By Sujata Deb
New Delhi, Mar 22 (UNI) Seven years after the horrific gangrape and murder of a 23-year-old physiotherapist in the national capital, the four convicts were finally hanged to death this week.
On March 20, the four were hanged in the capital's high-security Tihar prison in the first execution in India since 2015.
This brought to a painful end the many twists and turns in the country's most high-profile sexual offence case, highlighting the country’s appalling record on sexual violence against women.
Ironically, the Nirbhaya case was put on the fast track but nevertheless as the case unspooled out, the never-ending delays tested the patience of many and reduced her indominitable mother to tears several times.
While enlightened governments are veering towards the belief that capital punishment is hardly a deterrent for sexual violence, India has introduced capital punishment for rape cases after the December 16, 2012 Nirbhaya incident.
The United Nations, on Friday, asked all nations to abolish the death penatly or put a moratorium on it.
Despite the fact that this case put the focus on rape and sexual violence against women, there is little sign that crimes against women are abating. Similar violent incidents have continued to hog headlines in India since then.
Police registered 33,977 cases of rape in 2018 or an average of 93 cases a day, the latest figures from the National Crime Records Bureau show.
In the aftermath of the Nirbhaya incident, newer rape laws have been adopted prescribing the harsher punishment of death for rapists, and including stalking, acid throwing as well as spying on a woman when naked or circulating her pictures without her consent.
Also, under the new laws, a repeat offender of rape or rape that caused coma could be given the death penalty.
Unfortunately, the Rs 1,000-crore Nirbhaya fund set up by the government giving states funds to invest in women’s safety initiatives has remained unutilised by as much as 91 per cent of it remaining unspent, displaying a callous attitude of governments towards women's safety issues.
The chilling repeat of the Nirbhaya murder in the November 2019 gang-rape of a 27-year-old vet in Hyderabad and more such cases have only revealed how little things have changed and indifference of sexual predators to stringent punishment.
The police killing of the Hyderabad culprits in a dawn encounter is not the answer. By this step, both safety and justice will remain out of reach for women of India.
Just Rs 147 crore out the amount sanctioned by the centre has been spent by the state governments and UTs, Women and Child Development Minister Smriti Irani informed Parliament recently. Uttar Pradesh and Telangana, the two states in the news recently for horrific incidents of rape and murder, were among the highest recipients of the Nirbhaya fund alongside Karnataka, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Delhi.
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