SEXUAL VIOLENCE AGAINST MEN IN INDIA

INTRODUCTION

Sexual violence is a situation in which someone forces or manipulates another person to perform unwanted sexual activity without consent. Rape Crisis UK is a general term used to describe sexual violence as an unwelcome sexual activity or activity of any kind, including rape, sexual assault, sexual abuse, sexual harassment, and female genital mutilation.

In India, the law is made solely to protect women from sexual harassment and rape. There are no laws or laws that protect men from reckless sexual harassment or rape. Under Indian law, only section 377 of the Indian Criminal Code of 1860 mentions "sodomy". All other sections are only for women. Most importantly, which is the perpetrator or the victim, contrary to Sections 354A-354D and 375 of the Indian Criminal Code, the Commission on Sexual Violence states that only men are allowed. It can be the gender of the culprit.

In India, rape is considered to have a penis or a foreign body invading the vagina without the consent of a woman or girl. Section 375 of the IPC describes rape as "a woman, against the will of the woman, by coercion, misrepresentation, fraud, or when she is drunk, deceived, or in a psychological state. "

Men who are victims of sexual violence may have the same feelings as other survivors of sexual violence. Still, because of their stereotypes about masculinity and fear of social ridicule, Emotions are often denied. The fear of being abused, abused, or insulted by those around us prevents men from speaking about the injustices they face.

But as technology and education grow and access to information grows around the world, people get out of their shells and talk about their experiences, not only revealing tragedy but also emotionally freeing them. I understand that. Physically and mentally. For example, many movements, such as the #MeeToo and #Timesup movements, which originally started as a way to encourage women to come out and share their experiences of domestic and sexual violence, also prompt men to confront abusers. Encouragement is the way forward.

These moves increased reported sexual violence against men by 18%, but men were still publicly ridiculed for sharing their experiences of domestic or sexual violence and were often put aside. Technology has raised people's awareness of such issues but has nevertheless adversely affected the sexual harassment case. With the development of technology and the Internet, sexual harassment for all genders has increased dramatically. According to 2014 PEW statistics, 25% of women and 13% of men between the ages of 18 and 24 experience sexual harassment on online platforms.

Society must move away from the idea that rape is a male problem or that sexual violence has occurred because of the roots of the national patriarchy. This statement demoralizes male victims.

HARASSMENT AGAINST MEN AT THE WORKPLACE

When I hear about sexual harassment, I immediately think that the victim is a woman and the perpetrator is a man—one of the most critical places where sexual violence occurs in the workplace. Over the years, many laws and legislation have been enacted to prevent sexual violence against women in the workplace, including sexual harassment and Vishaka guidelines in workplace law. However, no remedy has been established for men who are sexually harassed at work. This does not mean that men are not sexually harassed at work. Laws have been enacted to protect women from the evils of sexual harassment, but we continue to forget that men are also being harassed at work.

Sexual violence against men in the workplace is primarily committed by male colleagues or female bosses. Men may be asked to lift their shirts. Or there may be similar considerations that women face at work. The only difference is that men must suffer in silence, while women have remedies for this harassment. It is time to achieve equality and eliminate these gender-specific laws by implementing gender-neutral laws. Since women's and men's rights should be included in the 2012 Sexual Harassment Act as soon as possible, protecting men's rights in the workplace should be equally important.

incidents

Many are unaware of Reynhard Sinaga or "the most prolific rapist in Britain." Earlier this year, he was sentenced to at least 30 years in prison. What is interesting in this case is that Reynhard raped a man, especially in Manchester, England. Indonesian students often waited for drunken men outside nightclubs and bars, then offered to call a taxi or have a drink somewhere and bring them back to their apartment. Then he gave his victims medicine before they unknowingly attacked them.

