A woman who was allegedly gangraped by four men in Bihar’s Araria district went to court for redress on July 10. She was arrested and charged with contempt of court and obstructing public servants from doing their duty. Her alleged crime: raising her voice and refusing to sign the written record of her statement to the magistrate before it was read out to her by two social workers. The 22-year-old reportedly cannot read. The two social workers have also been arrested. All three have been sent to jail 250 km away from Araria.
Multiple levels of institutional failure surround the woman. In the four days since the violent crime, she had been made to repeat her story over and over again to the police. She had no support from her family and no access to a mental health professional. Her identity had been revealed in the local press, violating laws about reporting sexual violence. Finally, she was denied even the right to hear a written statement containing her own words. The court’s action compounds the various ways in which her person and her will have been violated in the last few days.
Sadly, this episode is not an aberration. For thousands of women in India, reporting rape means submitting to an ordeal in the country’s law enforcement systems. The difficulties of getting complaints registered in police stations have been well recorded. After the wave of public anger that followed the Delhi gangrape of 2012, some steps were taken to address these problems. The home ministry promised to ensure that at least one female police officer, not below the rank of head constable, be available round the clock. In 2013, the Supreme Court banned the “two finger test” in medical examinations for rape. These measures are imperfectly implemented – reports show that the harrowing medical test continues in several states. Since women account for just 8.93% of the police force across India, few police stations will have a female constable present round the clock.
But the ordeal does not stop at police stations. Botched investigations mean few convictions for rape. Court hearings drag on for years, prompting many women to drop the cases. The lack of judges in the lower courts are a major cause of delay and Bihar tops the list with 80% vacancies. There is little witness protection, which is vital in cases where the accused are powerful men. Structural problems aside, the courts have failed to recognise the rights and agency of women in far too many judgments. There are comments on the character of the woman, which is weighed against the crime committed on her body. Cases have been dismissed because there were no marks of injury, which is taken to be a sign of consent. Judges have suggested that women marry their rapists and “resolve” the matter.
The 22-year-old woman in Araria, one of the poorest districts in one of the poorest states in the country, is likely to face the worst of these systemic problems. While the woman is in prison, four of the five men she accused of rape are free and not likely to be convicted for years. Cases like this stop women from reporting sexual violence in the first place. Hundreds of lawyers from across the country have already written to the judges of the Patna High Court, calling judicial custody “excessive and harsh given the circumstances”. It is more than that. It goes against basic principles of justice.