laws in india – Legal Drift

Male Rapes – Some Myths, Statistics, True Incidents and Legal Insight

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A True Story

Is Rape attempted only on females? I would request you to think again. Male rapes are not fiction created in novels and movies. What happened in Shawshank Redemption can happen to anyone at any place.

Shikhar (name changed) was popular at his college for being a philanderer. He had multiple girlfriends and at age of 22, he had everything a student could aspire for. He shared his room with two of his classmates. His relations with them were not cordial. He had some unresolved issues with them. One night when he was sleeping, he realized that his room mates were tying him to the bed. He was repeatedly raped (sodomised) by both of them that night.

The incident changed Shikhar’s life completely. Even after two years, he hasn’t dated any girl or talked about sex with his friends. The very talk of sex upsets him. He also tried attempting suicide once to get rid of miserable life. Only two of his friends were aware of what happened to him that night, but even they were unable to console him in this situation. Similar to other instances of male rapes, the matter went unreported.

Male Rapes: Some Shocking Statistics

About 10% of rape victims are men. Findings From the National Violence Against Women Survey, US points out that 71% of male victims were first raped before their 18th birthday; 16.6% were 18-24 years old, and 12.3% were 25 or older. U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics (1999) estimated that 91% of rape victims are female and 9% are male Human Rights Watch Report suggests that 22% of male inmates have been raped at least once during their incarceration; i.e. around 420,000 prisoners each year.

History of Male Rapes

In some societies the victorious soldiers were given a right to rape the defeated enemy. The act demonstrated a total control over the defeated warrior. It was believed that whether consensual or forced a male who has carnal intercourse looses his manhood and is thus incapable of becoming a ruler or warrior. Gang Rapes of a male as a punishment was awarded for crimes like adultery in Rome and Violating the sanctity of Harems in Persia and Iran.

Who are the Victims?

Most of the people believe that males are victims of rapes only in jails, prisons and hostels but statistics reveal that these are not the only places where males get traumatized. A large number of males become victim of sexual assaults and forced sodomy in their own houses, pubs and armed forces.

The perpetrators avail the benefit of their victim’s vulnerable condition. A popular notion prevails that a male is supposed to protect himself and if he fails, he has lost his manhood. Like most of the rape victims, these victims start holding themselves responsible to the injustice done to them. The thought that “they have lost their manhood” results in their continuous victimization. Most of them start doubting themselves and may even fail to have healthy sexual lives with their spouses. A very few cases of male rapes are actually reported. The offense is considered difficult to prove and the perpetrators are often acquitted. Out of 852 cases that were reported to police in the UK, only 44 perpetrators were prosecuted. Ironically, the victim who confesses that he had been raped or sexually assaulted is punished by the entire society. The feeling of guilt and shame makes him detest himself and his very existence. The rape is not only committed on his body but also on his mind, soul and spirit.

Indian Penal Code and Male Rape

Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code is the only section that criminalized all acts of carnal intercourse. The section penalizes both consensual and forced sodomy. The minimum punishment awarded of such crimes 10 years which may extend to life imprisonment. The Delhi HC in its leading judgment of Naz Foundation v. Government of NCT and Ors stated that the provisions of Section 377 I.P.C will continue to govern non-consensual penile, non-vaginal sex and penile non-vaginal sex involving minors. Even if the judgment is upheld by the honorable SC, the section can be evoked to punish sodomists, pedophiles and zoophiles.

The only laws that remotely address to the problems of child assault in the country are sections 376, 377 of Indian Penal Code and some sections of the Information Technology Act, 2000. But there is no specific law that can punish pedophiles or can compensate the victims of such events.

The Section 375 of Indian Penal Code does not include males as rape victims. Recently the government decided to amend the definition of rape and replace it with sexual assault instead. They believe that the amendment would give the section a wider jurisdiction and scope. But it is criticized that the proposed amendment would further harm the interests of the rape victims.

