Who’s Juvenile – Rapists or Law Makers?

Imagination is one thing which places humans in a different set, from every other species since the first plankton. Putting the same to use – Imagine that one of your female relative is walking down the street, past dusk, with no one accompanying her, through the dark lanes of the neighborhood. She could be surrounded by canine beasts; canine, yet friendly. What if she have had to pass through a horde of druggists or a clan of alcoholics or a gang of mobsters or, even for that matter, a group of simple, straight men? Three legged monsters are usually more terrifying than the ones possessing four limbs. While the woman may be extremely reluctant, in addition to being overtly helpless, these homo-sapiens could pounce on her, rip apart her clothes and have their share of fun. We might not be able to picture the sinister scenario intricately, in terms of the gruesomeness; only the one going through this would know the pain! Girls or women, who may be young, old or in their adolescence, have always, had an extra burden upon them to stay protected from their stronger counterparts. In most of the cases, that is the only thing this helpless gender could do. Not only females, in some cases, males are prone to similar attacks too, but chances of which are very minimal. These assaulters may be of any age. These days, the younger junta is being prominent too.

Immaterial of whether they have attained their puberty or not, males have always fantasized about the wonders that the thing hanging from their crotch could do. With widespread media and Internet usage, one would always know the second use of his organ. Having seen their elders’ treatment for the bone, the younger clan have somewhat joined the bandwagon.

The senior males, educated or illiterate, can be divided into four groups, based on their bank balance and handsomeness – The ones who are less handsome, but have enough cash, make their way to the red-light areas; irrelevant of their cash possessions, the ones that are pretty would draw females towards them by their self-attracting aura; the rest are broke and ugly. The former two categories have minimal involvement in rape cases, unless the woman is forced into having sex; for instance, rapes committed by a relative or marital rapes. The third category contributes with a higher percentage to the crime. Speaking of these men, the money that they give to their family is very negligible and most of it is either used in smoking or consuming alcohol or in other related, useless habits. When these men have had enough from their wives or female relatives, they resort to other sections of the society. A girl may be as young as 3 to 4 years old or the lady may be in her middle ages – these men are just not worried about the age column’s value in the female’s form. Apart from their body parts, mentally challenged men also shovel non-living things into the girls’ organs. Having sex in a group or a gang is the new kitty-party fashion rule these days. Filthy men like to share the craze with their chuddy-buddies or dear ones; this is when they drag the younger crowd into the horror. In other cases, children may also be exposed to sights on the television, which they should not be hearing or watching at their tender age. Some shows specially focus on grabbing a teenage eye to get an increasing spike to their ratings. Sex-centric soap operas make the males feel inferior if are still a virgin; as the protagonists in these operas go on a spree to find girls only for sex, the viewer is also hypnotized by the notion that doing something on the same line would make him a true man. This makes the lad realize that he would want to try it out too and that is when he ends up in being a part of the crime.

When lust takes center-stage, age has no importance. Raping a minor is far more hideous than doing it to a mature entity. A minor’s body is not fully functional to be involved in sex. The child is physically as well as mentally unfit for the routine. With that in mind, when a mature individual assaults a minor girl or a minor boy, the length of the penis may be even larger than the width of the child’s body. In addition to this, insane assaulters take fun in plunging in extra things through the child’s body’s openings. All of this could not only make the child bleed or pain-ridden, but could also make its essential parts go dysfunctional too. Post incident, the child would just have to be living under depression and fear for the rest of its life. When a minor boy is involved in sexual crimes, not only is the victim at pain, unknowingly the boy is at pain too. Lack of knowledge on the proper way of having sex as well as the proper medication and prevention to be used would not be known. All of this put the child under the sexually unprepared domain. Young or old, whenever a person is involved in such sexual acts, the person would always be harming the victim (and sometime, himself too); the point here being – a minor boy or a juvenile when involved in rape, would be committing rape itself and there cannot be any other name given to the crime, just because he hasn’t met the adult age (as per the constitution). We need to deal the crime in a similar way or in a stricter manner.

