Rape Laws in India: Limited, Conservative and Devoid of Gender-Neutrality

The paper is a comparison and a critical analysis of the rape laws in India before and after the Criminal Law Amendment Act of 2013 which not only introduced many new sexual offences but also made punishments and penalties more stringent in an effort to curb the increasing instances of sexual offences against women in the cities of India. However on a personal note, that some provisions are not very conducive in providing the fullest extent of justice that should be dispensed to the victims of this heinous crime.” “Rape, the most heinous crime is still occurring in our society. Even after the Delhi gang Rape case so many protests took place; a new law has been passed but still the situation has not changed a bit. Recently a Mumbai based photo journalist was raped. When some journalists from a well-known paper house went to take interview in her locality; they got to know that nobody from the survivor apartment aware that the girl is from their locality. So the question arises why still now the survivor of the rape feels ashamed and prefers to be silent. This is one of the main reasons that most of the rape victim does not file an FIR. They think if society got to know about this her reputation will be ruined and rest of her life will be hell. That is the reasons why the crime like rape is still happening in our so-called modern society. In this project I will try to analysis development of rape laws from the social transformation perspective.”