Jawahar Sircar’s resignation from Rajya Saha highlights growing discontent in Bengal over the State’s response to crimes against women
Trinamool Congress Member of Rajya Sabha and former Chairman of Prasar Bharati Jawahar Sircar has resigned both from parliament and the party. Sircar tendered resignation to protest the ‘mishandling’ of the trainee-doctor rape-cum-murder case at RG Kar Medical in Kolkata. The resignation is significant as Sircar is part of ‘Kolkata Bhahdralok’ which has so far remained steadfast in its support of West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee.The move also indicates that the West Bengal assembly passing a ‘very stringent anti-rape law’ bill has not cut much ice with the people, who so far have resisted condoning the errors committed by the Mamata government in the matter.
The West Bengal bill, which has now been referred by the Governor to the President, has also not found much echo outside the state.The Aparajita Woman and Child (West Bengal Criminal Laws Amendment) Bill, 2024, passed by the West Bengal Assembly is not the first of its kind. In the past five years, Andhra Pradesh (Disha) and Maharashtra (Shakti) passed similar bills with a death penalty clause against the rapists but they are still to bring any change in the matter.All these bills were preceded by Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2013 through which Capital Punishment for rape made its entry into the Indian Penal Code.
This followed the public outrage after the brutal gang rape and murder of a woman on a moving bus in Delhi on December 16, 2012, which shook the collective conscience of the nation. Parliament passed the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2013 to allow the death penalty in rape cases where the accompanying brutality leads to death or leaves the victim in a persistent vegetative state.Whatever name you may give Aparajita, Disha or Shakti, these bills are meaningless as long as cases about rape remain pending in the courts for years together. In 2022, combined with those brought in the previous years, courts had around 2 lakh cases for trial. However, trials could be completed in only a little over 18,000 cases, which was less than the number of incidents as well as police charge sheets filed that year. Finally, the conviction rate of 27.4% in rape cases means seven out of every 10 accused persons were acquitted.So just making the laws doesn’t help. Speaking at a function some months back, Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud had quoted BR Ambedkar saying, “However bad a Constitution may be, it may turn out to be good if those responsible for its functioning happen to be a good lot.”Maker of the Constitution in the concluding speech before the Constituent Assembly had said, “However good a Constitution may be, it is sure to turn out bad because those who are called to work it, happen to be a bad lot. However bad a Constitution may be, it may turn out to be good if those who are called to work it, happen to be a good lot.
The Constitution can provide only the organs of the State such as the Legislature, the Executive and the Judiciary. The factors on which the working of those organs of the State depends are the people and the political parties they will set up as their instruments to carry out their wishes and their politics.”If the rapes are not stopping in this country or if the anti-rape laws are not proving to be effective in punishing the rapists, its a failure of culture more than the law. Our society is not very forthcoming the accommodating the woes of a rape victim, and in most cases, the survivor and the family are subjected to terrible humiliation.Those tasked with implementing the Constitution have to possess the spirit of public service rather than political expediency. There is a recent case study carried out by the Uttar Pradesh Police in Ghaziabad district which reiterates the aforementioned premise.There is an existing government policy for establishing Pink Police Outposts under every police station.
The rules have been there but not much work has been done beyond the customary launching of the programme with much fanfare.However, Ghaziabad Police last year decided to implement the programme in mission mode, and 20 Pink Booths exclusively manned by female police personnel were established in September 2023.
A year later the results were for all to see. The mere presence of a force for women's safety had its impact. According to the data released by Crime and Criminal Tracking Network & Systems of Uttar Pradesh Police, crime against women which included dowry deaths, dowry-related cases, molestation, rape and kidnapping came down by approximately 24 per cent. The biggest fall of over 36 per cent was in dowry deaths thus at least securing women inside their homes.If such an initiative by Ghaziabad Police can achieve such results one is sure at the state government level such steps can be taken more effectively. One is not sure how effectively have these pink police outposts been functioning in West Bengal, where the government has just brought a more stringent anti-rape law.
(Sidharth Mishra is the author & president Centre for Reforms, Development and Justice; views are personal)