Laws of any just country would permit the victim to register a case against the rapists and get them trialled for their crime. India is no different. But alas! The laws here are controlled by political dumb asses that make laws either based on their selfish motives or as a way of garnering votes. Post December 2012, journalists on every medium have become far more vigilant, by covering rape cases taking place throughout the nation. In addition to Damini’s support, the kind of rapport and stir created by Anna Hazare, few months before, brought the youth and sensitive people to voice against the wrong doings occurring in the county. With so much pressure rising from all sections of the society, a three-member commission, headed by former Chief Justice of India, Justice J.S. Verma, was appointed to review the laws and acts that were in place to curb sexual crimes. The recommendation suggested that punishments for rape should vary based on an individual or a gang’s involvement, if there was an attempt to murder or not, etc. The report not only covered about crimes against women, but also dealt with assaults to homosexuals and transgenders. In a nutshell: the report voiced a full and just investigation, proper professional medical examination and care for the victim providing a life of dignity, security and access to complete justice. Apart from this, the report has had less or no information on how juveniles involved in the crime should be dealt. In such cases, law makers turn towards the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act 2000, which is the primary legal framework for juvenile justice in India. The act provides for a special approach towards the prevention and treatment of juvenile delinquency and provides a framework for the protection, treatment and rehabilitation of children in the purview of the justice system. The JJA is applicable to all people under the age of 18. For sexual crimes, the maximum permissible punishment for a juvenile is three years; during which, the convicts are put into a rehabilitation home to undergo various trainings and courses educating them from refraining to commit such crimes in future.

Saying so, I wonder the number of times a child could commit rape and still get out of it. Considering that a one or two year child would still be learning to stand and walk itself, starting from the third year, hypothetically speaking, if a child shows sexual interests, he commits his first crime at the age of three. As a consequence, three years would be spent into a rehab; at the age of 6 he gets out and is involved in another rape. Next three years again into rehab; next rape at the age of 9 and similarly the next two at the ages of 12 and 15. After this, once the youth is out of his rehab, he would be a major, as per the Indian constitution, and then he could live his life normally. What sense does this make? The child would have already been part of 5 rapes, yet he gets out of it and leads a normal life. Is this what we are portraying to the country’s youth? Rape someone before you are 18 and you get only 3 years of punishment, else stay away from it. Once we have someone being captured by the media for sexual assault, the next moment we see a relative of the accused bringing forth an age proof, showing that the child is a minor, and that it may not be in its full senses when it was doing so, and requesting for a remand in its punishment. WTF!

Verma’s committee mentioned that rape should be retained as a separate offense and it should not be limited to just penetration into the vagina, mouth or anus. Any non-consensual penetration of a sexual nature should be included in the definition of rape. As a child or a minor may always not indulge itself in sex, for all cases, there would be other means of assaulting an individual, where it could be part of. Taking this into consideration, we need to re-think about modifying the age limit of a juvenile and also the punishment’s severity, as per one’s age. The apt age for a juvenile should be considered as 16, where is child is just out of school and would resort itself to peer pressure in trying unethical things. Based on the severity of one’s crime, the punishment could range between 5 to 7 years. This would not just render a strong and stern warning to the entire youth, but would also educate them on the brutality of such crime. It would then be apt to consider that the country’s law makers aren’t childish, immature, irresponsible, babyish, infantile, puerile, or even juvenile!

Blabbering to continue…
Signing off for now,
Blabber-mouth

References –
• http://www.ndtv.com/article/cheat-sheet/recommendations-of-the-justice-verma-committee-10-point-cheat-sheet-321734
• http://www.prsindia.org/parliamenttrack/report-summaries/justice-verma-committee-report-summary-2628/
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Juvenile_Justice_%28Care_and_Protection_of_Children%29_Act,_2000
This is a worth reading article from The Hindu –
http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/lead/justice-cannot-follow-a-tough-act/article5161208.ece?homepage=true