Nothing less than capital punishment for rape

Rape is not just a physical violation, it’s a mental abuse that leaves scars that run deep, so deep that the victim struggles with it for the rest of her life and this is simultaneously followed by a struggle with our own judgmental society which somehow feels that there must be a fault with the woman getting raped. It must be the way she dressed, the way she acted or the way she carried herself.
In a country like India, the real struggle starts after the victim experiences a horrible violation of her body. It starts at the police stations where at times they are shamed and sometimes even denied an F.I.R. This is followed by cruel questioning from the family and then the society.
Even if it was her choice, why was she out at late hours?
What was the need to party with male friends?
And why couldn’t she properly cover her body?
These questions are faced by the victims for the rest of their lives and at the same time rape becomes a blot on the victim’s character, it gets tougher for them to find a suitable match which in most of the cases forces them to settle for someone much lesser than they actually deserve.
Unlike homicide where a person acted without thinking or committed a crime out of instant anger, rape is done to satisfy a desire, a desire which could have easily been overcome, it is done for physical pleasure which is derived from a victim’s misery and pain. Although The Criminal Law Amendment 2013 / Anti-rape Act which was a result of mass protests after Nirbhaya rape incident directs at least seven years of rigorous imprisonment to life term for rapists but it still has failed to bring down the incidents of Rape.
From 24,923 rape incidents in 2012 to 34,651 reported cases in 2015, year by year our country has been experiencing a steep rise in rape incidents. With an average of 94 reported rape incidents per day, the law seems to be a total failure against prevention of rapes. In a patriarchal society like India where a rape victim has to go through horrible pains for the rest of her life, an incident of rape definitely deserves a capital punishment.
(Written by Md Mubashshir Naseer Engineer, Writer, A social media activist and an aspiring traveller.)

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