I Think: The death penalty can only take us backwards
Dr Jayan Jose Thomas, economist, New Delhi
I subscribe to four newspapers and check a couple more online some days. I read a lot of strong opinion against the death penalty for rape and I probably tend to go along with that.
The death penalty can only take us backwards. It is not going to deter rapists. Rape is more complicated than that. Punishment to a certain extent can help, but more important is education and going to the root of this issue.
Look at the background of the perpetrators. Some of the international media delved into this kind of socio-economic analysis. It is important to explore it — but it should not be taken as a justification for rape.
A lot of crimes against women are committed by men in powerful positions. The reaction is muted and in most cases, they are not reported. This is a failure of the society and the government, and media is a reflection of society.
Reporting happens after the crime occurs. My argument is we must prevent the crime in the first place by empowering women in multiple ways. The death penalty is not going to help with prevention.
Media need to play a constructive role. But take a look at media even in a highly literate state like Kerala: if a woman is involved in an incident, the visual and print media tend to feast on it. I was reading a news report about a financial crime in which the accused were a woman and two men. The only picture published was a clear image of the woman, not of the men. What happens next is that it is picked up by social media and WhatsApp, and morphed to impute a slant not originally intended.
The media, visual and social in particular, is playing an extremely negative role here.
There must be guidelines for media, though I don’t know how they can be implemented. Start with self-censorship. It can be something very simple: for instance, if a woman is accused of a crime, or even if a man is, the media must be more sensitive while publishing the details about the accused.
The more the media reports, the more it can improve the situation. In rural areas, caste, power and class combine to make women silent. I hope the unreported get reported more. Probably the Thomson Reuters Foundation poll was correct in its perception: we may be the most unsafe country for women. I don’t think the perception happened because Indian media is doing a better job than media in other countries. It reports where it can grab eyeballs. It is voyeuristic about the details, and it sometimes takes the moralising angle.
The media did a good job with Nirbhaya. The accused in the case were relatively powerless and the incident happened in upper class south Delhi. The good part about the discussion was that it led to public consciousness.
The sad part is the conversation about the death penalty, about what to do after the crime. It should, in fact, be about how to prevent the crime. Issues like how the perpetrators grew up are equally important. The media, civil society and the general public should lead this discussion.
