India passes rape law that sets age of consent at 18

By Mark Magnier

March 21, 2013, 9:45 a.m.

REWARI, India -- India passed anti-rape legislation Thursday that included a controversial provision setting the age of sexual consent at 18.

Reformers argued the law, which was passed in a hurried response to public anger over the fatal mid-December rape of a 23-year old physiotherapy student, should set the age at 16 to prevent wrongful arrests in a changing society.

However, conservatives prevailed, fearful a lower age would encourage premarital sex and undermine Indian morality.

The wide-ranging new law also makes stalking, voyeurism, acid attacks and forcibly disrobing a woman explicit crimes for the first time, provides capital punishment for rapes leading to death and raises to 20 years from 10 the minimum sentence for gang rape and rapes committed by a police officer.

The law doesn’t address marital rape, rape committed by the armed forces or rape against men.

The statute, which takes effect once the president signs it, replaces an anti-rape ordinance that was to expire April 4.

"We have tried to bring in a strong law, which is pro-women and will act as a deterrent," Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde told lawmakers Thursday.

The age of consent was fixed at 16 from 1983 until February, when a stop-gap ordinance pushed it up to 18. “Takes Age of Consent Back 30 Years,” said a headline in the English-language DNA newspaper.

Critics say the higher age opens the way for abuses in a society where parents frequently file rape and kidnapping charges against boys who have consensual sex with their daughters, often leading to jail time for the boys or quickly arranged marriages for the girls to “protect their honor.”

In India, there’s often a disconnect between law and practice. The legal marriage age is 21 for men and 18 for women, for example, but 47% of Indian women marry younger than 18, according to a 2012 UN report, more frequently than in Afghanistan or Sudan.

“All these so-called traditional-value people have no problem when children are forced into marriage by their parents,” said Nandita Rao, an attorney. “But they want to criminalize consensual sex. It’s hypocritical.”

Source: http://www.latimes.com/news/world/worldnow/la-fg-wn-india-rape-law-18-20130321,0,3586020.story

Bitti Mohanty sings, confesses to rape

Published: Monday, Mar 11, 2013, 9:30 IST | Updated: Monday, Mar 11, 2013, 14:03 IST 
By M Raghuram | Place: Kannur | Agency: DNA

This small-town police station in the centre of God’s own country is now basking in the glory of arresting Bitti Mohanty, the rapist and fugitive who was on the wanted list of the Rajasthan police ever since he jumped the parole on November 5, 2006, in the case of raping a German national.

Mohanty is facing the charges of impersonating and cheating, under sections 419, 420, 458 and 471 of the IPC. He has been lodged in the Kannur district central jail. “The Rajasthan police will have to claim his custody from the court and the police will only give security in the case of transfer according to the court order,” director general of police, Kerala, KS Balasubramanian, told DNA.

The Kerala police may get to grill Bitty only after the Rajasthan police do so in the case of the rape of a German woman. It was in Alwar, Rajasthan, in 2006 that he had committed the act. The Rajasthan police is likely to claim his custody on Monday. Sources in Payyangadi police station said they have to notify the jurisdictional station head about the transfer or claim.

In his statement to the Kannur police, Mohanty confessed to raping the German woman and hiding in Andhra Pradesh. He said he stayed in Puttaparthi and got trained for appearing in the bank examinations.

Source: http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_bitty-mohanty-sings-confesses-to-rape_1809674

Further attacks on women in Delhi raise doubts over crackdown Incidents follow measures such as fast-track courts after gang rape and murder of student sparked outcry

• Jason Burke in Delhi
• guardian.co.uk, Thursday 7 March 2013 13.17 GMT

Indian women protest in New Delhi after the gang rape and murder of a student in December. Photograph: Dar Yasin/AP

A recent spate of attacks on women in Delhi has renewed fears over the safety of women in the Indian capital and raised doubts over the efficacy of reforms introduced since the gang rape and murder of a 23-year-old physiotherapy student in the city last December.

