Justice Is All We Want #missiondesi

Male Rape - 1

Hi. Today I will talk about Male Rape in the world.

First, What is Rape?

Rape in general defined as the crime committed by men against women. It has been conceptualized as sexual victimization of women by male preparators that manifest the rape-supportive patriarchial society. However, in reality, it has been found that there is a significant number of rapes and other sexual violence victims are male too but the mindset that rape cannot happen with men distanced these rape survivors from the research spotlight. 

In India, we all think a Men cannot be raped but he can.

India's law should recognize that men can be raped too

To view the crime exclusively as a man violating a woman is an injustice to those whose stories do not fit this mold.

An article published in India Today on August 14 entitled "Teacher among four booked for sodomy in Muzaffarnagar" is just one more example of a peculiar distinction that has remained firmly ensconced in Indian parlance: the idea that men can be sodomised but not raped.

As Section 375 of the Indian Penal Code stands, rape is something that only a man can do to a woman. There is no room for adult male victims, much less female perpetrators. Although child survivors of both sexes are covered by the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act 2012, current rape laws leave out a large swathe of male victims, who cannot come forward for fear of stigma and a lack of legal recourse.

As a former director of an LGBT counselling and sexual health centre in New Delhi, I can attest firsthand to the dozens of such male and transgender survivors in the nation's capital. They have also been well documented in legal cases, such as Naz Foundaiton vs the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi and in reporting by domestic human rights organisations. Why, then, this inertia around a word as antiquated as "sodomy"?

New impetus

The potential for a change in discourse and in law came in the wake of Nirbhaya's gang-rape in 2012, which saw a heavy increase in national attention directed towards the crime of rape. Then, male rape survivors (I will not say "sodomy" survivors) also began to speak out, including one Chennai-based man whose blog post about his memory of being raped quickly went viral.

In 2013, the Centre passed its stop-gap Criminal Law (Amendment) Ordinance, which substituted "sexual assault" for "rape" and made the crime gender-neutral from the aspect of both perpetrator and victim. Yet this was, in effect, a mixed bag. While the recognition of male victims and female perpetrators was solved, it did not use the word "rape", which was a significant omission.

A vociferous lobbying force achieved a reversal on both counts that same year with the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act. These groups argued that rape was an explicitly patriarchal crime, directly stemming from the grotesque abuse of male power and privilege.

Thus, for charges to stick, the perpetrator must be male and the victim female. The exception to this rule has been, somewhat oddly, the retaining of gender-neutral language for the perpetrators of gang-rapes only.

I would not so much quibble with the notion that rape is based on power ─ although I do concur with others who believe that lust and sexual desire do play roles ─ but rather that the crime of rape is exclusively patriarchal by definition. Even if it were, I would further dispute the idea that crimes of patriarchy affect biological women only.

To be continued :-