A secure environment for women appears to be a far cry in India. Crime against the fairer sex is steadily increasing, and less and
less number of the accused are getting convicted. National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data tells this sorry tale, prevailing for the last three years.
In 2005, a whopping 1.55 lakh cases of crime against women were registered across India, but convictions were recorded in only 30,826 cases - a mere 19.8%. In 2006, case registration jumped to 1.64 lakh, but convictions declined to 28,998, or 17.5%. Continuing the trend, more than 1.85 lakh cases were registered in 2007, but the trial courts found the charge sustainable only in 27,612 cases, a meagre 14.9%.
In Delhi, where working women's security has been a concern, conviction in these cases remained lower than national average in all three years - 10.8% in 2005, 12.4% in 2006 and 13.4% in 2007.
Andhra Pradesh remained at the top of the list in terms of number of cases relating to crime against women -- 20,819 in 2005, 21,484 in 2006 and 24,738 in 2007. And there were convictions in 5,353 cases in 2005 (25.7%), 3,579 in 2006 (16.6%) and 3,911 in 2007 (15.8%).
Such mismatch between cases registered and conviction surely casts an ominous shadow on functioning of the justice delivery system at the lower levels, but importantly, it also raises a serious question about the ability of the police to conduct proper investigation and prepare a watertight case.
In Maharashtra, the conviction rate remained abysmally low at around 4% in each of these three years - 616 of 13,370 cases in 2005, 584 of 14,452 in 2006 and 597 of 14,924 in 2007.
This trend negates the consistent efforts of the Supreme Court to sensitise judges to the heinous crime that scars the victim for rest of her life. It had in numerous rulings said: "Courts must hear the loud cry for justice by the society in cases of heinous crime of rape of innocent helpless girls of tender age, and respond by imposition of proper sentence."
This passionate appeal of the apex court through its ruling appears to have gone unheeded even in Delhi, where the conviction rate in these three years has remained low despite the city registering an increase in such cases from 10.8% in 2005 to 12.4% in 2006 to 13.4% in 2007.
While 4,351 cases of crime against women were registered in 2005, the trial courts recorded conviction only in 473 cases. In 2006, as many as 4,544 cases were registered, but conviction was recorded in 565 cases and in 2007, 4,804 cases were registered, while courts found the police case true in 646 cases.
West Bengal was another state, like Maharashtra, that recorded very low conviction rate, or as statistics tell us, the accused went scot-free. If in 2005 the conviction rate was 6% of the cases registered, it recorded a small increase to 7.8% in 2006 before falling to 2.8% in 2007.
With these statistics staring at us, another missive of the Supreme Court to the trial courts has fallen in deaf ears. It had said: "Protection of society and deterring the criminal was the avowed the object of the law and that was required to be achieved through appropriate sentencing policy."
But, if the police does not prepare a water tight case, there is little the courts can do to bring the culprits to book.
Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu appear to have somewhat acceptable levels of conviction rate. In UP, 2005 saw a conviction rate of 43.5%, but it steadily declined to 41.5% in 2006 and 32.9% in 2007. Tamil Nadu, which had recorded a conviction rate of 53.5% in 2005, also showed a downward trend - 45% in 2006 and 27% in 2007.
In its global campaign to attract foreign tourists, India's "Incredible India" ads feature a young woman enjoying her morning yoga session on a secluded beach.
In reality, what female tourists experience too often is this: persistent ogling and heckling by Indian men.
"At times I find it hard traveling around as a woman in Delhi. I've been groped twice in public," said Amanda Burrell, 36, a blue-eyed, blond-haired documentary filmmaker from England on vacation in India. "I think Indian women have it much worse."
If the Indian male ever had a reputation for being suave and sophisticated, that image has hit rock bottom. In recent weeks a spate of attacks against women and a new study showing rape as the fastest-growing crime in New Delhi are painting a less flattering picture.
In India, the fact that men are being held under such heightened scrutiny is a sign of changing social rules between men and women as the country modernizes.
While more and more Indian women move into the high-tech workforce or rise to key government posts in the new India, some analysts say many women appear to be losing the battle to overcome centuries-old cultural attitudes that tend to devalue the role of women and keep them dependent on men.
"Many of India's social values have not kept pace with the development of its modern cities," said Shaibal Gupta, a social analyst for the Asian Development Research Institute, a nongovernmental agency based in the northeastern Indian state of Bihar.
India's predominantly Hindu culture is skewed in favor of boys and men, say some social experts. In India's deep-rooted system of dowry, a bride's family pays the groom for marrying her - a custom that has been outlawed but only loosely enforced.
"Most Indian men don't have opportunities for intimate contact with women until their mid-20s," Gupta said. "For some of them, their only exposure to women in a sexual context has been in the virtual realms of Bollywood and Internet porn sites."
For many women in India, the result can be terrifying.
In an incident that rattled the country, dozens of young men taunted and groped two girls as they left a New Year's Eve party at a popular five-star hotel in Mumbai, formerly known as Bombay. An Indian newspaper photographer called the police and recorded the melee in a shocking series of photos that ran on the front page of almost every major newspaper in India, launching a flurry of editorials.
In a televised interview, the outraged chief of India's ministry for women and child development called for the death penalty for those convicted of rape.
There have been several high-profile assaults recently against foreign women in India. A British freelance journalist allegedly was raped by the owner of a guesthouse where she was staying in northern India. A 28-year-old American tourist was groped by a Hindu priest while visiting a temple in the northwestern Indian state of Rajasthan.
Several Western embassies have issued warnings on the dangers women often face in India.
"I get stared at, and sometimes men approach me and say things. But I've lived in India long enough that I've almost stopped paying attention to it," said Lauren Olsen, 16, a student at an American school in Delhi.
"It can be difficult being a girl here," she said.
A six-year-old Indian boy, Aniket Chindak is hoping to enter the record books after 'limbo-skating' under 57 cars in less than a minute.
Aniket has already created an unofficial world record by squeezing himself under a row of 57 four-wheel drive cars in 45 seconds.
With legs split, chest bent forward and chin almost skimming along the road, Aniket is no more than eight inches above the ground when he vanishes under the vehicles in Belgaum, India.
The wonder-kid, who started skating when he was 18-months-old, is now training for four hours a day and plans to break his world record of 57 cars with a 100-car skate in New Delhi.
"I first saw a girl skate under a car on television two years ago and decided to learn how to do it myself. It took three months before I could get my body in the right position," the Daily Record quoted Aniket, as saying."Since then, I have skated under lots of cars and have never hurt myself.
"The hardest thing is to go fast enough before I bend down because that's how you can skate under so many cars at once. I think it will be very difficult for anyone to beat 100 cars," he added.
According to his father, Ramesh, the skating marvel covers 60-miles twice a week in practice and sulks when he is told to finish.
"Aniket was always very flexible but for limbo-skating you need strength as well," Ramesh said. "It took him a while to condition his body to hold the correct position. Now his battle is to get the speed and control for 100 cars.
"He wants to set a world record no one can beat for a long time," he added.
New Delhi, January 2 : A male tiger and female lion have fallen head over heels in love with each other at a safari park in southernmost China's Hainan Province.
Both lovebirds are over two years old and live together at the Hainan Tropical Wildlife Park and Botanical Garden. The website Photobase reported that the authorities at the wildlife park had purposely put the tiger and lion in to live together since they were just two months old, in order to produce a hybrid cub, reports China Daily.
The report said that the experiment is going well, but whether the pair will finally mate and give birth to a baby is not yet known.
The park once matched a male lion with a female tiger, resulting in the birth of nine lion-tiger hybrid cubs.
