Death for rape: On Bengal’s Aparajita Bill
Homes and workplaces must first be made safe for women
The cry for the death penalty after every heinous sexual crime, and governments yielding to it by issuing ordinances or passing Bills, have become fairly commonplace. The criminal laws were amended in 2013 after the brutal rape of a woman in Delhi; subsequently, States including Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Haryana, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Arunachal Pradesh have sought amendments for enhanced punishment for sexual assault. On Tuesday, the West Bengal Assembly unanimously passed The Aparajita Women and Child (West Bengal Criminal Laws Amendment) Bill, 2024, by a voice vote, following the rape and murder of a doctor at a government hospital in Kolkata on August 9 and a persistent clamour for justice. The Bill introduces the death penalty or life-long imprisonment for rape by amending the relevant sections in the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, the new penal code. In fact, death has been sought to be prescribed for five offences — rape; rape by police officer or public servant; rape causing death or sending victim to persistent vegetative state; gang rape, and being a repeat offender. It also amends the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita to provide for special courts to try such offences in a time-bound manner, and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012, to provide for death in cases of penetrative sexual assault and its aggravated form. The President’s assent will be required for the State amendments.
There is little evidence that awarding the death penalty is a deterrent against sexual offences, but the call for more stringent laws after such crimes often evokes an official response. By stating that “rape is a curse against humanity and social reforms are required to prevent such crimes,” Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee herself put a question mark on the need for a Bill that leans on legal sanction rather than seeking a change in societal mindsets. The Justice J.S. Verma Committee had said it was not inclined to recommend the death penalty for rape even for the rarest of rare cases, arguing that “...seeking of [the] death penalty would be a regressive step in the field of sentencing and reformation”. However, death penalty was introduced subsequently for rape of girls under 12 and gangrape of those under 18; but women are far from feeling safer. It is also a tragedy that the cruel death in Bengal has become a political slugfest between the Centre and the State. The onus is on every government to ensure that laws are implemented effectively, and the police work without bias to prevent and punish sexual assault. Justice will be better served if barriers to women’s advancement are removed by first making workplaces and homes safe for them