***An open email to Smt.R.Sreelekha, IPS(ADGP, Vigilance and anti-corruption bureau, Kerala)***
Reference: Your article "Karuthamma"maar erunno?(roughly translating into "Are Criminal-minded women on the rise!") . This article is an eye-openingly candid article by R.Sreelekha(ADGP of Police, Kerala). Just wondering how you got the guts to write the truth and what was your motive in writing this, and how 'Malayala Manorama' mustered the courage to run this in the center page!(this article was published in MM, Thrissur edition, 10th page, 19th June, 2013).
Dear Madam,
We at PaSS(Purushavakasa Samrakshana Samiti, NGO, Thrissur) would like to express our heart felt appreciation for touching upon an almost Taboo but necessary topic of "Criminality in Women".
We do not consider this topic very pertinent to our time just because we love bad-mouthing women in general!, but because we realise that this topic needs to be discussed and analysed by our public and authorities in the Law enforcement, Judiciary and people representatives, with a view to properly frame our laws which at present seems to consider that only Men are capable of committing crimes.
In short our laws have to be attuned to the times we live in, and not attuned to the times when these were originally written by and large(most of our legal frame work owes its birth in the 19th century! and very minimal amendments or rationalisation has happened, after this initial frame-work was laid down, to be of any real relief to the citizens of India!)
Our present day laws assume that either 1) A man only is capable of doing some crimes, and not Women or 2) Men do not need the protection of law when it comes to some crimes!.
These are highly gender-biased, heavily-misused and draconic laws, supposedly instituted for the protection of women(when in actual they DO NOT protect women from the crimes they are supposed to protect women from, due to a lethargic law enforcement system and an even apathetic and ineffective judicial system which DO NOT dispense speedy justice and hence people have lost their faith in these very systems meant to protect them from Crime). These laws are mostly used by unscrupulous women/their advisors with oblique motives, to gain undue advantage, to extort, to submit their adversaries by bringing in pressure of false criminal cases against them.. .
So on both counts these women-protection laws are a failure, and we have observed these inadequacies in the legal systems directly ourselves by way of tracking actual cases which flow along this system and never beget any justice any soon!, whether it be victims of crime, or victims of misue of law!... both do not get any justice from the present systems of justice delivery(or the lack of it!).
Going by the spirit of some gender biased law like Adultery(IPC Section 497, where the accused can only be a Man, and never can be a Woman!, why not?), PWDVA(Protection of Women against Domestic Violence act, where the petitioner SHOULD be a Woman and the Respondent SHOULD be a Man!), etc.,. in these laws its assumed that only Men are capable of committing these crimes, and women even if they are involved are to be considered as acting in duress or at the most abettors(only if the partner in crime in NOT and wife, but a Mother in law or a sister in law, in case of DV act cases filed by Wives!).
The other side to this lacunae in law is that law doesn't extend protection Men when it comes to certain crimes like DV act, Rape, Sexual harassment at work place/at public places/at domestic situations, etc (males get raped too, may be the argument is that its in a lesser number, but that is not enough a reason to deny men of protection by the laws of our country).
So your article is actually a good start point for the authorities to take notice of the pressing need of laws which also 1) Protects Males and 2) Protect males from being falsely accused with the misuse of women-protection laws.
In our opition, for this to be ensured we just have to 1) make all our laws Gender-Neutral and 2) build-in a very stringent misuse clause in these very laws(which ensures that the courts take up, Suo Mottu, criminal proceedings against the complainants once the allegations are found false/vexatious.
Given the current state of polity(where majority of the politicians are either corrupt or do not care about the welfare of people) we can at least facilitate "Speedy Justice", but again this is more of a wishful thinking since corrupt politicians would not like justice to be any faster than what's the current state of affairs(scope for delay tactics, scope for subverting justice, scope for putting spokes in the wheel of "spirit of law", etc etc).
What we would like to do in this state of despair(we don't know what would resolve these age old issues of our country, but would like to attempt anything which could help to improve the situation) is to spread awareness of the above issues among the public and then evolve a solution which can then be followed-up tightly and implemented under the watchful eyes of the "actual public" (since we have long lost faith in the so called "people representatives")
We would like to associate with people like you who show the moral character to call a spade a spade and who consciously keeps the fire in them alive which can eventually change the way we all live!.
PS: You had hinted your article whether the rise in criminality is due to childhoods in dysfunctional and traumatising family situations, we confirm that this is the reason why each generation is falling into lower and lower standards of existence. We need to work on this need of Saving Indian Family system, you can read our further inputs in this regard here: http://at498a.blogspot.in/2013/05/a-imperialisticallybeautiful-mind.html
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