As we all know, rape is alarmingly increasing in India and is now the talk of every other house; there is a particular section of people who misuse this for their benefit and make up false rape claims.
After the 2012 Nirbhaya case, India started looking into the rape crimes happening in the nation. So, does that mean we didn’t have rape cases before this brutal incident? No, it merely means Indian society never looked into this matter seriously. Nirbhaya case shook the nation and also moved people to voice out the atrocities they face. Nearly more than 100 per cent of cases were registered in the following years of this incident.
Moreover, the outrage from people along with the spike reports of sexual assault, particularly violent crimes by strangers; the government widened the definition of rape. Along with this, the government made it mandatory for police to register all complaints and introduced special fast-track courts.
However, with the sharp increase in reports of such crimes, also came the issue of false accusation. As per a survey report conducted in Delhi between the year 2013-14, half of the rape accusations which was made turned out to be false.
Something strange is going in India; when a couple breaks up from relationship girls/women approach court stating that she was raped. However, what we must understand is that sexual relationship if done with the consent of both the parties can’t be claimed as ‘rape’. Pre-marital sex is on the rise in India as young Indians seems to be following the westernised culture and have dumbed the Indian culture altogether. This is one main reason why we have such false claims, also in recent years; there are hostel chains that offer rooms on an hourly basis, which indirectly encourages such acts.
According to the National Crime Records Bureau records, a total of 38,947 rape cases were reported in India in 2016; out of which 10,068 cases where the women claimed it was rape on a false promise of marriage. In Andhra Pradesh state, 45% of all rape cases filed in the past two years fell into the false marriage category.
In many cases, false rape accusations are simply the result of parents covering up the “shame” of an unmarried daughter having sex. To protect their family name and people from knowing that their unmarried daughter is sexually active, they register the case of rape or threaten the boy saying so. For them, a case of rape is more prefered rather than the society getting to know that their daughter is sexually active. Moreover, false rape claims also happen to take revenge against someone.
With the rise in such false rape claims, it will only lead to people stop taking the real victims seriously; moreover, it will skewing up the crime rate of our country along with such claims affecting the opposite sex. The women who misuse the ‘pro-women’ law prevailing in our country are a threat to other victims who have gone through the heinousness of the crime. Thus, it becomes necessary to prosecute such women, as the fear of sentence to jail will stop them from making such false.accusations.
Rape is not the same as consent sexual relationship; the term ‘rape’ shouldn’t be used so freely just to take revenge or for some other reasons. By the increase of false rape claims, it becomes challenging to understand and know which case is fake and which is not. Understand the difference before you make a claim, don’t just make a joke out of the term ‘rape’ as it carries a burden, brutality and pain.
