Rarest of Rare

Written in 2014 after the Nirbhaya incident rocked the nation

As the father of a teenage daughter, I was also eagerly awaiting the court verdict on the Nirbhaya case. Every morning when I read the newspaper, I wonder whether the world around us has suddenly become a dangerous place for women. Or has the media decided to follow these incidents more closely and hence we see more crimes against women getting reported? 

Crimes against women have been prevalent in every part of India for many years but it needed a Nirbhaya to wake up our lawmakers or a Shakti mills incident for the Government of the day to realize the need for creating a strong deterrent to scare away the perpetrators of these horrific crimes. 

And finally it came. The Fast track court had passed the judgement on the Nirbhaya case in a record time of 9 months. The court while pronouncing the judgment said that "It cannot turn a blind eye on the rising cases of sexual assault against women” and that the incident "shook the collective conscience of the society". The court said the case falls under “rarest of rare category” and hence deserves “capital punishment”. 

The whole nation, including the family of the girl, rejoiced. However, I was not one of them. True, the severest of punishment had been meted out, but I was very disturbed by the justification for the sentence. Did the ‘devil in men’s form’ get a death sentence only because Nirbhaya is dead today and that she was subjected to the most gruesome act of violence that one can imagine before she died? 

The whole nation prayed for Nirbhaya’s life during the days after Dec 16. Would the court have passed a different judgement if our prayers had been answered?

I had read a number of articles on this case and listened to a number of debates on National television where every speaker gave their interpretation of the law. Now that the verdict was delivered, I started reflecting on the subject of “crime” as a person who has limited knowledge of the legal system and its nuances. Being a student and practitioner of management, I sub-consciously used some of the principles of management instead. 

An act of crime is likely to cause any one or more of these impacts on the victim:- 

1) Physical 2) Psychological 3) Financial 4) Social

A simple robbery may have a financial impact on the victim whereas the use of force while committing the same crime may also cause bodily harm and hence may cause physical damage. An acid attack, for example, would definitely cause irreparable physical damage but will also have a social impact as the victim’s appearance would be a subject of ridicule in our society. A murder, on the other hand, will inflict the ultimate physical impact on the victim and in many cases, a financial blow for the family. It is also likely to have a psychological impact on the people associated with the victim. 

Let me now come to the severity of the impact. In most cases, a Social impact may be temporary and will gradually lessen over the period of time. A financial loss can be recovered in most cases, if the victim is still physically able. A physical or psychological impact however is often irreparable and causes the most damage which in many cases could also be permanent. 

As with many management scorecards, if we provide a score to the crime based on the severity of the impact, a murder would score high whereas a petty robbery will score low. The severity of the punishment should be in accordance with the score. The higher the score across all the 4 impact parameters, the more severe should be the punishment. 

Where does a rape fall in this so-called scorecard? A rape victim is subjected to physical harm since a person’s very being has been intruded upon. What are the chances of a rape victim getting married? Very low. (Except for a small part of the population, Indian Society is still regressive in this respect). What are the chances of a rape victim’s husband and his family accepting her? Again, very minimal. 

The rape victim has very little chance of being accepted by our still rather regressive society. 

The incident will therefore have a financial impact on her as well. However, the biggest impact will be on her mind, her confidence and self-esteem. Irrespective of the social status of the victim, she will never be the same person again.

Considering that a rape scores high on all the impacts, shouldn’t it therefore deserve the severest of punishment as well? 

Why does the rape have to fall into the ‘rarest of rare category’, which means that the victim should have been killed or should be in coma, for the punishment to be so harsh that it acts as a deterrent? 

Wouldn’t the Nirbhaya case verdict actually have a converse effect? The next ‘devil in man’s form’ will ensure that he does not kill his victim and hence the crime will not fall into the ‘rarest of rare category’ which means that he is likely to get away with a more lenient sentence just like many others have done in the past while his victim carries the trauma throughout her life. 

My intention of using the management jargons was not to trivialise the issue but to relate to it in a better way. 

I sincerely hope that we do not have any more Nirbhayas for the law makers to realize the seriousness of this crime. 

As the father of a teenage daughter, I continue to live in anxiety inspite of the recent court verdict.