6 Steps India Can Take to Help Rape Victims Essay

The outcry everyplace the brutal gang shock of a young woman in New Delhi last month has non plainly brought into focus the erupt of violence against women in India but has alike shone a light on the way the countrys criminal umpire system oft fails featherbed victims. There were 24,206 rapes reported in 2011 by the National hatred Records Bureau, equivalent to one rape every 20 minutes. While galore(postnominal) Indians atomic number 18 calling for changes in the law such as gravid punishment for rapists and new legislation to protect women, many civil rights lawyers disagree. They regularize India has good gender laws already, but they need to be strengthened and enforced. The pastime is a list of six steps India chiffonier crap to check into rape victims receive adequate to(predicate) care and support and that swift justice is delivered, compiled from interviews with legal philosophy, lawyers and human rights activists.1. GENDER SENSITISATION & MORE FEMALE prac tice of law worry most large organisations in the country, Indias jurisprudence force is male-dominated sole(prenominal) 6.5 percent of officers are women. Deep-rooted patriarchal beliefs mean the legal philosophy force, the likes of many other institutions such as government bodies or parliament, is oft seen as insensitive to the issues faced by women. Gender sensitisation preparation as well as increasing the number of female legal philosophy officers in India will help change attitudes within the police force, activists and lawyers say. This would also help ensure victims complaints are treated seriously and sympathetically.2. MORE POLICE ACCOUNTABILITYThere have been numerous cases of girls and women being turned outdoor(a) by the police when they try to report a rape officers do not take the crime seriously or they blame the victim. In many instances, the largely underpaid, overworked police officers have little interest in registering or investigating a gender crime tha t preserve take years to reach judgment. Sometimes, if the accused is powerful or wealthy, police can be influenced into taking no action. Activists say current methods of filing complaints against the police are cumbersome and difficult for the average Indian. A simple weapon should be set up to channel and address public complaints and police should be penalised or suspended if found guilty of dereliction of duty, they add. rede more Analysis of Starbucks coffee company employees essay3. GUIDELINES FOR SUPPORT OF snipe VICTIMSIndia has no formal protocol in place for medical exam or psychological support of victims. They are often not addicted adequate treatment for injuries or infections, let alone counselling. Cases have been reported of traumatised victims who are made to go from one government hospital to another for medical examinations or who are forced to sit for hours in bloodied clothes later the misdemeanour. Activists say there necessitate to be a standard prot ocol across the country to examine and treat rape victims, such as the World Health Organisations guidelines for medico-legal care for sexual assault victims.4. STRENGTHENING RAPE INVESTIGATIONSA failure to invest in the police force has left many officers lacking the expertise and resources required to turn out adequate investigations, resulting in weak evidence and low convictions. Lawyers say the treatment of forensic evidence such as fingerprints, hair or finalise samples a key component in rape cases where the onus lies with the criminal prosecution to prove the rape is often collected, transported and stored in a careless manner. The perfume competencies of the police need to be strengthened and officers must be given training and resources to carry out their work, lawyers say. Standard operating procedures for conducting investigations need to be applied across the country, they add.5. FAST-TRACK RAPE COURTSOne of the biggest impediments to gaining justice for rape victi ms is the lengthy duration of the trials, awyers say. A lack of prosecutors, judges and courts mean that an average rape case can take five to 10 years to light to the judgment stage, leaving victims or other witnesses vulnerable to intimidation or unwilling to pursue such drawn-out court trials. The Delhi gang rape has fuelled demands for special fast-track courts to deal with crimes against women, but some lawyers say not only are such courts costly but that swift justice does not always mean just justice. Some legal experts add that India needs to invest more in the legal and judicial system and centralise on hiring of thousands more judges and prosecutors.6. WITNESS PROTECTION PROGRAMVictims and witnesses can be intimidated by the accused, who in some cases is granted adherence by the court, even though rape is a non-bailable offence. As a result, victims can feel pressured into accepting illegal out-of-court settlements such as a small cash payment. In more extreme instance s, the victims family is pressurised into marrying their daughter to the accused.