Police say there is evidence that Sinaga has targeted at least 190 victims. Sinaga is reported to have counted 159 sexual crimes against 48 men in his name, and 70 victims remain unknown. The bestiality incident occurred in Muzaffarnagar, the only act under Article 377 to protect men from male-to-male rape. The 10-year-old boy was sodomized by a young man in the Muzaffarnagar district. According to the complaint, the accused took the minor to a remote location and sexually abused him. The boy managed to get home and share this experience with his parents. The accused escapes while the underage victim is being treated in the hospital. Police have made no efforts to bring justice to the sodomized boy, and there are still many defendants.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the United States conducted a survey from 2010 to 2012 and found that one in 17 men reported having had a forced insertion at some point in their lives. Of the male victims of forced insertion rape, 13.5 per cent reported that the perpetrator was a female. With regard to suicides, male suicide rates are also higher than female suicide rates. In fact, married men in India are twice as likely to commit suicide.

Almost 1 in 5 women (18.3%) and 1 in 71 men (1.4%) rape at some point in their lives, including attempts at forced insertion, full forced insertion, and alcohol/drug insertion. However, it should not be ignored that the corresponding female figures are one-fifth, almost 20%, and while the female figures are higher, the male figures are by no means negligible.

In a 2007 survey conducted by the Government of India, 57.3% of children who reported experiencing severe sexual abuse, including rape and sodomy, were boys, and 42.7% were girls. Recently, a Delhi-based civil society centre found that about 18% of the Indian adult men surveyed said they were forced or forced into a marital relationship. Of these, 16% claimed to be female, and 2% were male perpetrators.

TRAUMATIZATION

Another societal concept about men is that men are less likely to be traumatized. Therefore, they are less likely to be exposed to abuse. These masculinity stereotypes have made men victims of the silence of sex crimes. However, most countries now recognize that men can also be raped, which is a crime.

LAW REGARDING MEN IN DIFFERENT COUNTRIES

In the UK, rape-related laws were first amended by the Criminal Justice and Public Order and Doctrine Act of 1994, removing errors from statutes and adding the term "non-consensual insertion of the penis into the anus and vagina." rice field. This law was the first attempt to allow male rape in the British legal system. Later, the 2003 Sex Offenses Act (England and Wales) further redefined it to include even non-consensual oral insertions and removed the vague provisions of indecent assault. However, the definition of rape still requires penetration into the penis. Therefore, UK rape law is still not gender-neutral, as the current definition does not allow women to be punished for raping men.

In Scotland, the 2009 Sex Offenses (Scots) Act drastically changed the rape law and redefined it as follows: The person agrees and does not reasonably believe that consent has been obtained. "

In this definition, the gender term "female" is replaced by "human", which includes male victims within scope. Similarly, in Northern Ireland, the rape law was amended to allow male rape. The previous definition of rape included the term "non-consensual sexual intercourse by men", but under the 2003 Criminal Justice (Northern Ireland) Order, "non-consensual sexual intercourse by humans". It was replaced by. Justice to male victims rapes and makes the law gender-neutral. Another Sex Offense (Northern Ireland) Order, 2008 expanded this definition to include oral rape. [6] Like these common law countries, civil law countries such as the United States and Canada have sought to make rape laws more gender-neutral and include men. The definition of rape by the US Department of Justice, 2012 is as follows:

"Slightly inserted into the vagina or anus with a part or object of the body, or orally inserted into the genitals of another person without the victim's consent."

This concept of rape includes all genders of the victim and the perpetrator and is not limited to women raped by men. Apart from that, US law now also recognizes that rape of objects can be as severe and painful as non-consensual penile penetration. The United States was the first country to equate object penetration with penile penetration and consider it rape. In contrast, object penetration is considered different from penile penetration, which is generally provided by separate statutes. By making the rape law more gender-neutral, the Government of Canada. We are going further. In 1983, Bill C-127 was passed by the Canadian legislature, abolishing rape crimes and providing three stages of sexual assault. Consistent with US law, Canadian law also acknowledges that invasion by objects constitutes rape, and penile penetration cannot be the only reason for rape crimes.

