I wrote a piece with Raghav Pandey on April 18, 2018, in FirstPost regarding the status of women and how the number of cases has been increasing after the December 2012 case and Justice Verma committee’s recommendations. We have also provided data on how the conviction rate is same even after the Justice Verma committee report but false cases are increasing.
But in the case of crime against children, the situation is not same after the POCSO Act. Now, cases are being registered in a faster manner with very fewer cases being proven false or mistaken. This shows that people are more aware and the police are responding to the call of the victim.
Below table also shows that how crimes against children are getting increased and getting registered. It also shows the how safe childhood is a distant dream in our society.
The POCSO Act came into existence only after 2013. But it is clear that there has been a strong jump in the number of cases filed in 2013 as compared to 2012. After the Kathua and Surat cases, there has been strong demand for the death penalty in child rape cases. States like Haryana have already taken the step in this direction and many other states also demanding same. Now, the Cabinet has also approved an ordinance to provide for the death penalty for the rape of children below the age of 12.
While we strongly condemn this brutal crime and want to justice for the victim, there are two ways to see things. First, you are more concerned about justice and second, you are more concerned about the punishment of guilty.
As a society, we are moving towards punishment-oriented justice. Our definition of justice is getting more and more dependent on the quantum of punishment for guilty and that is not a very healthy sign for our society.
After a crime, we demand strict law and our fight for justice is only restricted to making a law. When the law comes into existence, we believe that our job is done. When another crime happens, we come up with another stricter law. We have to understand that the primary job of society starts after these laws come into existence.
As a society, we do not want to invest our energy on education and social institutions to create better awareness among people about crime and mishappening; our primary aim is to terrorise people with the threat of punishment instead of urging people to respect each other’s dignity. We loosely give the example of countries in the Middle East and how they treat criminals, but we rarely give the example of Scandinavian countries which are more democratic and people-friendly.
The example of Middle East countries which have stronger laws also shows us that law is not the solution to the problem. We are becoming an excessive law society which is more dependent on the law than basic discipline. Instead of making the law if we more focus on education, textbook and other social institution which play an important role in the socialisation of the child, we can control crime against the child better.
Our experience as a society tells us that law does not control crime but it changes the mode of crime. We have seen its various cases. POCSO Act is sufficient to deal with criminals, now we need to spread awareness about it and about the nature of crimes which are happening in society.
The failure of society and failure of law lies our own lack of action. We do not care about awareness or education or curriculum which inculcate violence and force amongst the society.