Ensure women's safety = Ignore men's safety?

Recently Maharashtra Home Minister R R Patil assured all women journalists that the Government would provide them special security when they are out on their job.

Sounds like a populist measure dreamt up without considering the root cause of why crime in the society is on the rise.

Go through the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) report which states that ‘crimes against men are increasing rapidly' and more than 75% of murders reported in this country are against men.

Take a look at the Murder rate of Men vs Women:

Murder: http://ncrb.nic.in/CII-2009-NEW/cii-2009/Table%203.3.pdf

Male Victims-24,441, Female Victims-8,718 Total Victims-33,159

Culpabale Homicide Not Amounting To Murder (Sec.304 and 308 IPC) During 2009

http://ncrb.nic.in/CII-2009-NEW/cii-2009/Table%203.4.pdf

Male Victims=3,529, Female Victims=753 Total Victims=4282

Now we wonder, can a society provide safety to women, while men themselves are not safe? The NCRB report summarized the data of crimes against women and children, but they did not provide any details of crimes against men.

Since 2005, we have been providing the crime and murder data compiled by the NCRB to the Government, but they fed it to the bins as media never showed any concern over the safety of men, which is a need of society.

If you go through the report of "Committee to protect Journalists " and click on Gender, it clearly mentions that 97% of the journalists killed were men.

On August 24th, a Journalist from UP, Mr. Akhilesh, was killed. But there was hardly any protest from the journalists associations or any candlelight vigils by common people of society.

I am really not surprised given the biased approach prevalent in every institution. We have death penalty for murder, but the cases are increasing day by day. It is evident beyond reasonable doubt that increasing the punishment alone won’t help in reducing crime.

When someone commits a crime, what are the chances that he gets caught? Currently the number stands at 10 to 15 per cent on an average.Today the police can trap any innocent law abiding citizen in criminal cases but fails to catch the real criminal for months/years.

Once a criminal is caught the law punishes him for 10 to 12 years and if someone wants to prove his innocence it takes 10 to 12 years. So, the root cause is the failure of our criminal justice system and the police.

More stringent laws mean more power to police/judiciary, which could lead to abuse of power and more corruption. The failure of police to provide safety to Indian men never gets highlighted.

All women activists/media are running behind the women safety issue, like in a desert desperately trying to find a mirage.

History itself states that where men are not safe, dreaming of safety for women is nothing but fooling yourself.

Safety/violence is never a gender issue. Media friends must also understand the pain of a woman when she loses her brother or son or father.

 

https://www.saddahaq.com/politics/mumbairapehorror/does-women-safety--ignore-men-safety 

Consensual sex with minor not a crime, Delhi court says

NEW DELHI: A city court has observed that consensual sex with a girl aged below 18 years does not constitute an offence under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.

The court said the provisions of POCSO Act suggest that where a physical relationship — which is not in the nature of an assault — takes place with the minor girl's consent and where the consent has not been obtained unlawfully, no offence can be said to have been committed.

Rejecting the plea of the police and Delhi Commission for Women that POCSO Act prohibits minors from having any kind sexual relationship, additional sessions judge Dharmesh Sharma said, "I am afraid if that interpretation is allowed, it would mean that the human body of every individual under 18 years is the property of the state and no individual below 18 years can be allowed to have pleasures associated with one's body."

ASJ Sharma, however, urged state authorities to spread awareness related to unsafe sex or early marriage. "But there lies a greater responsibility on all of us, the state including police in spreading and creating public awareness about the impact of girl or boy marrying at a tender age or indulging in unsafe sexual activities," he said.

The court made these observations while acquitting a 22-year-old youth of charges of kidnapping and raping a 15-year-old girl whom he later married. The youth, a native of West Bengal, was acquitted of the charges as the court held that the minor, on her own will, accompanied him and obstacles should not be put in their happy married life.

"As the evidence indicates, they got married voluntarily with their free consent. Hence no case is made out under section 363 (kidnapping) and 366 (kidnapping or inducing woman to compel her marriage) of the IPC," the court said.

