Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse or other forms of sexual penetration carried out against a person without that person’s consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abusive of authority, or against a person who is incapable of giving valid consent, such as one who is unconscious, incapacitated, has an intellectual disability or is below the legal age of consent. The term rape is sometimes used interchangeably with the term sexual assault.
What is a social issue? It is kind of an aspect of the society that people are anxious about and would like it to be replaced. Many people may tell that rape is a personal issue but is it really a personal issue? Rape crime is one of the darkest parts of the society and it may be a single crime but it makes people hold down their lives with so much fear that it cannot be called a personal issue as it is related to the society too and it is indeed affecting the society in many scandalous ways. One rape incident can bring about fear in the hearts of a thousand other people, thus affecting society.
Rape takes place for many different reasons. It totally varies from person to person, as in rapists to rapists. One such reason is an anger rape. This is when the rapists’ goal is to degrade, demean and wound their victim. This maybe because the rapist has any conflict against the victim and the person thinks that raping is the ultimate crime they can execute against the victim.
Anger rape is portrayed by physical brutality and over here, much more physical force is used.
Considering India, in India, there are large number of cases when rapes happen because the victim, the girl, refuses to marry the rapist, the man. So, just because the girl refused the proposal the rapist takes such a bold step to rape the girl to ruin her dignity, or to some extent, ruin her life.
There are sayings that the girls should not wearing exposing clothes and this leads to rape and a lot of Indians seem to believe in this. Rapes basically happen because of poor mentality of the rapists, disgusting thoughts and absolutely gruesome intentions. According to statistics, in India there are 945 females per 1000 males as the total male population in India is 69.6 crore and total female population is 65.2 crore. This shows that India is a male dominated country and thus almost all the rapes are carried out by men and the victim, a woman.
According to statistics, rape is the fourth most common crime against women in India. According to the National Crime Records Bureau 2013 annual report, 24,923 rape cases were noted across India in 2012. And very surprisingly, 24,470 of them were executed by someone known to the victim, which is astonishingly 98% of the cases. And according to reports the numbers are only increasing, and there’s no sign of stopping. But along with this, this has to be kept in mind that, no all the rapes that take place are reported or recorded. A lot of the times, this happens that the rapist threatens the victim, that if they go to the police and report against him, then there will be consequences or even death threats. So if all the rape incidents were recorded, the numbers would be much more than what it is now.
There are number of reasons why rape is more likely to take place in somewhere like India. Lack of respect for women is one reason and just like it was said in the earlier paragraph that India is a male dominated country so lack of respect for women is meant to be there and this is absolutely outrageous. India has a rotten judiciary and police system. One can easily bribe the police and the laws are not followed properly and this leads to more crimes, including rapes. India is home to the largest population of uneducated adults in the world which is 287 million, amounting to 37% of the total population and this is one reason too. The lack of knowledge and values can be a reason for men to take such bold steps of raping someone. The cowardliness of the people in India and their backward mentality are also reasons for why rape is an increasing crime in India. There are cases where people were witnessing the rape but did not do anything about it and this is a really shameful behaviour.
One of the most popular rape incidents in India is the Delhi gang rape of a girl whose name has been dubbed as Nirbhaya. Nirbhaya was a 23 year old paramedic student, and on 16th December 2012, she was travelling in a bus with her male friend in the city of Delhi. She was going back home after watching a movie. In the bus, she was gangraped and ruthlessly abused by six men, out of which one of them was a juvenile. She was in the worst condition possible and was injected a wheel jack handle right into her genitals which impaired her abdomen and intestine. She was taken to Singapore for treatment, but on the 29th of December, 13 days after the incident, she passed away. This incident stunned the whole of India and made international headlines.
Another incident is the one where a 28 year old woman was raped infront of her three year old daughter by a bus driver and conductor in the state of Uttar Pradesh in 2016. The girl hid herself in a corner and witnessed the whole incident and her younger brother was killed. This incident has been announced more frightening than the Nirbhaya incident and this shook the whole country and questioned the safety of women all over India.
Rapes crimes are gradually increasing in India due to the westernization of the young generation. Indians believe this has a huge role in the increasing number of crimes and rapes. In India, bars and nightclubs businesses are expanding and this is causing or provoking the young generation to drink more and more and stuff like liquors or weed are making them mentally incapable of thinking or doing the right thing and this is also considered a reason for increasing number of rape crimes. Pornography is spreading all throughout the young generation and they are getting more and more influenced by it and are taking such bold steps of raping someone.
Rape is indeed a social issue and measures should be taken for the prevention of rape. Everyone should take responsibility of stopping a crime like this if they can see it happening in front of them. Rules should be applied for drinking, since drinking increases aggression, and it increases the chances of rape. Rape is considered a psychological issue so sex education should be introduced at schools so that the young generation will grow up knowing about it and will not think about something as abominable as rape. The awareness of rape culture should be spread all though out the country and legal actions should be taken for any rape of even eve teasing crimes so people will think a thousand times before raping someone.
A single rape incident can influence thousands of other rapes, and can bring about fear in the minds of millions. Yes, it is true that there are times where men get raped too but in India, it’s mostly women getting raped, either by one man or by groups. About 92 women are raped in India every day, and the statistics justify the statement. It will be wrong to say that the clothing of women influence men to feel the lust and cause a mishap like this, because everyone, both men and women should have their own rights and own choice of what they want to wear. They also have their own right in choosing who they want to have sexual encounters with so it is absolutely wrong to force someone to have intercourse with you without their consent. Rape should be prevented and stopped to make the lives of everyone safer and make the society a better place to live in.