Last Updated on April 13, 2020 by Legalseva.net
A steep decline is clear in the male female ratio in India over the last century. It has declined from 972 females for each 1000 males in 1901 to 927 per thousand in 1991. The northern states show even poorer ratios than the national average. Along with other countries in South Asia, India must hold itself answerable for its missing women.
From cradle to grave there’s a systematic discrimination against women. Nutrition, health care, education are all withheld or provided grudgingly to daughters. Son preference is expressed in deep rooted birth of a girl cultural mores: blessings and rituals at a marriage, foods prescribed for pregnant women, condolences at the child.
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Violent crimes against women are both a continuation of the systematic discrimination against women and its results. The violator feels his acts are socially sanctioned; the evidence is manifest all told that he has witnessed since childhood. Women must be kept in their place; else some great calamity may befall society. The falling sex ratio should be of grave concern to enforcement and criminal justice agencies.
In simple terms who will the additional men find to marry, start a family with, or harass during a domestic relationship? Will it not cause greater street crimes, more harassment of girls in public places, more rape, and more violence in marriage as husbands strive to stay control of the increasingly rare commodity that they need managed to secure?
Looked at in this context an emergency response from law enforcement is nearly mandatory. The experience of the Delhi Police that this paper elaborates is one response that has met with some success. There are many course corrections along the way and it’s clear that the way ahead may involve more .
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ESTABLISHMENT
The Crimes Against Women Cell was discovered in 1983 at a central level within the Delhi Police. It was the first police response meant specifically for ladies in India; and presumably anywhere within the world.
For hitherto, crimes, or other forms of harassment faced by women were handled by the conventional police stations along side other crime and law and order issues.
The need for a gender-specific police response had been felt for some time earlier because of the subsequent reasons:
(i) The status of girls was low and there was little inclination among them to require their problems to
police stations staffed largely by male police officers.
(ii) there have been specific problems that ladies faced because of their low status which couldn’t receive adequate attention from a largely overworked and understaffed police .
(iii) it had been being recognized that a more sympathetic response was needed during this area than it had been
receiving.
(iv) The sensitiveness of the typical policeman when handling a harassed and frightened woman left much to be desired.
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LEGAL CHANGES
The experiences of the Cell outlined above were to possess an immediate contribution in engendering several legal changes between 1983 and 86 and even thereafter. Most important of these was a new provision,
section 498 –A, that was added to the Indian Penal Code. Aiming at violence and harassment for dowry, this provision defines cruelty, physical or mental, within a wedding . Investigation by police with powers of arrest is incorporated and responsibility can reach the husband, his parents or other relatives.
The offence is punishable with up to two years imprisonment. In addition the laws concerning rape were made more stringent with custodial and minor rapes giving rise to presumptions against the accused and leading to harsher penalties.
Some time later a neighborhood on Dowry Death was added. Section 304B IPC made the unnatural death of any woman within seven years of her marriage a subject of investigation by the police and prosecutable if it had been found that the death was attributable to harassment for dowry by her husband or his family. Such a death was also made enquirable by an executive magistrate by introducing changes within the Indian Criminal Procedure Code. It was thereby ensured that no such death would be filed as an accident or suicide without an in depth enquiry.
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Other Activities of the Cell
Although an oversized a part of their time is preoccupied with domestic cases, the cells also act on complaints of harassment , sexual assault , molestation, rape, and other gender related crimes. Investigation of selected cases is haunted by the officers of the Cell, while the progress of other cases registered by them is monitored within the police stations where they are under investigation. The central Cell monitors the functioning of the district cells through periodic evaluations and meetings although these cells are operationally under the control of the supervisors of the districts where they are located. Women complainants have a choice of approaching either the central Cell or one nearer to their homes at the district centres.
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Round the Clock Helpline
A significant service started by the Crimes against Women Cell may be a 24 hour helpline that responds to callers in distress. The helpline number, 1091, is managed by the Police room which receives and manages all demand police help. A caller may directly access the helpline or be diverted from one among the overall 100 services. A Women Police mobile team is out there around the clock at the Crimes against
Women Cell to attend to distress calls received through the helpline or directly within the Cell. The staff
receives continued training in handling distress calls, and are equipped both to initiate criminal action and to supply counselling and other assistance. The team also provides links to emergency support services like shelters and short stay homes, besides offering on the spot counselling and legal advice in needy cases. On an average the helpline receives 11 calls per day, with 4193 calls having been received in 2004.
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Self-Defence Training
One of the most acclaimed projects of the Cell has been the Self Defence Training Camps launched in a major way in 2002. While the focus of such training has been school and college girls, working women and housewives have also volunteered in significant numbers for these camps. The objective of the training is to instill confidence in women and to make them think positive and act quickly in a vulnerable situation. The curriculum includes simple concepts of unarmed combat coupled with the knowledge of using common items that the woman may have on her person such as articles of clothing, bags, books, keys, etc. as defensive weapons. Each module stretches over a period of ten working days with two hours of training per day. After the training accredited non-governmental organizations are invited to interact with the trainees to inform them about their rights and make them legally aware. The programme has trained about 17,000 women so far and is continuing to perform an invaluable service in building police-community relations, and in making women more comfortable and confident in approaching the police with their problems.
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For case specific advice, please call best/top/expert Criminal lawyers advocates of Trial Court Chandigarh Panchkula Mohali Kharar Derabassi Zirakpur (Punjab Haryana).
This post is written by Pranjal Rai.
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