A Comprehensive Framework for Analysing Condition of Rape Victims – Judicial Response, Challenges and way Forward

Indian society is patriarchal in mind-set. Women and men are not considered as equals in our society and their sexual relationship are hardly ever a simple expression of mutual sexual interest in one another. A mere quick-look of Indian legal literature exposes that sexual relationships are inextricable bound up with economic relationships of dependency and ownership involving certain kind of trade-off, calculation or coercion. The rape victim is always looked upon as sexual object and a person of loose character. There is awful malice in accepting her as an ordinary person. Even Political parties and the media focuses on these issues for political gain but rarely, pursue the case until justice is delivered. This hostile atmosphere further demoralizes the sufferer and her supporters. This system of inequalities has determined the formulation and application of rape laws, which is also one of the major reasons of rape itself.