Meanwhile: India's women seek 'people's justice' Siddharth Srivastava International Herald Tribune Wednesday, December 1, 2004
NEW DELHI What should be the penalty for rape? Opinions in India vary from hanging to life imprisonment to castration. But the women of Nagpur, a city in central India, have devised a different method to mete out justice. Fed up with delays in the judicial process, police inaction and fear of being victimized again by alleged rapists who procure easy bail from court, they have decided to take the law into their own hands. . Last month, in the third such incident, women from the slums of Nagpur attacked alleged rapists whom they say were walking free from court, often with the connivance of the authorities. A mob dominated by 50 women, led by a rape victim, burned down the houses of the three alleged rapists who had reportedly attacked residents with impunity for months. The accused were lucky to get away alive. . The razing of the alleged rapists' homes followed a series of high-profile cases that began in August, when Akku Yadav, a gang leader who faced 24 criminal charges, including murder, was stabbed and stoned to death in a court by a mob led by women. According to the women, he had raped young girls and pregnant women and sent his henchmen to extort money. Despite repeated arrests, Yadav walked out of jail each time and continued to terrorize the neighborhood. Local people feared he would be released on bail again. The police detained five women after the attack but released them after more than 400 women occupied the courtroom. . In another case in Nagpur in October, two men accused of extortion and sex abuse were killed after demanding that a local woman hand over cash. When she refused they tried to strip her. Both were killed by a group of women armed with sticks and stones. . There has been local support for the women. "We have all waited for the police to act, but nothing happens. The molestations and rapes go on and nobody does anything," said Madam Chandra, a women's rights activist in Nagpur. A report by a former top police officer in Nagpur blamed his former colleagues for a serious failure in law enforcement. More than 100 prominent lawyers based in Nagpur have issued a statement saying the women should not be treated as the accused, but as the victims. According to them, while it was wrong for the women to take the law into their own hands, the courts should also look into the spirit of their actions and the circumstances that forced these women to kill. . The incidents in Nagpur have led to a public debate on vigilantism and the state of India's justice system. The statistics are stacked against women who seek to have their rights protected by India's authorities. The judicial system is bursting at the seams, with more than 20 million cases waiting to be heard in various courts. The conviction rate in rape cases is 4 percent. It is estimated that more than 50 percent of rape cases are not reported in India because of fear of retribution, fear of being ostracized by a mostly traditional Indian society, and the insensitive attitude of the police and judiciary in dealing with rape cases. . Some experts say the failure of the judiciary and police inaction are the two main reasons for the "people's justice" at Nagpur. Many women's rights advocates, including Poornima Advani, head of the national commission for women, have come out in defense of Nagpur's women. . Last month, a senior lawyer, Arvind Jain, called upon girl students not only to learn self-defense, but also never to hesitate in killing a man who tries to rape, because in India fighting a case against a rapist was far more difficult than fighting a case of murder in self-defense. . "Believe me, if 10 to 20 Nagpur-like incidents happened in this country, rape cases would come down drastically," Jain said. . 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