Recently, an ordinance was passed for mandating death penalty for those convicted for raping minors below the age of 12.
While some have welcomed this, some others have dismissed it as a political gimmick with little deterrent value.
What are the views of the supporters of the ordinance?
The supporters believe that severity of punishment has a direct bearing on the reduction in the reduction in the commission of a crime due to fear.
Rational jurisprudence demands that punishment meted out should be in proportion to the crime.
Rape of a minor below 12 years of age is a heinous crime by any standard that severely damages the child’s physical and psychological wellbeing.
Hence, it is desired to present a more severe punishment to this category of offenders than those involved in other rapes.
The ordinance backers have also stated that debates regarding the same have been around since 2012-13 and hence it is not a knee-jerk reaction.
What are the views of those criticising the ordinance?
People who oppose the ordinance vouch that it is a highly rushed through patchy legislation that will have little consequence on the crime.
They also stress that, as raping a minor and killing him/her would attract the same punishment, this might prompt the offender to murder the victim.
Notably, victims do constitute the primary evidence and their elimination could make the conviction of the perpetrators very difficult.
Additionally, the ordinance route for the bill is said to have bypassed the deserved parliamentary scrutiny, which is crucial to refine its provisions.
Moreover, in a considerable number of cases, the offender is a relative to the victim, and death penalty might put the victim’s side in such cases under a moral dilemma on whether to report the case.
What is the way ahead?
Increasing the severity of punishments hasn’t always led to reduction in crime, and available data suggests that there is no concrete connection between both.
Either ways, just making a law doesn’t change anything unless robust mechanisms are evolved to nail the offenders with surety.
There needs to be considerable improvements in our criminal justice system to ensure that criminals are brought to book through fair and swift trials.
Protection for victims and witnesses needs to improve and more sensitivity needs to be bred into our investigative forces to ease the pressure on victims.
Additionally, there is gross under-reporting of rapes in India due to social stigma, and concerted efforts are needed to overcome this.
