SEXUAL ASSAULT CUM RAPE IN INDIA

Rape is now very common in our country. Crime against women, India takes the position of 7th which is very worst. The study, based on annual reports of the National Crime Records Bureau, said a majority of such crimes were reported between 2012 and 2018. The report classified rape offenses into five categories, including premeditated assault on an indecent woman, rape, indecent assault on a woman, attempted rape, murder-rape and gang rape. The NCRB reported 59,945 cases in 2001, rising to 133,836 in 2018.
 
While Bihar reported the fewest cases, with a rate of 1.8 per 100,000 women and girls, Odisha topped the list with 49.4 cases per 100,000 women and girls in 2018 . .The rape-related crime rate in Delhi has nearly doubled compared to the other states since 2012 before stabilizing at 49.3 per 100,000, the report added. “We have seen a significant 70.7% increase in rape offenses between 2001 and 2018.We know that after the Nirbhaya case, the number of sex crime cases increased. It is important to note that the NCRB data is based on police data, or FIRs, recorded for crimes.

It is very difficult to say how much of this rate increase is due to an increase in notifications and how much the actual increase is. Reporting such cases is the responsibility of both the victim and the police who record the FIRs. Sexual harassment and rape are facets of the equal coin. Both show off the energy of guy to dominate that of ladies. Both have one sufferer- ladies. Both are barbaric in nature; however many humans extenuate sexual harassment to rape, simply due to the fact the sufferers aren't bodily harmed. Whereas in rape- the sufferer is ravished like an animal for the success of choice and lust of some other guy. Both have the equal object- to undermine the integrity of the sufferer, bodily in addition to mentally. Sexual harassment is not anything much less than the showcasing of male dominance. Given an opportunity, such men (the ones committing sexual harassment) might strive gratifying their choice. The query isn't always whether or not ladies have the proper to physical integrity, as this property is already adumbrated beneath Article.21 of the Constitution of India. These statistics relate to reported cases. On the other hand, if one were to include unreported figures, it would be a matter of seconds rather than minutes. Investigation of most of the cases are not reported by the victims for various reasons such as: Family pressures, the way the police operate, the excessively long and unfair process and the application of the law; and the resulting consequences.

In cases where women have reported this type of illegal and undesirable behavior, there have been significant wins over the past decade. Rupan Bajaj filed a lawsuit against him, despite public opinion that he was overdoing it, along with attempts by all senior state officials to quash the matter.It was in 1997 in Vishaka vs. State of Rajasthan and others that sexual harassment was first explicitly and legally defined as an unwelcome sexual conduct or gesture, either directly or indirectly as any other unwelcome physical, verbal or non-verbal conduct that is sexual in nature. In this landmark case, sexual harassment was identified as an unlawful conduct in its own right. The determining factor in sexual harassment is the unpleasantness of the behavior.CJ, on behalf of Sujata Manohar and B. Kirpal, JJ. , in response to a written petition from Vishaka, an NGO working for gender equality through PIL, calling for the application of women workers' fundamental rights under this article. 21 of the Constitution. The Supreme Court, in the absence of an enacted law (which is still missing, apart from the Supreme Court guidelines listed below) to ensure the effective application of the fundamental human rights of gender equality and the guarantee against sexual harassment, established the following guidelines:

1. Every employer with responsibility for a workplace, whether in the public or private sector, must take reasonable measures to prevent sexual harassment, without prejudice to the generality of its obligation, must take the following measures:
 

a) Express prohibition of sexual harassment. Harassment that involves physical contact and advances, requesting or requesting sexual favors, comments of a sexual nature, display of pornography, or other unwelcome physical, verbal, or non-verbal conduct of a sexual nature must be reported, posted, and disseminated appropriately.

b) Government agency and public sector rules and regulations relating to conduct and discipline should include rules prohibiting sexual harassment, and those rules should provide appropriate penalties for the perpetrator.

