India Slowly Starts to Combat Rape Culture With Legislative Recommendations
LatestAfter receiving more than 80,000 suggestions after last month’s fatal gang rape, an Indian government panel recommended today that the country update and more strictly enforce its sexual assault laws as well as resolve to fast track rape trials. It’s a very necessary start, but still just the beginning.
Here are some of the panel suggestions from the AP:
The panel recommended that police and other officials who fail to act against crimes against women be punished. It called for a crackdown on dowry payments to enhance women’s status, since families are often forced into massive debt to get their daughters married. It also suggested the government appoint more judges to lessen the backlog of cases and ensure swift justice, and it called for updating the law to include crimes such as voyeurism, stalking and other crimes against women.
“Failure of good governance is the obvious root cause for the current unsafe environment, eroding the rule of law and not the want of knee-jerk legislation,” said retired Chief Justice J.S. Verma, who headed the panel.