Rape and sex crimes are changing in these countries, but in some countries, such as India and Pakistan, rape continues to be considered a gender-based crime.

LAWS REGARDING SEXUAL VIOLENCE CRIMES AGAINST MEN IN INDIA

In India, the law still only mentions the woman being the victim of rape and sexual violence in their verbatim. In the Indian Penal Code, 1860, Section 375 states that “a man” is said to commit rape, making it clear that the law in this scenario only considers the woman to be the victim and the man to be the perpetrator of the crime, making it so that there essentially does not exist any laws in India to protect a male in case he’s the victim of a sexual offence. Sections 354(A), 354(B), 354(C) and 354(D) also portray the male as the offender against the female verbatim in these sections. There are laws to protect a male child in India from sexual offences through the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012, but there are no laws to protect an adult male from the same. One can say the act of a male sexually assaulting a male or a female sexually assaulting a male can be brought together under Section 377, where the act of sodomy was categorized as unnatural sex and an act against god. Still, after it was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in the Navtej Singh Johar judgement to decriminalize consensual sex between two adults of the same gender, the protection from that section is not provided anymore. The UGC Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act is also gender-neutral legislation. Not having gender-neutral laws in this scenario clearly violates Article 14 and Article 15 of the Constitution of India, as the law does not give men equal protection. This clearly violates the principle of equality as only women are being given protection while men and the other genders are not.

In this situation, if we can make laws to protect a male child from sexual offences, why not do the same for adult males in general? The answer to this lies in the perception of an ideal male in India. In India, during the upbringing of a male child, they are taught that men should never feel pain or cry. The same teachings have led to the belief that one can never fall victim to such acts, which led to the general belief in Indian society that only men can be the perpetrators of rape and sexual violence, and the woman is always the victim. The phrase: “Mard ko Dard Nahi Hota.” is also commonly used, which further propagates this belief that man should not feel pain. Sexual violence against men is usually kept a secret in Indian society, which is one of the significant reasons for getting information on such incidents is complicated. Such beliefs and teachings during the upbringing of a male child in India and society, in general, have given rise to something one may refer to as toxic masculinity. Toxic masculinity is where a man not allowed to be himself has to follow the standards set by society of what a man is and has to show traits considered masculine, or he will not be considered as a real man in society. On May 23, 2018, there was a news article which told the story of one named “Akram”, who revealed all the details of when he was raped by a preacher when he was 14 years old.

A survey conducted by Insia Dariwala showed that out of the 1500 men surveyed, 71% of them had suffered abuse, and 84.9% of them did not even tell anyone about it and kept it a secret. There were recommendations made by the 172nd Law Commission of India to make the rape laws gender neutral, but the government at the time did not implement these recommendations. In 2013, there was an attempt by the government to bring gender neutrality to the rape laws as the centre had passed an amendment act to cover all gender under the rape laws under the recommendations made by the Justice Verma Committee. These changes were later reversed due to the severe backlash from the feminist and women’s groups, who saw this change as an attack on feminism and believed that men could only commit sexual assault and rape. In 2017, there was a PIL filed by Advocate Sanjiv Kumar in the Delhi High Court where the constitutionality of the rape laws in the IPC was challenged. It stated that men also fall victim to similar acts as women, that it cannot be thought of as a freak incident when a man gets sexually assaulted or raped, and that not having gender-neutral laws denies many men justice. On the reasoning provided in the PIL, KTS Tulsi, a Parliamentarian and a lawyer by profession, brought the Criminal Law Amendment Bill, 2019 to the Rajya Sabha, which seeks to bring gender neutrality in the provisions of IPC and also bring necessary changes to Cr.P.C. and Indian Evidence Act by replacing the gender-specific words with “any person”, also making it so that touching the male part inappropriately also constitutes sexual assault and not only the female parts as under Section 375A, The bill also called for inserting modesty in the scope of Section 354. The overall aim of this bill is to bring more sexual violence acts under the law of the land.

