Crime against women has increased in our country. Criminals are emboldened to commit crime against women in broad day light. In recent years, we have had incidents of foreign female visitors assaulted and raped. That has brought us shame and defamation we never deserved. Why is this happening? We want an answer to this question. Why it has become difficult for our womenfolk to go out of their homes to the market after dusk? The simple answer to these questions is that incompetence and incapability have debilitated the law and order enforcing agency in our country. However, that appears a simplistic answer when in reality there are a number of other factors that contribute to degeneration in the efficiency of law and order mechanism in the country. Our laws are inadequate in meeting the requirements of investigation of crime against women and enforcing the punishment on the culprits. Then there is the element of dishonesty creeping into the investigation mechanism. Willful delay and wayward attitude in investigation of a case of crime against woman contribute to proliferation of the crime. Those who are involved in investigation are not conscious of the harm they are doing to the civil society if they are not honest, and the civil society, in turn, is unable either to reform them or throw them out and replace them with honest and dedicated functionaries.
Crime against women has also increased in our State. Gradual advancement in our socio-economic level has provided new and attractive opportunities for our educated women to come out of their homes and become active partners in the development of the State. This has given them exposure that had remained denied so far because of their confinement to the four walls of the home. The exposure of women is misused by uncouth male segment and we find instances of abuse and molestation of women. We are in 21st century and India of 21st century is different from what it was earlier. Our women folks are contributing fairly well to the development process and nothing on earth can relegate them again to the confines of their homes. This means that law and order institution must bring about substantial reforms in its functionality to make it responsive to the needs of contemporary society. The Government has to provide the wherewithal. But how callous the Government is in this matter is reflected by the facts revealed here.
Disturbed by the reports of crime against women assuming alarming proportions in the country, the Home Ministry issued a directive to State Governments, including J&K, in December 2014 desiring them to se-up Investigative Units for Crimes Against Women (IUCAW). Of the 150 police districts proposed for setting up of IUCAWs, the Union Government approved such units in five districts of Jammu and Kashmir and mentioned explicitly that it (MHA) would provide 50 percent of the cost to be incurred on establishing such units. The State was asked to identify five districts, where the incidents of crime against women are higher in comparison to other districts of Jammu and Kashmir. However, till date not a single IUCAW unit has been established in any district police station in the State. In January 2015, the Home Ministry sent a reminder to the State Government and the State Police Chief to expedite establishing of the IUC units but there was no action from the State Government. It is pertinent to remind that the overall expenditure for establishing five a unit would not be more than 28 lakh rupees. The State Government attached no importance to the issue. How will one explain the callousness of the State administration when during the past over one year not even one Investigative Unit for Crime Against Women has been established despite the fact that heinous crime like rape, dowry death and human trafficking against women continued to remain an issue of serious concern even in the State? The Home Department and the Police Department are passing the buck to one another and none of them accepts the responsibility of implementing the instruction of the Home Ministry. The establishment of the units would immensely help in preventing crime against women as well as in making fair and speedy investigation into the case of crime against women reported to the police. Why the State Government is not interested in preventing the crime remains a mystery. Nevertheless, the public will not take it lying low because the civil society refuses to stand as silent spectator to the incident of crime against women.
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