The Indian government recently announced that juveniles will
be tried in regular courts for crimes like murder and rape. This is a long
needed change. A change that was being demanded by the country since December 2012.
In that fateful month, a young girl was brutally raped and gruesomely injured
internally. She was then thrown naked on the streets. The nation was shocked
out of its collective stupor and took to the streets. Nirbhaya died. But she
remained a rallying figure for all women. All women without exception face
various crimes committed against them. Nirbhaya’s heroism and the huge public
involvement opened doors for women to report crimes against them. The numbers
galloped.
Safety of women became an important focus area for
politicians. During their campaigning all of them spoke about creating a safer environment
for women. The Narendra Modi led Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) government is
taking some measures to deliver on this promise by increasing the police
(especially women police) ranks etc. Yet this is not enough.
In Nirbhaya’s case, there was one juvenile involved. He was the
one who lured her into the bus. He was an active participant in the horrendous
deed. And most important of all, she said (Note, the girl, Nirbhaya herself
said) that he was the most brutal of them all. He is the one who inserted a rod
into her (thus destroying her intestines) saying “mar (die)”. There was nothing
innocent about him. There was no indication that he was being led by anyone
else. There was nothing “juvenile” about him except his age (under 18). He got
away with just three years.
Amongst the Shakti Mills multiple gang-rape accused there
are two juveniles. Also completely aware of what they are doing. They too were
tried as juveniles.
Now this new law reduces the age of a “juvenile” from 18 to
16.
But this law seems to be a de-toothed tiger. The judge in the
juvenile court will decide whether the person should be tried in a regular court
depending on the gravity of the crime. This doesn’t seem a good enough method
of segregating who will be tried in regular court. The crime should be treated
standalone. But this can still be passed over.
What really takes away the bite is the fact that “juveniles”
cannot be handed life or death even by regular courts. So the person involved
in Nirbhaya’s rape and murder will still walk out after a few short years.
There is something not okay about this rider. Neither in its conceptualization
not in the justice it will hand out.
Also, cases on which judgement has been passed cannot go
back into trial or have retrospective effect of the law. So the most brutal of
them all has gone practically scot-free.
The government needs to make stronger laws with serious
punishments for crimes against women to at least be contained if not totally
erased.
Image: By Deval Kulshrestha (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
Image: By Deval Kulshrestha (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons