Few or many, rape incidents can’t be trivialized
It would be insensitive to reduce cases of rape to mere statistics, because even one incident is a blot on the society we live in and is traumatic for the victim and its family members, leaving a deep and often indelible emotional scar. Therefore, there is nothing to triumphantly point out that India ranks a distant third in the list of 10 countries that have reported the highest number of rapes. According to the United Nations Crime Trends Survey 2010, while India recorded 1.8 cases of reported rape per lakh of population, the figures for the US and Brazil were as high as 27.3 and 21.09 respectively. The numbers for India may not be giving the ground picture, since many rape incidents either simply do not get reported or are not entered into the record books if the police forces can have their way. Around 85,000 rapes were reported in the US in 2010, whereas India, with nearly four times the population of the US and with a feudal mindset that flourishes in large parts of the country, reported less than a third of that. It is believed that nearly 90 per cent of incidents of rape go unreported for a variety of reasons, including the social stigma that attaches to the victim and family members with the publicity of these crimes, and the fear of being hounded by powerful elements if the victims or their family dare to pursue the legal route to justice. Yet, despite the under-reporting, the figures are shocking, and the rise in cases of rape cannot be brushed aside. The National Crime Records Bureau's figures show a whopping 112 per cent rise in the number of cases recorded in the country between 1990 and 2008. In 2011 alone, as many as 24,206 cases of rape were reported. These figures will stand substantially revised for the present, and will be on a far higher side even with rampant instances of under-reporting across the country.
While statistics tell a story, they should not become tools to either downplay or overstate the crime. The Samajwadi Party and its Government in Uttar Pradesh have, for instance, been defending themselves against the rising number of rapes in the State by quoting the National Crime Records Bureau and claiming that Uttar Pradesh ranked lower than many others in the crime. They have sought to give a political twist to the incidents by blaming the opposition parties for magnifying the incidents to bring a bad name to the ruling party in particular and to the State in general. While nobody denies that politics comes into play — though its use in crimes against women is inexcusable and abominable — the bare fact is that incidents of rape have not only been recurring with disturbing regularity in the State under the Samajwadi Party's rule, but that the police and the civilian administration have demonstrated a lackadaisical attitude in tackling such incidents, refusing often to even register a first information report. Rash and insensitive comments by certain senior leaders of the party have only worsened matters.