OPINION: RAPISTS must bear a life-long stigma

There is hardly any day when you don't read about a girl being abducted or raped in the newspapers. It seems such brutal crimes have become a part of the life of people who are not bothered about the provisions of law and ultimate fate of going to the gallows.
Despite sparking massive protests across the country over a perceived lack of government action, to stem violence against women, after the death of 23-year-old woman in a Singapore hospital, 13 days after she was gang raped in Delhi on a moving bus on December 16 last year, the incidents of rape are only rising.
Even yesterday, a four-year-old girl was kidnapped and repeatedly raped for four hours by unidentified men in outer Delhi. The girl was sleeping with her parents on a pavement in Shahbad Dairy area when she was kidnapped at midnight, raped and dumped near a bush.
In another case, four men allegedly abducted and gang raped a 21-year-old Dalit girl on a moving car in Amritsar. The four men picked up the girl, a saleswoman at a cellphone store, while she was on her way to the state bus terminus to catch a bus. She was taken to outskirts of the city in a car where two more people boarded, tied her hands with a rope, raped and drugged her when she tried to raise an alarm and dumped her at Rani Ka Bagh area.
In the third case, in today’s newspapers, which comes as a shocking addition to the nation’s tryst with shame, a schoolgirl was allegedly repeatedly raped by her brother and molested by her school principal at Pataudi. The victim reported that her brother started raping her when she was in Class IV while the school principal had also been molesting her for the last two years.
No doubt, the police is now in action for registration of rape case immediately on its reporting especially after the Delhi gage rape protests, but what I feel is the punishment for rape must be such that the offender too is forced to bear a life-long stigma and the society must also bear the responsibility of providing a balm to the victims and be supportive.
Besides, for having a long term impact in reducing the rape cases, there is also a need to change the mind-set of the people through seminars in the schools/colleges on moral values, on regular basis making it a part of the syllabus, otherwise the situation is going to be worst than now.

(Disclaimer: The views expressed by the author in this article are his own and do not necessarily reflect the views of City Air News.)