Advocate of Supreme Court Arvind Jain,called upon girl students not only to
learn the art of self-defence, but never to hesitate in killing the man who
tries to outrage their modesty, because in India fighting a case against rapist
was far more difficult than fighting a case of murder in self-defence.
"When state fails to deliver justice, people take law in their hands.
Nagpur is an example, where a rape victim led the crowd to kill the
rapist," he quipped, amidst claps and cheers by girls at the Lucknow
University, where the lawyer had come to deliver a lecture on "Law and
violence on women".
"Law
allows a person to kill in self-defence and a woman to protect her modesty. In
a decision, Supreme Court has held that a father who killed a rapist while defending
her daughter was an act in ‘self-defence’. "Believe me, if 10-20 Nagpur
like incidents happen in this country, rape cases would come down
drastically," he said.
"In my
view, rape is an attempt of male community to terrorise the entire female community,
telling them look it can happen with you as well if you will refuse to obey the
male," he said.
Don’t keep
quiet thinking about ‘family respect’, report cases of molestation and rape.
Fifty per cent of such cases are never reported because rapists are from within
the family or a neighbour or a relative," he said and added that women
should openly come out in support of victims.
Earlier,
delivering a lecture on ‘Law and violence on women’ at Institute of Women’s
Studies (IWS), Lucknow University, on Monday, Jain said that gender
insensitivity in our law and in judicial system
is not only
amusing but at times leads to disgusting situation.
But it acts swifter when an
accused is a
woman.
"Conviction
rate in rape cases is 4 per cent. But conviction stands at 55 per cent against
women booked under Immoral Trafficking Prevention Act. The same Act treats
prostitutes and touts as offenders, but is soft against ‘customers’. The bias
is clear. The judicial system presumes that female sex workers are of easy virtue
and thus deserved to be punished, however, their male customers come only
because they are ‘tempted’," he said.
Further, he
said, as per Indian Penal Code (Section 375), physical relation with a girl
below 16, with our without consent, amounts to rape. But if the man forcibly
makes relation with his wife, aged between 12-15 years, it is not a cognizable
offence. Interestingly, although child marriage is prohibited by law, but if
children are married, there is no provision which declares it null and void.
Further, Hindu Minority and Guardian Act, describes husband as legal guardian
of his wife, never mind even if the wife is six months old and husband one
year.
"Actually
the patriarchal mindset of the society and the male dominance inscribed in our
religion translates into gender bias in the minds of the judges and law
makers," he added
(Times of India,2004)