Chandigarh:
As former Haryana DGP S P S Rathore gets away with just six months for molesting Ruchika, NDTV looks at why sexual offenders get away lightly in India.
Almost 18 lakh cases of crimes against women are reported every year but the conviction rate is only 29 per cent.
Activists say tougher laws and fast track courts are urgently needed to protect women.
1990, ChandigarhRuchika was only 14 when she was molested by a senior IPS officer. What followed was even worse. She was thrown out of school and her family was harassed by the administration. Unable to take it any more, she killed herself three years later.
2008, RohtakSarita did not even wait that long. Allegedly raped in a police station by two constables, she killed herself outside the DGP's office.
Stories that make headlines evoke outrage and public outcry but very little changes.
In the above two cases, the men accused were those meant to uphold the law but they used their position to evade justice.
Last year almost 18 lakh cases of crimes against women were reported but the conviction rate was only 29 per cent. Out of these cases, 38,000 were of molestation with a conviction rate of 28 per cent.
10,000 cases were of sexual harassment with less than half resulting in a conviction.
Sexual assault isn't clearly defined making it tough to prove molestation charges.
"People don't fear these laws anymore. What we are pushing the govt on is how they have become hogwash. Sexual harassment committees should be set up at workplaces. I am on many of these committees and they are just there. They do nothing," said Ranjana Kumari of Centre for Social Research.
But changing the law is a tedious process. Lack of political consensus doesn't help either.
Which is why proposed tough laws to prevent trafficking or sexual harassment are still pending.