DESPITE GLOBAL OUTRAGE over the rape of two teenage cousins and their subsequent lynching on May 27 in a rural hamlet of Badaun district in Uttar Pradesh, crimes against women and children have not abated in this nation which is experiencing gender atrocities of unprecedented scale and magnitude. According to National Crime Records Bureau statistics, 241,000 crimes against women citizens were reported in 2012 including 396 cases of rape — widely perceived as a gross under-estimate because not only are women reluctant to report gender crimes, but also because police personnel and stations are averse to registering them.
Official and societal response to the gender crimes wave which is rooted in the contempt of anti-socials for the country’s feeble law and order and justice systems, is righteous indignation, penitent candle-light vigils, public rallies and demonstrations, which are at best of symbolic value. Although controlling the gender crimes tsunami requires significant investment in the law, order and justice machinery and universalisation and contemporisation of education, prior to addressing these deep-rooted maladies of Indian society, several short-term solutions are available to abate, if not eradicate, the rising tide of crimes against women.
For a start, teams of 500 fit and able-bodied women need to be recruited, intensively trained in martial arts and modern communication technologies, and deployed to serve as undercover decoy policewomen in all metro and tier-I cities countrywide. It’s reasonable to anticipate they will flush out and promptly arrest habitual molesters and rapists with the help of special gender crimes squads. Moreover, to cover small towns and rural habitats, specially trained flying squads supported by helicopters should be on stand-by in all metros and 640 district capitals to respond to gender atrocity reports within 15 minutes.
On the punitive and justice dispensation side, local branches of the National Commission for Women and related organisations, can be empowered to order 3-6 days imprisonment and upto 30 days community service for ‘minor’ gender crimes. For repeat offenders, local magistrates need to be empowered to order controlled caning, and for major crimes such as rape, kidnapping and trafficking, special fast-track courts need to be established to adjudicate complaints within six months.
Admittedly, training special gender crime squads and equipping them with latest communications hardware, and airborne logistics support won’t come cheap. But by sharply reducing the size of the VIP air fleet and motor car cavalcades of ministers and government officials, substantial savings can be made for canalisation into women’s security.
However even so, additional expenditure will be required to establish a gender crimes law enforcement and adjudication system. Yet the cost of inaction or business as usual in combating the gender crimes tsunami is likely to be far greater.
Tools aversion dehumanisation
A GENERALLY IGNORED deficiency of Indian society — even industry and business — is conspicuous reluctance to use modern, labour-saving tools and equipment. This observation is prompted by your editor’s discerning eye which has been obliged to routinely witness the dehumanising employment of contract labour to clean sewage/drainage pipes, or mend potholed roads in the purportedly hi-tech city of Bangalore. The most modern tools employed on civic construction sites are rudimentary crowbars, shovels and spades, with even wheelbarrows rarely sighted. On the contrary, it’s quite common to witness elementary bamboo poles and patently malnourished unclad workers pushed underground to clear ancient sewage pipes and drains.
The prime factor behind excessive labour intensity and the general reluctance to equip workers with advanced tools and technology in civic management (and the construction industry), is the pervasive practice of outsourcing repair and maintenance work to contractors who are essentially recruiters of cheap labour, with suspect technical qualifications and skills. Notorious for squeezing maximum profit, and obliged to retain a margin to pay off corrupt government and administration officials, they invest minimal capital in tools and equipment designed to ensure the safety or ease the burden of ill-paid casual labour.
The popular belief that high-tech tools and equipment reduce employment is rooted in flawed reasoning. The fact is that their usage boosts productivity, and increases the demand for labour through speedy completion and multiplication of projects. It’s hardly a coincidence that developed OECD countries which are in the forefront of tools and technology development, sustain high labour employment and wages.
Obsolete iron age tools and equipment tolerated by Indian industry, civic administrations and local governments are a national disgrace and greatly responsible for the poor productivity of Indian labour working in slave-like conditions in the unorganised sector, which employs 90 percent of the country’s 400 million workforce. The onus is not only upon the Centre and state governments, but also on representative associations of Indian industry to propagate the message of raising productivity through usage of contemporary tools and technology.
“What’s important is that you have faith in people, that they’re basically good and smart, and if you give them tools, they’ll do wonderful things with them,” said the late Steve Jobs, the iconic inventor-chief executive of Apple Inc, which he transformed into the world’s most valuable company during his years as chief executive officer (1976-1985).
The Indian establishment and intelligentsia which routinely turn a blind eye to the technological obsolescence of India Inc, government and civic administrations, need to heed this advice.