Here we have listed some of the reasons behind the existence of rape as a crime in India.

Rape is a sexual assault which means having forced sexual intercourse with someone. In a country where females are worshipped in the form of goddesses like Maa Durga, Maa Kali, Maa Saraswati, etc. is also a country where they are raped and brutally molested in the outside world.

Even after the Nirbhaya Verdict, nothing has changed rape is still an issue and that too now with its own capital – New Delhi where the crime rate for rapes is highest across India. A photojournalist in Mumbai got raped and murdered by the group of men and this clearly shows even the media people are unsafe. And when we try to analyze the current situation then there are more than 8 rape cases only in the month of May 2017 itself. Moreover, these are the rape case only in the Delhi NCR region which came into the limelight but certainly, the number is much greater as cases are not even get reported.

Pondering over the hike in the number of cases it’s we came across some of the reasons behind rape case in India, they are –

1. Lack of sex education

No matter how much development we have witnessed in the past few years, India is still a nation where sex education is taboo in the sight of society. It’s a subject which is considered to be something which should be discussed in person.

Lack of sex education at the school level or at the family level is the foremost reason as this makes teenagers curious about the changes taking place in their bodies and in order to know about all this, they tend to resort to the unethical ways that generate their desires at the right time. Thus, leading them towards a crime called rape.

2. Acceptance of domestic brutality

Indian society is a patriarchal society in which men dominate women whenever they can. Marital rape is also an issue when we talk about rapes in India. Marital rape is basically when forcefully, a partner is treated as an object of gratification to satisfy the sexual desires of the other person. Hence, our culture teaches women to respect what her husband says her to do which is totally unethical when it comes to her own dignity.

Even under Section 375 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), it is considered that the forced sex in marriages as a crime only when the wife is below 15. Thus, marital rape is not a criminal offense under IPC, and this law needs to amend.

She is beaten, burnt what not and that too sometimes for the forced physical relations. This directly gives the husband the courage to rape his wife.

3. Psychological rationale

Cricket in our country is treated as a national game but the fact is it’s an international game. Similarly, we have given place to many western habits in our Indian culture but when it comes to an adaptation of western dressing sense by the Indian girls then they are judged on the basis of their character. A dress code cannot define the character of a girl or woman that she is interested in having sex or not.

It’s just typical psychology or mentality which is also one of the reasons for the increasing rape case in India which blames the clothing which is provocative to therapists.

4. Lethargic court system

Nirbhaya’s case was on fast track procedure which too took more than two years for the final verdict. Recently abortion plea by a teenage girl of Chandigarh got her plea rejected on the grounds of having a threat to a girl’s life that got pregnant after being raped multiple times by her own uncle. There are many such cases that are pending or have the discontent verdicts.

This is the reason why people take this crime as a casual practice to serve their own physical desires.  The pendency of cases is due to the least availability of the judges. Former CJI, T.S. Thakur, himself stated that currently there’s the need for 70,000 judges in India so that the pending cases get solved.

Thus, an inadequate number of judges and lenient judiciary system is also the reason for increasing rape case as it’s not able to stop them by passing equally harsh verdicts for such a brutal crime.

5. Marriage Being a Solution

Even now, in most of the regions of India, if a girl is raped then they tend to compromise to get her married to her own rapist. This gives rise to the evil people who use these tactics to marry a girl of their own choice when love marriage is not an option for them. This basically is the practice common in rural India.

Rape is a matter of shame for the families of victims and therefore, they choose to stay quiet and compromise rather than asking for judiciary help because of two reasons-

• Afraid of the popularity and continuous approaches of media
• Slow Judiciary procedures

6. Lacking in Self-Defense

90% of the females don’t even know the self-defense techniques which may enable them the fight against the evils. Though the Indian government started various campaigns to train females 60% of the Indian families still consider females to reside in the bars of four walls and do household work only.

Conclusion

Making laws in India is easy than implementing the laws made for women. Even after 71 years of independence and favorable laws like Article 21, both men and women are equally liberal to manage a certain lifestyle they want to. Clearly, where the legal system itself is not strengthened, their Courts don’t always do justice for the victim and find rapists not guilty for ridiculous reasons.

Sinners know this and take advantage of it. Even if they get caught, if they have enough money or influence, nothing will happen to them. A woman would have to turn the rape case into a media circus to have a chance at justice and 90% of rape victims in India would not do so out of fear and shame.