"In my opinion, it would neither serve the object of present enactment (POCSO Act) nor the purpose of criminal laws to hold the accused guilty on the ground that he had sexual intercourse with the girl below 18 years," the judge said, adding that it would not be good for the girl if her husband was sent to jail. The POCSO Act treats girls and boys below 18 years of age as minors.

"It is high time that state authorities, its machinery, NGOs and women groups made a determined and sustained endeavour to reach out to all in schools, colleges and residential places, thereby creating public awareness on various aspects of life in case of marriage at a tender age... besides creating awareness amongst adolescents and young adults about the serious psychological and physical health issues that such a relation entails," the court observed.

According to the prosecution, a complaint was filed before the police on March 5 by the minor girl's mother about her daughter going missing since February 26.

The accused was arrested on March 6 and the girl was also recovered from his custody, it said. The girl, in her statement recorded before a magistrate, said she had willingly gone with the accused to his native place in Kolkata and they got married in a temple there and since then they have been living together.

During the trial, the youth told the court that the girl had accompanied him to Kolkata on her own and they got married there but he denied having physical relations with her. The court also noted that the marriage was accepted by the girl's mother. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/Consensual-sex-with-minor-not-a-crime-Delhi-court-says/articleshow/22056783.cms 

Marital stress drives more men to suicide than women

Study blames women for crimes against them

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: At a time when governments are trying to provide more safety to women, a study report prepared by the Institute of Social Sciences, New Delhi, for the state police on various causes for crimes against women seems to be anti-women and regressive. The study cites economic independence of women, their response to crimes against them, dressing pattern, use of mobile phones by youngsters, boundaries of male-female relationships and ignorance on the part of women about their position as the causes, apart from some 50-odd disputable reasons.
The study collected data from 181 victims, 197 police officers, 40 social workers and 44 citizens with the sample size totalling to 462. The report 'Women Victims of Crimes in Kerala 2012-13' was prepared by Dr L Thara Bhai, a research coordinator of the institute. State police chief K S Balasubramanian received the report on Thursday. The office of the state police chief had taken up this initiative during 2012-13 with the help of the institute.

It is claimed in the submitted report that the prescriptive study to find causes also found solutions from public, social workers, police officers and victims themselves. The study gathered information regarding the victims' status after the crime was committed, their recovery and return to normalcy.
The study also found that crime against women is more visible among backward castes and SC/ST families, and 47.27% of the victims are from financially backward homes. "Income of the accused and crimes against women are correlated. Lesser the income, more the hatred towards the women in the family," stated the study that blamed poverty and alcoholism as the main causes for such crimes.
Thiruvananthapuram: At a time when governments are trying to provide more safety, freedom, respect and equality for women, various causes for crimes against women listed out in a study report prepared by the Institute of Social Sciences, New Delhi for the Kerala police are clearly anti-women and regressive.
The study carried out by the prestigious institute for State Police cites economic independence of women, women responding to crimes against them, dressing pattern, use of mobile phones by young girls and boys, cutting boundaries of male- female relationships and unawareness from the part of women of their position, are the causes of growing crimes against women, apart from other 50-odd disputable reasons.
The report 'Women Victims of Crimes in Kerala 2012-13' was prepared by Dr L Thara Bhai, research coordinator of the institute. State police chief K S Balasubramanian received the study report at the police headquarters on Thursday. According to the report, the office of the Kerala State Police Chief took the initiative to conduct a study on women victims of crimes in the state during 2012-13 with the help of the institute.
It is claimed in the submitted report that the 'prescriptive study aimed to find causes and tried to find solutions either from the public, or from the social workers or from the police officers or from the victim themselves and 'gathered information regarding the victims' status after the crime was committed on them and the long process of coming back to normalcy'.
The study also finds that crime on women is more seen among the backward castes and SC/ST families. Majority (47.27%) of the victims have are financially backward homes. 'Income of the accused and the crime on women are correlated. Lesser the income more the hatred to the women in the family,' according to the study that finds poverty coupled with alcoholism as the root causes for crimes in the study.
The data for the study were collected from 181 victims, 197 police officers, 40 social workers and 44 general public coming to a total sample size of 462.

http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2013-08-01/thiruvananthapuram/40960516_1_women-victims-social-sciences-crimes