c) In relation to private employers, steps should be taken to incorporate the above prohibitions into the provisions of the Industrial Employment Act (Regulations) 1946. Also ensure that there is not a hostile environment towards women and that no woman has reasonable grounds to believe that she is disadvantaged in relation to her employment.If such conduct constitutes a specific criminal offense under the Indian Penal Code or any other law, the employer must take appropriate action in accordance with the law by filing a complaint with the relevant authority. Victims of sexual harassment should be able to request a transfer from the perpetrator or their own transfer. As determined by the Supreme Court, these guidelines apply to:
 

a) the employer or other responsible persons or other institutions to prevent sexual harassment and to provide procedures for the resolution of complaints;
 
b) Women who receive a regular salary, receive honoraria or work as volunteers in the government, private or organized sector are within the scope of these guidelines. The explicit ban on sexual harassment must be communicated and disseminated. Include prohibition of sexual harassment in state and public rules and regulations.Incorporation of the prohibition of sexual harassment into the provisions of the Industrial Labor Act (Regulation) 1946 by private employers.

2. Employers must set up a complaints committee chaired by a woman; half of the members must be women. The grievance committee should also include an NGO or other organization familiar with sexual harassment.The complaints procedure must be limited in time. The confidentiality of the complaints process must be preserved. The complainant or witnesses shall not be harassed or discriminated against in dealing with complaints. The committee is required to submit an annual report to the relevant government body and also report on the actions taken to date (if any). Entrepreneurs must support victims of sexual harassment by outsiders or third parties.Sexual harassment should be discussed at workers' meetings, employer-employee meetings and other appropriate forums.

Sexual violence can happen to any soul, no matter what your age is, your sexual attitude, or your gender identity. We usually perceive and see harassment or rape cases related to females only and this is the reason that legislations are made only for the women victims.

Investigating sexual harassment is a multifaceted task as there are differences in opinions, perceptions, knowledge and social environments of individuals and groups.
 
It is also very uncomfortable to study the malleability of how a person expresses sexual harassment. The first thing to note is that when it comes to sexual harassment, the victim and perpetrator can be either gender, and the location of the harassment can be any school, office, home, university, training center, or anything else.
 
Furthermore, with the advent of the internet, sexual harassment has increased since it takes place online. According to 2014 PEW research statistics, 25% of women and 13% of men aged 18-24 have experienced online sexual harassment.You can't ignore the statistics of male harassment. Sexual harassment of women in India has many laws and statutes. But we also cannot ignore sexual harassment of men. This report would deal specifically with sexual harassment and rape between women. The investigator would also investigate sexual harassment of men in various locations .The analysis would then further discuss case law and the need to make sexual harassment and rape laws gender neutral.

The author has concluded the note at the end, presenting his proposals to address the threat of male sexual harassment.

We usually see cases of molestation or rape that only affect women, and that's why laws are only made for female victims. However, this does not mean that men are exempt from the evil of sexual harassment or rape. Men are also affected by a deterioration in every tenth case today. Men and boys who have been sexually molested may have many of the same feelings as other sexual assault survivors, but face many additional challenges due to "social ridicule" and "stereotypes" about men's masculinity. Although sexual harassment of women has steadily decreased in recent years, the government in India has enacted some very effective legislation. Nowadays, the main area where men face this evil is their workplace.


 
Bullying in the workplace is carried out for the most part by male colleagues or supervisors.
 
In workplaces, female bosses sometimes asked male colleagues to lift their shirts and flex their muscles, and yelled at them and humiliated them in front of their colleagues. This type of execution drives male partners to become victims of sexual assault and harassment. In workplaces, men are sometimes mentally tortured for the sake of their work .If a man needs a job and has no other replacement, then while he should not accept sexual advances, he should accept them from female or male colleagues. But this kind of brutal incident not only ruins the victim's body but also destroys his soul. Sexual harassment in the workplace also includes rape, which can be female-to-male or male-to-male. In addition to offices or workplaces, male rape is therefore also very common in prisons, schools, training centers and sometimes in the home. However, due to a lack of law or legislation, these rape cases go unreported.The first real question to ask is who protects men from sexual harassment. In India, the laws speak only of sexual harassment and rape of women. There is no law or statute protecting men from bloody molestation and rape. Under Indian law, there is only one Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code that speaks of 'buggery'. With the exception of this section, all other laws and sections are for women only. When we talk about India, we emphasize that great importance is attached to people's rights, but why is the “right to equality” violated?
 

