Using the Nirbhaya gangrape case to highlight that respect for women is on the decline despite numerous talks about women empowerment, Justice R Banumathi, one of the three judges on the Bench who gave the Nirbhaya verdict, wrote a separate order demanding “gender equality” to be compulsorily made part of school curriculum in the country.
Justice Banumathi, the lone woman judge in the apex court, argued that right from early years, children should be sensitised to respect women and it is this lack of respect that is visible in the increasing number of gender crimes reported in India.
Quoting figures from the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) Annual Report of 2015, the judge wrote there has been a spurt in crime against women from 2,28,650 in 2011 to 3,27,394 in 2015, a 43 per cent increase. Among this, total rape cases in 2015 alone were 34,651. Comparing 2005 figures with 2015, the percentage of crime against woman shot to 110.5 per cent, meaning thereby that crime against women has more than doubled in a decade, the judge said.
Based on these statistics, Justice Banumathi observed, “The statistics of NCRB show that despite progress made by women in education and in various fields and changes brought in ideas of women’s rights, respect for women is on the decline and crimes against women are on the increase.”
The judge urged to view offences against women not from a women’s perspective alone but as a human rights issue and to study the root causes.
In her view, besides stringent punishment and laws, this required an “attitudinal change” in the society. She further stressed that school teachers and parents need to keep a watch on the behavioural pattern of children so as to instill in them gender sensitisation.
In addition, awareness on the need to respect women must be created by Government institutions, educational institutions and employers, she said.