Dena Pawna, the classic Bengali novel by Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay, offers a story about the redemption of a drunken rapist zamindar named Jibanondo Choudhury. This male protagonist used to abduct daughters and wives of his subjects to gratify his sexual desires. But by the end of story – out of love for his long-lost wife – he ‘baptized’ himself by ‘repenting’ from all sins by getting involved in social works. Meanwhile, the zamindar was ‘rehabilitated’ and became the ‘hero’ of the society, and got back the heroine too. Unfortunately, however, we don’t find any account of what happened to the ill-fated rape victims. Perhaps their sufferings were not considered significant enough for presenting in the novel.
From a critique’s perspective, this novel reflects the patriarchal attitude of our society as regards the treatment of rape victims. In our criminal justice system, we are seemingly concerned about punishing the offenders with a deterrent perception, whereas we barely care about repairing harms done to the victims. Thus, we even see outrageous practices prevailing in our society, like forcefully marrying off the rape victims with the rapists in village salish.
It is commonly said that a rape victim is raped once by the perpetrator, but several times by facing the harsh procedures of law. Additionally, the victims and their families always feel insecure regarding their social acceptance and safety as the matter becomes public when they pursue justice. Such insecurity results into a sharp reduction in the number of rape cases reported to the police. Ain-O-Salish Kendra, a renowned human rights organization in Bangladesh, reported that only 401 cases, out of 707 incidents of rape in the year of 2014, were reported to the police. The situation is almost similar in 2015. From January till September 2015, only 364 cases have been reportedly filed out of 667 rape incidents.
A rape victim suffers not only from physical injury but also from psychological trauma. According to the National Centre for Victims of Crime (USA), the injuries suffered by the rape victims can be divided into primary injuries and secondary injuries. Primary injuries are the direct results of the rape, which are mainly physical; whereas secondary injuries occur when victims do not get appropriate support from friends, family and other concerned professionals in the aftermath of the incident.
In a research titled The Mental Health Impact of Rape, Dr. G. Kilpatrick from Medical University of South Carolina, finds that almost 31% of all rape victims in America suffers from PTSD (posttraumatic stress disorder) while 30% of them experiences depressions during their lifetime. This research shows that some mental health problems are life threatening. According to the research, about 33% develops suicidal tendency after the incident of rape.
Regrettably, these secondary injuries mostly get aggravated during the legal process. It is very demeaning and painful for a rape victim to recall and describe that horrible experience in finer details in a court before public. Section 20(6) of the Prevention of Oppression against Women and Children Act, 2000 provides victims with the right to be examined in a closed door room. To some extent, this provision helps the victims to be less harassed. But this procedure is optional at the discretion of a judge as section 20(6) specifically says that the judge can hold a trial in camera “[after receiving] an application [and] if [he/she] thinks fit […]” to hold such trial. Due to backlog of cases, judges and lawyers tend to be reluctant to go for holding camera trials. However, according to the guidelines given in BNWLA v. Government of Bangladesh and Others, reported in 29 BLD (HCD) 415, the testimony given by a sexually harassed victim to the complaint committee must be recorded in camera. That giving testimony in a court about being raped or faced with such a situation is also sensitive, our lawmakers are yet to recognize.
Again section 151 of the Evidence Act, 1872 empowers the court for prohibiting indecent and scandalous questions, unless they relate to the facts in issue. Legally speaking, consent of the victim, in case of rape, is a fact in issue. Hence, defence lawyers go to any lengths, to prove consent, often by using indecent and scandalous questions that the victim is of generally immoral character under section 155(4) of the same Act. It is relevant to remember Justice Krishna Iyer who, in the case of Rafiq v. State of UP [1981 (1) SCR 402], observed that corroboration of victim’s testimony – in obvious rape cases – is not mandatory since no woman of honour would accuse another for being raped. In Justice Iyer’s words, a rape victim sacrifices thereby what is dearest to her. With the emergence of the Indian Criminal Law (Amendment) Ordinance, 2013, proving character and previous sexual experience now has become irrelevant for proving victim’s consent under the Indian Evidence Act.
In Bangladesh, there is a prevalent concern among medical professionals, law enforcement agencies and women’s rights activists, as well as government officials that the so-called “two finger test” is unscientific and has no forensic value. Even when the signs of rape are obvious like physical injuries for resistance, the victim has to go through a two-finger test conducted by the medical physicians. However, recently the Ministry of Health has drafted new guidelines to put an end to the two-finger test and create gender sensitive atmosphere in medico-legal examination. This has been done in compliance with the directions given by the High Court Division of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh in a Writ Petition No. 10663 of 2013.
However, insufficiency of female doctors in forensic department is one of the main reasons for which creating a gender sensitive atmosphere for the rape victims is still a challenge. Moreover, rape victims barely feel secured to go to forensic department as there often exist pressures to manipulate the forensic reports. Also unavailability of skilled psychiatrists and psychologists in hospitals make life worse for the victims. Moreover, we only have eight ‘One-stop Crisis Centers’ (OCCs) in the country, which have been established in medical hospitals to provide the victims with proper health care, police assistance, legal aid, shelter and psychological counseling. However reports suggest that these OCCs are only providing healthcare and skipping legal services as 78% of the victims does not opt for legal action.
The main problem, however, still rests in the conservative mindset of the society. Blaming the victims for her character and clothing style starts primarily from and within the society. In State of Maharashtra v. Madhukar Narayan [1991 (1) SCC 57], it was observed that unchastity of a woman does not make her open to violation by any and every person, as and when they wish. Constitutionally, women are entitled to equal protection of law. Making a woman-friendly society is our duty. After all the miseries that the rape victims go through, we still manage to make their life harder by establishing a justice system which is subject to criticism for unacceptably making their life less-dignified and protected. Question arises, haven’t they suffered enough?
Citations:
Md. Moniruzzaman, “Sufferings of the Rape Victims: Psychological and Legal Aspects” (DHLR Blog, 26 October 2015) http://dhakalawreview.org/blog/2015/10/sufferings-of-the-rape-victims-psychological-and-legal-aspects-940
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