The disturbing rape and murder of a doctor on duty is shaking the nation’s conscience. Suddenly, rape emerges as a widely prevalent phenomenon in India, prompting intellectuals to attribute the occurrence of one rape “every 15 minutes” to the country’s state of democracy, culture, or illiteracy. One movie (Devi) depicting rape makes another statement that “it is ironic that crime rates against women are higher in a nation where nearly 80% of the population worships goddesses.” How is rape correlated to democracy, literacy, or praying to goddesses?
Comparing with other countries, the incidence of rape is much lower in India. The UN Office on Drugs and Crime states that in 2010, the incidence of rape per 100,000 in India was 1.8. Simultaneously, the USA stood at 27.3, the UK at 28.8, Sweden at 65.3, and South Africa at an overwhelming 120. Again, it is only democracies that have a sturdy reporting system and clear definitions of rape. Many countries do not even report rape, and their definitions may differ. That certainly skews the worldwide picture, putting only the countries with a reporting system and strict definitions in the spotlight. The widespread criticism of “under-reporting” for any crime, including rape, is not a problem specific to India. Yet, even if we assume ten times less underreporting in India and absolutely no underreporting in the Western countries, we still have a challenging time catching up with the US, UK, or Sweden.
Rape is a distinct phenomenon with biological roots. One cannot confuse correlation with causation. Sweden has the highest literacy and atheist rates in the world. Can we say that high education or atheism leads to more rapes in Sweden? Could a strong belief in ‘devis’ potentially explain the lower number of rapes in India? Botswana, which is 80% Christian, has a rape rate of 92.9 per 100,000 people. Correlations can lead to all kinds of nonsensical cause-and-effect conclusions.
Rape is a despicable crime, an extension of the obsession of the human mind with sex. The intellect and instinct of the human mind combine at this point of evolution to create a curious mix of the ideal and the base. Sex is the primary evolutionary driver that has propelled humans to the forefront. The association of sex and pleasure exists in other animals too, but is unfortunately very strong in humans. Sex embeds deeply into our genetic make-up. Yet, most people can control or divert the basic instincts, and this may be one of the reasons humans go up a little further on the evolutionary tree. The human mind has consistently strived to reach higher spiritual realms by conquering the urge for sexual activity.
No Act or punishment, including capital, will ever work to stop an act of passion. Only education of individuals and society through the institutions of family, school, and media can make an impact on the attitude of males towards the other half. Unfortunately, as the society is getting fragmented, males and females, or roughly each half of the population, is increasingly standing in opposition to the other half. However, such is the obsession and also the state of human evolution, that rape and murder can never be eliminated in human societies. However, we must improve areas such as women’s safety mechanisms, easy reporting, and quick justice delivery. We are severely deficient in all these areas. There are 100,000 backlog cases awaiting justice in India, and the conviction rate stands at only 32%. Ineffective judicial systems lead to issues with reporting, recording, investigation, security, policing, and conviction. It is perhaps a mistake to bring goddesses, education, or democracy into the discussions about rape.
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