Novel punishment for street sexual harassment
More proof needed that education in this country isn’t really making a difference to antiquated mentalities that consider women as objects to be enjoyed? A 21 year old techie, obviously a highly educated person, has been awarded a novel punishment for harassing 2 girls in Hyderabad.Â
The court has sentenced him to sweep the premises of a government hospital everyday for a month. While his attendance there will be marked, I’m not sure if anyone will have the time to ensure that he actually does the work!
While I’m all for awarding lesser punishments to young people under the legal age (to reform rather than punish), I wonder if an adult should be let off so easily. Should he not face a stronger punishment? For those who think it is a ‘minor’ crime, it may be worthwhile recalling an incident that happened in Chennai many years ago - where a girl died when some goons on a motorcycle pulled her dupatta and tried to drag her. I’m not sure how that case ended.Â
One good thing is that atleast he is being taken to task, compared to the majority of harassment cases which get dropped even before they reach this stage. Certainly there will be a lot of shame attached to it, including at his workplace. The fear of having to face ridicule among one’s peers may cause some such roadside romeos to rethink their faux macho posturing, if more courts take swift action.Â
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I would like to say that there is some action, however small, is something which might put an end to these romeos going overboard.
I think the punishment should be harsher…for sure…but also how will one make sure that any such new law(if it ever comes into effect that is)will not be misused?
I mean suppose they give a punishment of two years or one year ..then I think it would be justified…but what if someone innocent gets sent in?
sweeping is too mild a punishment..I dont think it even qualifies as a punishment
Its a novel effort. I have a couple of points:
1) I dont think education has much to do with it
2) In my view, the good thing here, is also that the girl lodged a complaint more than what punishment he got; too often women suffer harassment with no recourse - because of a dysfunctional, corrupt and overloaded judiciary, and an apathetic, not necessarily uneducated society. Its not so much about what punishment will suffice, but whether the guilty are brought to justice at all. Even if we have 1% of offenders caught and given the death sentence, it probably would not work as well as 50% or even 20% of offenders being asked to sweep the toilets.
Thanks all for your views. Though my instinctive reaction was to feel that it is too light a punishment, I tend to agree with Sri And Athira. Considering the reality in India, where few cases ever even come to this stage, shaming the offender is not such a bad strategy (in cases like this of course, not for cases where there was rape or grave violence).
Indyeah - I don’t think its a question of enacting new laws - the existing laws are strong enough. It is a question of implementation.
How about sweeping in the same office that he works, instead of some random hostpital. That wuold be harsh enough.
Oh, that’s a good idea
But, perhaps the courts don’t have jurisdiction over private spaces?
I guess the decision is based on American concepts of social service assigned to offenders. However, most cases of such assignments are handed down to drug abusers, drivers etch. I am not sure if an individual accused of assaulting someone can get away so easily.
And as you pointed out, it’s most likely that the guy will get out of the job and the Hospital’ Supervisor’s pockets get lined. And I am a bit skeptical about the humiliation at his workplace. He will soon become one with the crowd again(assuming he is out of it now) and things will go back to ‘normal’.
Profoundly depressing!
Prasanth
Prasanth - that’s true. I’m not sure what happened to those girls - perhaps the judge considered this an acceptable punishment because no one was hurt?
As for humiliation at the workplace, well, I don’t know about Dell, but certainly most organisations have policies on people who have been convicted on criminal charges…