighten the possibilities of divorce by making reconciliation that much harder for the couple. Hence, the minimum sentence stipulated for this category of rape was set much lower than usual. Until 2017, there was a discrepancy between two sub clauses of Section 375. Exception 2 stated that “sexual intercourse by a man with his own wife, the wife not being under fifteen years of age, is not rape.” However, the same provision stated that a man is said to commit rape if he has sexual relations with a woman with or without her consent, when she is under 18 years of age. Independent Thought, a non-governmental organisation, in a petition in 2013, had challenged Exception 2. In a landmark ruling on 11 October 2017, the supreme court upheld the age of consent as 18 years. The court held that the distinction made between a married girl child and an unmarried girl child was illogical and ran against the provisions of the
Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 Child sexual abuse laws in India have been enacted as part of the child protection policies of India. The Parliament of India passed the ''Protection of Children Against Sexual Offences Bill (POCSO), 2011 regarding child sexual abuse on 22 M ...
. Such a distinction also violated a child's right to liberty and dignity under Article 21 of the Constitution. Two other significant statutes undermined by the original IPC section were the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006 and the Juvenile Justice Act, both of which define a child as someone below the age of 18.


Education programmes

In February 2017, the
Ministry of Health and Family Welfare The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare is an Indian government ministry charged with health policy in India. It is also responsible for all government programs relating to family planning in India. The Minister of Health and Family Welfare ...
unveiled resource material relating to health issues to be used as a part of a nationwide adolescent peer-education plan called ''Saathiya''. Among other subjects, the material discusses relationships and consent. The material states, "Yes, adolescents frequently fall in love. They can feel attraction for a friend or any individual of the same or opposite sex. It is normal to have special feelings for someone. It is important for adolescents to understand that such relationships are based on mutual consent, trust, transparency and respect. It is alright to talk about such feelings to the person for whom you have them but always in a respectful manner. ... Boys should understand that when a girl says 'no' it means no."


See also

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Violence against women in India Violence against women in India refers to physical or sexual violence committed against a woman, typically by a man. Common forms of violence against women in India include acts such as domestic abuse, sexual assault, and murder. In order to be ...
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Dark figure of crime In criminology and sociology, the dark figure of crime, or hidden figure of crime, is the amount of unreported or undiscovered crime. Methodology This gap between reported and unreported crimes calls the reliability of official crime statis ...
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Feminism in India Feminism in India is a set of movements aimed at defining, establishing, and defending equal political, economic, and social rights and opportunities for women in India. It is the pursuit of women's rights within the society of India. Like t ...
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Gender inequality in India Gender inequality in India refers to the health, education, economic and political inequalities between men and women in India.
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Men's rights movement The men's rights movement (MRM) is a branch of the men's movement. The MRM in particular consists of a variety of groups and individuals (men's rights activists or MRAs) who focus on general social issues and specific government services whic ...
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Rape of males A proportion of victims of rape or other sexual violence incidents are male. Historically, rape was thought to be, and defined as, a crime committed solely against females. This belief is still held in some parts of the world, but rape of males ...
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Slut-shaming Slut-shaming is the practice of criticizing people, especially women and girls, who are perceived to violate expectations of behavior and appearance regarding issues related to sexuality. The term is used to reclaim the word ''slut'' and empower ...
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Victim blaming Victim blaming occurs when the victim of a crime or any wrongful act is held entirely or partially at fault for the harm that befell them. There is historical and current prejudice against the victims of domestic violence and sex crimes, such as ...


References


External links


Video lecture on Rape in India: "Understanding Consent"

Delhi tops with more than double rape cases in 2013
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Further reading

* * * {{Sexual abuse Crimes against women Murder in India Violence against women in India Law of India