In this article, Justice Markandey Katju offers a critical perspective on the state of working women’s safety in India, in light of the recent Kolkata doctor murder-cum-rape case. Justice Katju argues that meaningful change remains elusive despite media outcry and Supreme Court directives. Justice Katju compares current efforts to past initiatives like Anna Hazare’s anti-corruption movement and questions the effectiveness of legal guidelines such as the Vishaka Guidelines. Read Justice Katju’s article to understand why, according to Justice Katju, Supreme Court interventions alone may not suffice to prevent future crimes against working women.
Working women's safety
By Justice Markandey Katju
The Kolkata lady doctor's murder-cum-rape has evoked a great outcry in the media, and among doctors, politicians, the judiciary, and others, against such outrageous crimes.
The Chief Justice of India, in the suo motu proceeding initiated by him, observed '' The nation cannot wait for another rape before things change on the ground ''
With great respect to the CJI, my own opinion is that after a few weeks the matter and issue will be forgotten, nothing will change on the ground, and rapes and murders will continue in India as before.
New issues will arise in India, and the issue about providing protection to working women will soon go into the cold storage. All the present hue and cry, to quote Shakespeare's Macbeth, will become '' a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing ''.
In a country with a huge population of 1.43 billion people, it is futile and idle to think that Supreme Court directives can put an end to crimes against working women.
One is reminded of Anna Hazare's agitation against corruption a few years back, and the huge media coverage it got. Has corruption gone down even a bit since then? Not at all. In fact, by all accounts, it has gone up.
In 1997 the Supreme Court in Vishaka vs State of Rajasthan laid down guidelines for protection of women from sexual harassment in the workplace, and this was followed by legislation by Parliament
But have these had any effect, or remained only on paper? In fact, the recent Kolkata incident, in which the lady doctor was raped ( before being murdered ) indicates the latter, while the Vishaka judgment and the subsequent legislation, have been forgotten ( except for some lawyers ).
The suo motu proceedings of the Supreme Court, though well-intentioned, are to my mind an exercise in futility, like King Canute trying to stop the waves.
(Justice Katju is a retired judge of the Supreme Court of India. These are his personal views.)
