Against
The status of Women in India, both historically and socially has been one of the respect and reverence. The Constitution of India not only grants equality to Women but also empowers the State to adopt measures of positive discrimination in favour of Women for neutralising the cumulative socio-economic educational and political disadvantages faced by them.
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Crime against women are increasing year by year in India . Statistics show that a total of 2,13,585 incidents of crime against women were reported in the country during 2010 as compared to 2,03,804 during 2009 recording an increase of 4.8% during 2010. The question here is to assess if the laws in India are strong enough to prevent crime against women ?
The indian penal code provides various sections for punishing crime against women.These include :-
i. Rape (Section 376 IPC) ii. Torture both mental and physical (Sec.498-A –IPC) iii. Sexual Harassment (Sec. 509 IPC) iv. Importation of girls (Up to 21 years of age ) (Sec. 366-B IPC)
Statistics prove that even after all the stringent laws made for women security in India , crimes against them are rapidly increasing more in the urban rather than rural areas.the irony is that even though the reach ‘
Inspite of all these safeguards, the women in our country continue to suffer, due to lack of awareness of their rights, illiteracy and oppressive practices and customs. The resultant consequences are many viz. a constant fall in the sex ratio, high infant mortality rate,low literacy rate,‘ high drop out rate of girls from education, low wage rates