Eliminating India’s rape crimes culture

The recent wave of rape-murders of women citizens across the country from Unnao and Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh to Hyderabad and Ranchi, the thousand unnatural shocks that women are heir to on a daily basis and the helpless outrage of decent society, has like never before exposed the utter intellectual aridity and lack of problem-solving skills of the establishment, academy included – India’s rape crimes culture. Regrettably the country’s leader writers and fire-breathing television news anchors are merely trimming the branches instead of addressing the root causes of gender crimes sweeping the nation. The first of several root causes is rock-bottom official priority accorded to investment in law and order, the primary obligation of government at the Centre and in the states, since independence. The plain truth is that with only 2.25 million ill-trained and ill-equipped police personnel spread across the 3.28 million sq. km subcontinent, India is a seriously under-policed nation. Against the UN recommended norm of 300 police personnel per 100,000 population, data last published by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in 2013 indicates that the Indian norm is 150:100,000 — the fifth lowest among 71 countries for which the office collated data. Moreover of the sanctioned strength of 2.25 million, 47,000 posts are vacant and over 50,000 personnel of the country’s grossly inadequate police force are deployed to guard politicians and VIPs. Against India’s 150 police per 100,000 people, the UK employs 204, Sri Lanka 424, Turkey 524 and USA 969. Little wonder sexual predations by crazed lumpens with easy access to pornography streamed over the Internet (repeated appeals by this publication to block all pornography sites have received no support) against vulnerable women and children are assuming tidal wave proportions. The pernicious problem of severely depleted policing of a subcontinental nation is compounded by the pathetic condition of the judicial system burdened with a world record backlog of 33 million cases. Here again, the primary cause of law’s delay in India’s rape crimes culture is the severe shortage of judges and courtrooms. Although India’s judges-population ratio has risen from a pathetic 17 per million people in 2014 to 20 per million in 2018, this ratio is also way below global norms. China has 144 judges and magistrates per million people, USA 980, Mexico 430 and Egypt 100. These statistics are eloquent testimony that India’s middle class, not excluding the academy, seems totally unaware that substantial investment in the law, order and justice system is the precondition of economic development. The annual investment in the law, order and justice machinery (Centre plus states) is estimated at a mere 3.08 percent of GDP. Yet blame for neglect of law and order cannot be entirely laid at the door of government. Behind the apathy of the Central and state governments is the indifference of India’s greedy, subsidies-addicted middle class which is neither willing to pay market prices for essential goods and services, nor inclined to protest wasteful government expenditure. It is almost certain that anguished…