Society will progress if only its women feel safe
In some cases, a New Year mark new beginnings; in others, it serves as a reminder of how certain things have refused to change or are changing rather slowly. The state of women's safety in India is an example of the latter. Though there has been much talk about the issue, with countless hours of prime-time television and reams of newspaper roll having been spent on analysing it from various viewpoints, and political parties even highlighting it as a poll platform, the fact of the matter remains that on the ground, the wheels of change have moved slowly.
Although official figures for 2014 will only be available in the summer of 2015, there is little to suggest that crimes against women have seen any dip in this year. Two major instances grabbed the headlines: The first was the death of the two cousins in Badaun, Uttar Pradesh, who were found hanging from a tree. Though the Central Bureau of Investigation has now concluded that the girls committed suicide, the allegations of rape, murder, police inefficiency and a political cover-up that had come up initially, never really went away.
The other case that garnered a lot of attention was the alleged rape of a female executive in Delhi by a cab driver, associated with the popular taxi-hailing mobile application, Uber. Apart from the usual outrage, the case also sparked a much-needed nation-wide debate on the role of technology in ensuring the safety of women. For example, on the one hand, the case exposed how India doesn't quite have the laws to deal with new-age transport services such as Uber, and on the other, it underlined how more traditional radio cab services had indeed incorporated technology (legally-mandated GPS tracking etc) to make it safer for women to travel.
Additionally, 2014 also served as a reminder that while it is important to keep the law books updated, equal focus must only be put on strengthening the judicial and law-enforcement mechanisms. Take the December 16 Delhi gang rape case, which not only revived the national call for women's safety but also led to the introduction of stricter laws: Under harsh media glare, the case was fast-tracked through the district court and then the high court, but an appeal to the Supreme Court by the convicted is yet to be decided by the apex court.
The 2012 Delhi gang rape had also revived the discourse on juvenile justice while found some traction in the first half of this year but has gone off the radar. After it was found that the most brutal attacker in that case was a juvenile, there was a concerted demand to amend juvenile justice laws so that youngsters convicted of heinous crimes such as rapes and murder are not treated like street urchins.
The Minister for Women and Child Development in the BJP-led NDA Government, Ms Maneka Gandhi, upon taking office in May, had promised to amend the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2009, so as to lift the shield that protects such criminals. But there has been little progress on that front. Indeed, there are signs that the Government may not bring in an amendment to take away the protection from juveniles. This, despite the fact that in just the last 10 months, juveniles were reportedly involved in as many as 111 cases of heinous crimes.