National Commission for Women demands stringent penalties for rapists

Shocked and perturbed over the spurt in rape cases in the country, the National Commission for Women has demanded that the government severely punish the rapist and provide succour to the victims.

''The victims are being left on the wayside, without any help for even medical expenses. Under the present law, there is no compensation allocated if both the victims and the culprits belong to the same caste,'' said NCW chairperson Mohini Giri.

She felt that some kind of compensation was necessary, despite the fact that the ignominy and suffering of rape victims could not be valued in monetary terms. Urging that ''rape should not be strait-jacketed in caste terms,'' Giri said rape was a case of human indignity and physical violation and should be viewed as such.

Referring to the recent cases of rape in Saharanpur, Uttar Pradesh, ironically the constituency of Chief Minister Mayawati, NCW member Kailashpati said that a six-year-old rape victim was languishing in the hospital without proper medical care, despite the fact that her uterus had been removed.

An NCW team, comprising of Kailashpati and Dr Kusum Nautiyal, which rushed to Saharanpur, found that three minor girls were raped, after being drugged with tranquilisers, by their 52-year-old teacher Chander Singh and 57-year-old Megh Singh at Subhari Mehra village on May 4. The lone witness to the episode was 12-year-old Gulab, who had not taken the drugs. Kailashpati said that, after the incident, the victims were threatened with a knife and warned against informing anyone about what had happened.

The Commission ordered an in-camera trial, which is presently underway in the Devband court. The culprits are now under arrest and in hospital because they were badly beaten up by villagers. ''What was shocking, though, was the fact that many villagers were seeking more facilities for the area, in exchange for hushing up the incident,'' said Kailashpati. Terming it as a case of human insensitivity, Giri said ''How could these people even think of bargaining on the destruction of women's bodies?''

Another Saharanpur case involved the abduction of a maid servant, Santosh Kashyap, who was taken to Farukhabad by the daughter-in-law of the vice-president of Saharanpur Nagar Palika. The NCW is in touch with the Farukhabad police and has given them a 10 day ultimatum to solve the case.

In view of the drastic increase in crimes against women, the NCW has decided to set up a control room at the commission headquarters in New Delhi which will function till 2030 hours every day. The pre-litigation cell will have three full-time counsellors, a legal consultant, a part-time counsellor and a police post with two women constables and inspectors. The direct control room number is 3234918.

Giri has also written to Prime Minister I K Gujral, drawing his attention to the plight of women and children and urging him to take up issues of women and child trafficking. She recommended the creation of a regional resource centre on trafficking of women and children, with SAARC support, at the upcoming Maldives conference.

Stating that the trafficking of Nepalese girls now ranges from 100,000 to 200,000, she mourned the fact that child abuse was increasing in an enlightened region.