NEW DELHI: India is on the threshold of a different kind of revolution: the incidents of rape are on the rise. In Delhi alone 100 cases were reported to the police in 1985. The figure has gone up to 254 for 1992. Many more cases go unreported because of the social stigma attached to the victims of the tape, the conviction of the rapists is minimal. In 1992 only 46 out of 276 rapists were convicted. As many as 190 were acquitted on the charge.
The incidence of rape in Kashmir and Punjab is higher. In these states, the victims mostly happen to members of the Muslim and Sikh communities while the rapists in most cases are member of India’s armed forces. In most cases, the police does not register complaints at all, several human rights groups have recorded incidents of rape and have published their findings, yet, the Indian government takes no action. Not a day passes when India’s security forces are not shown involved in the cases of rape. Early last week, it was reported that six army men belonging to the Rajput regiment caught hold of two school girls near Sehsatdhara, Dehradoon. The girls raised an alarm and the villagers saved them and caught hold of a rapist, Suresh Singh, of 23rd Battalion of the Rajput Regiment who also named five others who escaped. It is most unlikely that the Indian government would take any action against the army men involved in the case.
Article extracted from this publication >> August 27, 1993