Two women are reported to have been raped by multiple attackers in moving cars in separate incidents in recent days. A third woman was robbed and then raped by two men after taking a motorised rickshaw in the satellite city of Ghaziabad at the weekend.

Four victims under 18 were also assaulted in incidents reported to the police over the past four days, according to local media. Only a fraction of such attacks are ever reported in India.

The gang rape and murder in December shocked the nation. Tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets in India calling for widespread legal and policing reforms as well as a wholesale shift in cultural attitudes towards women.

A series of measures – such as fast-track courts for sex crimes, harsher punishments for convicted offenders and gender training for policemen – have been introduced since the attack by authorities. The government was heavily criticised for its early lack of sympathy for protesters.

The finance minister last week announced a new fund of £120m to improve the safety and empowerment of India's women.

But reporting a 124% rise in reported rape cases in Delhi since the attack and a nearly sixfold rise in cases of harassment, the Hindustan Times newspaper said "the harsh reality is Delhi hasn't changed for the better, it has become worse".

Police officials say the rise is the result of officers taking complaints more seriously and a broader awareness in the city of what constitutes harassment. Five men and a juvenile are on trial for the attack on the student in December, which took place in a private bus moving on crowded roads on a Sunday evening.

The adults accused face the death sentence if convicted. Experts have suggested a variety of causes for the new wave of violence against women ranging from stereotypes of aggressive masculinity projected by Bollywood films to a clash of cultures as millions of men raised in rural areas arrive in cities where women enjoy greater freedoms. Conservatives blamed "westernisation", opposing a broadly rural, supposedly authentic India with an increasingly urban, globalised one.

Recent research in Delhi has revealed more mundane causes for high levels of violence and harassment. The lack of safe public transport in Indian cities is one major factor with "eve teasing", as sexual harassment is euphemistically known, endemic on overcrowded buses. A lack of toilet facilities in slum areas which forces tens of millions of women to use open ground at night is another.

A commission set up to examine possible measures to combat the wave of violence against women received tens of thousands of suggestions from the general public. In the southern state of Kerala officials areconsidering the distribution of "electronic bangles" which could send a signal to the nearest police station in the event of an assault.

There are some signs of change. Jason Temasfeld, an activist campaigning against sexual harassment in India's commercial capital of Mumbai, said there had been a "drastic change" in awareness in recent months. "Women know much more what to do and about their rights. And other people are much more vocal in reacting to harassment when they witness it. Even the police are more responsive," he told the Guardian.

The victim of the December attack was dubbed "Nirbhaya" or "the fearless one" by media in India for fighting back during the assault and for recording a statement despite massive internal injuries before she died. She will be posthumously awarded the US state department's international women of courage award on Friday by Michelle Obama, it was announced earlier this week.

Statistics: Rape Conviction Rates Across India

By Saptarishi Dutta and Aditi Malhotra

A graphic showing the conviction rate of rape cases in India in 2011. 

A “Rape Map of India,” posted on India Real Time Thursday looked at the number of reported rape cases in India in 2011.

Today, we are adding data from the National Crime Records Bureau on the rate of conviction in rape cases in each state around the country. Some 15,423 rape cases were decided countrywide in 2011.

Of the total number of cases that made to court, the overall rate of convictions stand at 26.4%, or 4,072 convictions while 11,351 acquittals were recorded. These included cases pending from previous years as well.

In 2010, 14,263 cases of rape were decided, with the accused being convicted in 3,788 cases, or 26.6%.

According to the data, the small northeastern state of Manipur recorded a 100% conviction rate in rape trials in 2011.

India is far from unique in its overall conviction rate, which many activists deplore as low. This 2008 Washington Post story looks at the low rape conviction rate in the U.K.

Note: The graphic excludes Andaman & Nicobar and Lakshadweep Islands. 

Source: http://blogs.wsj.com/indiarealtime/2013/01/04/statistics-conviction-rates-for-rape-across-india/