Our judiciary, society and Indian laws speak of equal rights and equal treatment of men and women. But unfortunately, these kinds of loopholes and deficiencies in the legislation on sexual harassment, sexual assault or rape show an absolute violation of the “right to equality”. Sexual harassment of men requires more intent than any other crime or escalation problem, as workplace suicides among men are four times higher than among women, gender-neutral laws have been accepted in approximately 77 countries around the world, including the US.K., Denmark, Australia, United States and many more. But worryingly, the Indian Parliament has repeatedly refused to make sexual harassment laws in India gender-neutral. This problem of male sexual harassment is more common in prisons. The People's Civil Liberties Union said of Tihar in 1981: “When a child comes in, the prisoners are known to have offered a prize for the child. Therefore, without further discussion or hesitation, it is quite relevant to make sexual harassment and rape laws in India gender-neutral.
 

Furthermore, people in our society need to change and adjust their mindset and get rid of the belief that men are strong and cannot be raped or that they can protect themselves if something bad happens to them. Sexual harassment can happen to anyone, any age, anywhere. With ample voices calling for protecting men from this brutal act, it's hard to ignore the desire to do so; and thereby ensure that effective legislation emerges. While we recognize that harassment isn't always a one-way street, it's important to remember that most traffic is one-way, meaning most people see harassment against women. There is a need to raise the issue of male sexual harassment with government, society, etc. There is a call for “equal access to justice” for men and women. This requires the government and legislature to enact laws protecting men from various types of molestation, aggression or rape, and so on. The main area that needs to be addressed is sexual harassment in the workplace.


 
There is also a need to educate and raise awareness of such bullying among students or children. Men should be included in the Sexual Harassment at Work Act 2012 as soon as possible. In addition, some specific sections should be added to the Indian Penal Code to protect harassment against men. Like, we only have 1 section in the Indian Penal Code that relates to bestiality. Also, there is an urgent need to change the mentality of the people in Indian society who believe that a man is not made to cry and only a woman cries.
 
Acts like bullying attacks the soul and it doesn't matter if the soul belongs to a man or a woman, bullying kills the soul and puts a person in a state where they begin to reflect that they are worthless.
 
Furthermore, it is also very important to point out that harassment of any human being is wrong, since we are all human first, male and female second.
 
For the benefit of mankind, it is a very brutal act and both male and female perpetrators should be punished equally under the law.
 
For this reason, the question of whether harassment of women or men deserves more attention is irrelevant.So my concern in addressing this issue is to give male victims the same rights as women and invoke laws that provide "equal access to justice in India".

Conclusion

The rape-related crime rate in Delhi has nearly doubled compared to the other states since 2012 before stabilizing at 49. 3 per 100,000, the report added. “We have seen a significant 70. 7% increase in rape offenses between 2001 and 2018. We know that after the Nirbhaya case, the number of sex crime cases increased. It is important to note that the NCRB data is based on police data, or FIRs, recorded for crimes. Reporting such cases is the responsibility of both the victim and the police who record the FIRs. Sexual harassment and rape are facets of the equal coin. Both are barbaric in nature; however many humans extenuate sexual harassment to rape, simply due to the fact the sufferers aren't bodily harmed.Whereas in rape- the sufferer is ravished like an animal for the success of choice and lust of some other guy. Sexual harassment is not anything much less than the showcasing of male dominance. The query isn't always whether or not ladies have the proper to physical integrity, as this property is already adumbrated beneath neath Article. 21 of the Constitution of India.