Conclusion

It is unfortunate that till now people associate manhood with sexuality. Manhood is not lost by a victim who was sodomized but it is lost rather it does not exist in the perpetrator who committed this heinous act. It is a myth that only gay men commit such crimes. The offender can be bisexual, straight or homosexual. India definitely needs separate laws to deal with male rape or forced sodomy and child assault. Majority of such crimes remain unreported and therefore awareness must be spread in this regard. The benefits availed by female rape victims under the Cr.Pc must be also extended the male victims. Helplines and Online-help can be provided which may prove helpful in providing psychiatric help to them.

Ignoring Male Rapes won’t change anything but accepting it would surely make a difference.

Judiciary Media Social Issues

Does justice look this monstrous?

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Whatever little bit of respect I had for some of the ‘mainstream’ media, is shrouded in agitation today. Almost every channel from one of the acclaimed ‘world-democracy’ flashed the news of ‘ Kasab sentenced to death – justice served’. It is of great misfortune that common brains are being fed with such contaminated views and disdain prevails in our thoughts and comprehensions. I do not want to get into the legal implications of the trial or the verdict and nor the sentence is of much of sensation as almost everyone knew the outcome of the trial. But the larger question seems to be that would we ever be able to see justice beyond injustices and retribution? While I agree that law enforcement has to fulfill its responsibilities to protect the citizens of a country, at the same time I think the civil society of a ‘democratic nation’ should deconstruct the given rhetoric that is made to believe as absolute legal truth and should shed light on the unseen and untold and at least attempt to free the incarcerated notions of justice.

Can justice be this monstrous? I do not think so. There are two debates, the former is the carnage instigated by the so called ‘terrorists’ on 26/11 in Mumbai and the latter is the debate on how to find solutions and solidify the concept of justice for the ones who suffered and the ones who will suffer. However, the enraged, disillusioned and infected brains seem to have sacrificed the latter over the politics of the former. I have to admit that I have no relationship with the person in question, but have huge stakes in how the concept of justice is formed and reformed through misdeeds of individual’s predatory acts. However, if we go beyond the individuals, we will be able to explore the bouts of mistrust, agony and contingent injustices that exist in systems and social spaces in which these individuals are socialized, poised and monopolized.

There is no doubt that we live in the times of increased contentions and violence among diverging agendas and politics, but we are tempted to victimize the victim rather than curbing the agenda and politics that create and recreate violence and culminate the end of humanity. I can never reconcile the two, that by sentencing a young victim, we will scare anyone else who would plan to do the same. Ironically, the same argument can be used by the fathers of terror to attract more young voices in avenge. Indeed, some of our experiences in Afghanistan reveal that militants have been able to gin up support from youth when the youth were emotionally provoked after seeing the injustices and violence of the government systems and their allies.

I could not believe to hear Haroon Hamid of the DAWN Media Group replying to an audience question on NDTV show (6th May 2010) with Barkha Dutt that ‘terrorism is created in Afghanistan and Pakistan is a victim of it as well as India’. I wondered what happened to the media ethics of the news channels that he run, if nothing else matters to him including the truth. He didn’t even try to unravel the systematic, political and social space that gave birth to discontent and violence transformed into terrorism through the weapons of the same system in Pakistan and the region rather than indulging into a merely political blame game. While the political agendas of some groups and factions entail creating terror and monopolize on religious and nationalistic sentiments of masses, there is an enabling environment that embraced and accepts the invitation and both the agenda and the enabling environment have a symmetrical relationship with the terror and violence that we see in Afghanistan, India and Pakistan. Let’s also not forget and not trivialize the dynamics of social spaces in which we live and see others live, that foster reprisal and revolt by witnessing chronic poverty, famine and increased gaps between different members of the same society. The fragmentation of social spaces within the feudal society as a creation of the capitalist market paradigm that embodies injustice and tremendous rage among youth that not only created Kasab but hundreds of Kasabs in the making. However, for sure any struggles to absolve the process would be trying to rupture the status quo, something that the gatekeepers of the feudal society and their political agenda’s will not allow or approve of and we will be getting used to death sentence of one after another and would have accepted that justice is rendered. Unfortunately, the emerging trajectories do suggest that in quest of conformity with the popular imagination of our ‘independent’ media, we will not be able to recognize the just face of justice anymore but will seek satisfaction in more resentment, discontent and retribution.