THE EFFECT OF SEXUAL ASSAULT ON THE HEALTH OF MEN

It cannot be further from the truth that men who fall victim to such an act suffer physical and mental harm. The consequences of such an act on a person's life cannot be ignored. It may lead to a change in behaviour or have an adverse effect on the overall health of the person. In a scenario where the person who has suffered is not given the attention he needs, the person may develop bad habits such as alcoholism or may have constant stress and panic attacks leading to the thought of even committing suicide. It could be seen in several studies conducted that men who fell victim to sexual assault were harmed both mentally and physically even if they reported any harm to physical health and only reporting injuries they sustained. It could be seen from the change in their habits that their physical health was disturbed indirectly and very heavily at that.

PILOT STUDY

Just because men are expected to be tough and strong does not mean that women do not have to face the challenges they face in their daily lives. While we are talking about women's rights, we must not ignore men's rights. The goal is to empower women, not to ignore the opposite sex and cheer them up. It is unfair and unfair to focus on only one gender to violate fundamental human rights under Articles 14 and 15 of the Indian Constitution.

Using this questionnaire, a higher percentage of respondents believe that men and boys are also vulnerable and unaffected by sexual assault, and the perpetrators of sexual assault are not necessarily men but others. I think it is. Of course, it also depends on gender. Some people are still unaware that rape and sexual assault against men and boys are more accurate than mythical.

Movies and television series also play a significant role in creating these stereotypes, normalizing male sexual assault and preventing people from perceiving it as sexual assault. Women who are taking off in front of men, commenting on genitals, improperly touching, women who have had forced sex with men, etc., are actually as if they are the usual things men like. As shown in movies and series, these things make men uncomfortable and are considered sexual assault. These things have been normalized because when complaining in the face of such an incident, one is told to enjoy and enjoy it. She is having sex with him, being ridiculed for complaining that he is attracting the attention of women. Item songs are another example.

It has not been argued that there are sexual assaults and rapes of men and boys. But nothing has been done to find a solution on how to prevent this. The first thing you can do is raise awareness that men and boys are also raped and sexually abused and that this is not a myth. Other options are gender-neutral laws that protect men and boys from sexual assault and rape and women and girls because rape is patriarchal and men are strong and cannot be victims of such crimes. Is to pass the stereotype that can only occur in. We need to change the toxic mindset of society and reveal the truth to everyone. The sooner this is, the better.

CONCLUSION

It is clear that it is high time that rape and sexual assault laws in India be made gender neutral so that men and others be treated equally to women when it comes to providing them justice. The Criminal Law Amendment Bill, 2019, which has been introduced in the Rajya Sabha, is trying to accomplish just that while also increasing the amount of sexual violence acts covered under the law of the land. It can be seen throughout the history of our country that criminal laws have been created or revised when it was deemed necessary to do so, as can be seen through the Vishaka Guidelines and also the Nirbhaya case, which contributed massively to the women’s rights in our country or when the Supreme Court declared Section 377 to be unconstitutional to decriminalize consensual sex between two adults of the same gender. There is also a need to create awareness regarding the matter and that men being victims of sexual violence is not a myth but a reality. It is time that society realizes that men can also be victims and not just perpetrators of the crime. The amendment bill in this regard has brought hope for the male victims, and I am hopeful that it will achieve the goal it has set out to achieve when it is implemented. Changing rape and sexual assault laws to be gender neutral is going to be a controversial decision, so one can only hope that the government will successfully implement this law as it is the need of the hour. Society needs to be shown the reality; the sooner it is done, the better it will be for everyone.

REFERENCES

Written By:

Sushant Harit

Aryan Aggarwal

LEGALITY

VIABILITY

BEST SHOT at success !!

SEXUAL VIOLENCE AGAINST MEN IN INDIA

Write To Us for queries: mains.legalityviability@gmail.com

Write To Us for submission of Research Papers: legalityviabilitylrj@gmail.com