The news of President Md Abdul Hamid promulgating the ordinance allowing death penalty as the highest punishment for rape instead of life imprisonment has brought in a tide of hurrahs from the public who were crying for such a strict measure to deter would-be rapists. This was added as a provision in the draft of the Women and Children Repression Prevention (Amendment) Bill, 2020 by the cabinet.
This is quite timely and reassuring for a large number of people who were vocal on the sudden surge in incidents of rape. The social and news media have played a vital role in highlighting this particular crime over the past few weeks and this also pushed towards promulgating the ordinance. However, the situation would not have deteriorated to this extent had the already existing laws been enforced properly.
The situation would not have
deteriorated to this extent had the already
existing laws been enforced properly
In the ordinance, the punishment for rape has been set as death penalty from life imprisonment. The Women and Children Affairs Ministry placed the draft bill in the Cabinet for approval bringing amendments to Article 9 (1) of the existing law. The promulgation of this ordinance means that the people and government have had enough of the raging violence against women, since it has been going on for so long.
One can only wonder about the surety of getting a proper and quick justice in case of rape, with already about 170,000 cases of violence against women are currently pending in the country’s courts. Of them, 50,000 rape-related cases are pending in the high court, according to source.
This staggering number is truly disconcerting. Even if half of the suspects related to these cases are incarcerated then that would mean a huge amount of resources being used for these convicts.
However, the new ordinance is welcome for getting a better result against crimes. We think with the promulgation of the ordinance the
incidents of rape will be curbed. We keep our fingers crossed.
