Rape is a heinous crime. And when a rape victim is also brutalized and killed, it becomes both heinous and monstrous. For first, they take away your dignity, then they inflict pain, and finally destroy the universal human right that everyone is born with – the right to live.
On December 16th 2012, Asha and Badri Singh’s lives changed forever. As parents of the 23-year-old Nirbhaya, a physiotherapy student, they were in for dreadful shock, when news of their daughter’s condition reached them after she was raped and thrown out of a moving bus, via a telephone call from the police.
Nirbhaya had suffered rape and brutalization for 90 minutes – unimaginably so and was then thrown naked out on the street. She died 13 days later in a Singapore hospital, her parents by the side of their only daughter. She soon became ‘India’s daughter’, but India has not changed one bit after the incident according to Nirbhaya’s mother. Recent incidents prove her right. Only last month, a two-and-a-half year child was brutally raped, allegedly by two minors in the capital.
Six ‘men’ committed the crime. One died in custody. Four were sentenced to death by hanging, a sentence that has not yet been carried out. The sixth male was a juvenile at the time. He was 17 years old – on the cusp of legal maturity. In other words, he was too young to be punished for the heinous and horrendous crime, as per the Juvenile Justice Act 2000. He was sent to a correctional institution. He is due to be released on December 21st. Has he suffered the consequences of his action? Certainly not, is the opinion of most. Has he learnt from his misconduct? Only time will tell.
His impending release has torn the scabs off old wounds and revived the debate on whether he should have been punished like an adult.
Nirbhaya’s parents react
Asha and Badri Singh, Nirbhaya’s parents, now live in a different part of Delhi, in a modest apartment given to them by the state after their daughter’s death. An upset Asha, told Rosita Boland of the Irish Times, “The juvenile will be released on December 21st, and he will be treated like a hero here to all the other kids. They will see that you can commit this heinous crime before you are 18 and you can go unpunished.”
Nirbhaya’s mother told CNN-IBN separately, that allowing the 20-year-old from Badaun, Uttar Pradesh to leave the reform home ‘sends out a wrong message’. “Juveniles will now think they can do whatever they want, and get away with it,” she added. PTI quoted her as asking, “But did he reform? Thousands of girls are being raped across the country. What has changed?”
Nirbhaya’s mother said: “They say that his rights as a juvenile have to protected. What about us? Are we not citizens, don’t we have rights? And what about Nirbhaya’s rights? Doesn’t she deserve justice? Don’t we deserve justice? I appeal to the government to not allow this to happen. If he roams free we will be sending a wrong message to others.”
Meanwhile, Nirbhaya’s father told PTI “He may go out and commit another crime and if he does, it will be due to shortcomings on the government’s part”.
The Government’s view
The Union Government’s Minister for Women and Child Development, Maneka Gandhi, who was at the forefront of the demand to amend the Juvenile Justice Act 2000, because of the Nirbhaya case, also couldn’t hide her apprehension. She said “He is a person who should be kept under watch. We can’t just let him go and wait for him to do something else,” she cautioned.
However, Gandhi also added that justice should not be confused with the law. “The law said that he could only go to children’s home. That’s the anomaly we are trying to correct. So, he served his sentence and in according to the law he is coming out. And there is nothing we can do about it until or unless he commits another crime.”
Activists though disagreed with Gandhi and called her choice of words poor and provocative. They expressed the apprehension that the perpetrator’s life may be threatened on his release, by such provocative statements. Krishnan, a member of CPI(ML), said, “Such provocative statements won’t help and may put the convict’s life in threat in the form of societal retribution following his release. There should be monitoring, but from the point of view of whether he is being properly rehabilitated or not instead of spying on him,” she said.
The debate continues
The Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Bill 2015, that was approved by the Lok Sabha on May 7th 2015, allows for juveniles between the ages of 16 to 18 years to be tried in adult courts if they are found to commit any heinous crimes. According to the proposed law, matters are to be presented to the Juvenile Justice Board on a case-by-case basis, which will then decide — based on an assessment of the mental state of the child — whether the crime was committed with/without an understanding of its consequences.
The standing committee expressed reservations over its content, arguing that “existing juvenile system is not only reformative and rehabilitative in nature but also recognizes the fact that 16-18 years is an extremely sensitive and critical age requiring greater protection. Hence there is no need to subject them to different or adult judicial system as it will go against articles 14 and 15(3) of the Constitution.”But the government, prompted by Gandhi, overruled it. The women’s and children welfare ministry, argued that safeguards were in place to ensure that a child who had committed a crime without fully understanding its consequences would not be penalized.
The Act has yet to get the assent of the Rajya Sabha – Political parties are divided on support to the bill. However, with the debate heating up, due to the impending release of the Juvenile rapist, political parties may be compelled to display political correctness, overruling their own internal contradictions. If passed, the debate may rest for a while.
On the other side, and possibly proving the standing committee right, the convicted juvenile has, according to reports become a model inmate. He has been offering prayers and fasting according to his religious persuasion and is generally well behaved. But whether he is reformed or not is not yet clear – He is afraid of being lynched upon release, a fate that befell an adult accused of rape in Manipur recently.
Correctional centre Superintendent Premoday Khakha says, “I feel a person can be transformed at any age and we can’t punish all minors harshly for a heinous crime committed by a few”.
The crucial question, is whether, when minors commit major crimes, they are fully in control of what they are doing or they are pushed into committing such crimes by internal factors – mainly emotional and a poor superego – beyond their control. I would say, at that age, yes. The debate goes on even as victims suffer.
About the author:
Brian Fernandes, a passionate author enjoys writing on a variety of issues and understanding the society through his experiences and anecdotes.
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within this article are the personal opinions of the author. The facts and opinions appearing in the article do not reflect the views of Newskarnataka.com and Newskarnataka.com does not assume any responsibility or liability for the same.
