A lot of demands have been raised in favour of capital punishment for rapists. While the crime demands nothing less, we have to seriously start thinking if a death penalty is the ultimate answer. Will there be no more rapes? Or at least, will there be an abrupt fall in the crime rate? Will this give justice to the little soul?
Most of the people reading this know the obvious answer. So what is the solution? Very few among us know ‘the’ solution. This article attempts to reach as close it can to one. So. let us consider the following points:
Why Does Death Penalty Seem Like The Perfect Option?
The reason is that death is the severest form of punishment we know of. Obviously, there are many torturous forms through which one can be put to death by, but democracy is too civil to practice them. So let’s not talk about that. Now, because of this perception of death, we have a notion that killing the culprits will send a strong signal. And maybe then our children, our women will be safe. Well, maybe!
The thing is, whenever such horrendous incidents come to light, they hit our emotional nerves so hard that we start empathising, which in fact is a good thing. It proves that we are humans and that we care. But the problem is that this feeling then starts becoming a moral burden for us, which we want to get rid of as soon as possible. A death penalty, therefore, seems to be the quickest way out, and we forget what actually we stood for, i.e., justice for the victim. In this manner, we limit ourselves to the equation, Justice = Death.
Here’s Why Death Penalty Is Actually A Bad Option
Ask yourself this question: How many terrorists dropped their guns when Osama was killed? Or when Afzal Guru and Kasab were hanged? Did terrorism vanish? Did the attacks stop?
Thousands of terrorists get killed every year. But do we get to see any reduction in their activities? Our ‘surgical strikes’ could not stop our soldiers from getting killed at the border. So death can’t stop such activities. Rather in some cases, it has a reverse impact. The culprit knows the price of his crime, so it no longer matters to him. He just wants to do maximum damage before he dies.
Now let’s look at death in another way – thousands of farmers commit suicide every year. The major reasons behind this are: the failure of crops, debt burden, price crash, and many others. In a country where 70% of the population is directly or indirectly dependent on agriculture, the very source of all the food does not have food in his stomach.
Its been happening for more than a hundred years. Can we believe, that 70 years after independence, we still don’t have the solution to this problem? After millions of farmer suicides? One must not, by any logic, consider forcing a farmer to commit suicide, any less of a crime than rape and murder. So, when the death of a noble farmer fails to direct us to solve the agrarian crisis, how will the death of a criminal succeed in pulling the country out of this ‘rape crisis’?
Does This Mean That I Am Against Death Penalties?
No, I am not, entirely. Crimes like these call for death penalty. But if I ask you how many death penalties will be needed to put an end to this, your answer probably will be – as many as it takes! But when I ask you a different question, i.e., how many more children will have to die like this before it comes to an end? Will you give the same answer? Probably not.But why?
If you look closely, it’s the same question, asked differently. The first time, it hit your emotional nerve, the second time it hit your logical nerve too. If we think this way, both emotionally and logically, a mere death penalty does not seem to be that effective a solution.
So What Is The Solution?
Well, I don’t know. I may as well kill the culprits if they show up before me, but I know that it will not be the right thing to do. Here are a few things that could probably make a difference:
1. Family Values: Seems very basic, right? But imagine, the very root of this whole menace is the non-compliance of this very basic, common and nothing extraordinary trait. How can we expect a man to respect random women and love a random child when he himself has been taught to keep his own woman and child under his feet in his own house. He would never touch another woman had he been whipped hard for screaming at the women of his own house.
2. Education: Most of such criminals are uneducated and unemployed. “Education is the manifestation of the perfection already in man”, said Swami Vivekanand. We must understand the miracle that education is. It does not mean reading and writing. That’s just literacy. Education is the building block of a man’s character. An educated man knows the role and status of every life existing on the planet. He neither considers anyone above him or below him. Hence he respects, not just a human being, but every being.
3. Good Touch, Bad Touch: Children are naive. They don’t understand what part of their body is perceived as what. Evil minds often take this as an opportunity to exploit them. Hence, it becomes the duty of the parents to acquaint them at an early stage, to the concept of good touch, bad touch. Parents must always teach them to anticipate danger and raise the alarm. Schools must also take an active role in this and incorporate these basic hacks in their curriculum.
The above points are preventive in nature. Prevention is always better than cure.
Now let us talk about some curative measures.
Effective policemen are a boon: It is a well-known fact that a majority of rape cases go unreported in India, and elsewhere in the world. The main reason behind this is the fear of harassment and humiliation. Rape survivors have to go through stigmatic scrutiny at the hands of police and medics, like the infamous two-finger test, which needs to be removed. It becomes the duty of the police to show utmost sensitivity, empathy and professionalism in dealing with such cases.
A quick justice system always helps: Another main reason to why such crimes advance at such a high rate in this country is the time justice takes to reach the victim. It’s so late that after a limit, there’s nothing much left for the victim to cheer about. This encourages the evil minds. They think that they can easily stretch the case for years before being punished. This is a cheap cost to pay. No conviction, no death, only hearings. Tareekh pe Tareekh! They can buy the police in this much time, get witness killed and sometimes, can even get the victim killed. Delay breeds corruption.
Take the Nirbhaya case. The culprits have been awarded death. But they are still very much alive. Can we say that she has got justice? Can we say that she will get justice once the culprits are hanged? No. Because Justice delayed is Justice denied.
The type of punishment does not matter, as much as the speed of justice does. Death penalty awarded after years of the crime committed will yield nothing. But even a non-lethal but harsh punishment delivered quickly has the potential of bringing change.
It will show the criminals that their crimes won’t be able to beat the judicial system and that justice will be delivered quick and hard. Fast-track courts have been started after the Nirbhaya case, but their effectiveness remains questionable. This point is directly linked to the above point. The amount of professionalism shown by the police will determine the quality and speed of justice delivered.
My observation are a mix of preventive and curative measures. This is as close as I can get to the solution. I would appreciate more suggestions because I alone can not reach to the solution, but together, we can help make the country a safer space for all.