These statistics relate to reported cases. Investigation of most of the cases are not reported by the victims for various reasons such as: Family pressures, the way the police operate, the excessively long and unfair process and the application of the law; and the resulting consequences. In cases where women have reported this type of illegal and undesirable behavior, there have been significant wins over the past decade. State of Rajasthan and others that sexual harassment was first explicitly and legally defined as an unwelcome sexual conduct or gesture, either directly or indirectly as any other unwelcome physical, verbal or non-verbal conduct that is sexual in nature. In this landmark case, sexual harassment was identified as an unlawful conduct in its own right. The determining factor in sexual harassment is the unpleasantness of the behavior. CJ, on behalf of Sujata Manohar and B. , in response to a written petition from Vishaka, an NGO working for gender equality through PIL, calling for the application of women workers' fundamental rights under this article. The Supreme Court, in the absence of an enacted law (which is still missing, apart from the Supreme Court guidelines listed below) to ensure the effective application of the fundamental human rights of gender equality and the guarantee against sexual harassment, established the following guidelines:

1. Every employer with responsibility for a workplace, whether in the public or private sector, must take reasonable measures to prevent sexual harassment, without prejudice to the generality of its obligation, must take the following measures: a) Express prohibition of sexual harassment. Harassment that involves physical contact and advances, requesting or requesting sexual favors, comments of a sexual nature, display of pornography, or other unwelcome physical, verbal, or non-verbal conduct of a sexual nature must be reported, posted, and disseminated appropriately. b) Government agency and public sector rules and regulations relating to conduct and discipline should include rules prohibiting sexual harassment, and those rules should provide appropriate penalties for the perpetrator. Also ensure that there is not a hostile environment towards women and that no woman has reasonable grounds to believe that she is disadvantaged in relation to her employment. If such conduct constitutes a specific criminal offense under the Indian Penal Code or any other law, the employer must take appropriate action in accordance with the law by filing a complaint with the relevant authority. Victims of sexual harassment should be able to request a transfer from the perpetrator or their own transfer. We usually perceive and see harassment or rape cases related to females only and this is the reason that legislations are made only for the women victims.

According to 2014 PEW research statistics, 25% of women and 13% of men aged 18-24 have experienced online sexual harassment. You can't ignore the statistics of male harassment. This report would deal specifically with sexual harassment and rape between women. The investigator would also investigate sexual harassment of men in various locations. The analysis would then further discuss case law and the need to make sexual harassment and rape laws gender neutral. We usually see cases of molestation or rape that only affect women, and that's why laws are only made for female victims. Although sexual harassment of women has steadily decreased in recent years, the government in India has enacted some very effective legislation.

In workplaces, men are sometimes mentally tortured for the sake of their work. If a man needs a job and has no other replacement, then while he should not accept sexual advances, he should accept them from female or male colleagues. Sexual harassment in the workplace also includes rape, which can be female-to-male or male-to-male. In addition to offices or workplaces, male rape is therefore also very common in prisons, schools, training centers and sometimes in the home.

In India, the laws speak only of sexual harassment and rape of women. There is no law or statute protecting men from bloody molestation and rape. Our judiciary, society and Indian laws speak of equal rights and equal treatment of men and women. Sexual harassment of men requires more intent than any other crime or escalation problem, as workplace suicides among men are four times higher than among women, gender-neutral laws have been accepted in approximately 77 countries around the world, including the US, Denmark, Australia, United States and many more. But worryingly, the Indian Parliament has repeatedly refused to make sexual harassment laws in India gender-neutral. Therefore, without further discussion or hesitation, it is quite relevant to make sexual harassment and rape laws in India gender-neutral. Furthermore, people in our society need to change and adjust their mindset and get rid of the belief that men are strong and cannot be raped or that they can protect themselves if something bad happens to them. There is a need to raise the issue of male sexual harassment with government, society, etc. This requires the government and legislature to enact laws protecting men from various types of molestation, aggression or rape, and so on. In addition, some specific sections should be added to the Indian Penal Code to protect harassment against men. For this reason, the question of whether harassment of women or men deserves more attention is irrelevant.

So my concern in addressing this issue is to give male victims the same rights as women and invoke laws that provide "equal access to justice in India".

This article is written by Rashmi Jha of Galgotias University.