"CRIMES AGAINST WOMEN IN INDIA AND THEIR LEGAL PERSPECTIVES" ABSTRACT Mrs. Tribeni Saikia Assistt. Professor Mahapurusha Srimanta Sankaradeva Viswavidyalaya, Nagaon E-Mail: saikia.tribeni76@gmail.com Crimes are as old as human civilization and Crimes against Women have been in existence since then. Crimes against Women are ubiquitous. Nature of Crimes against Women, its types, dimensions and rate of change vary from country to country and time to time. Even within a country it varies from region to region. This study covers a period of two decades from 1994 - 2013. It has focused on analysing the trends of Crimes against Women after the advent of the era of Liberalisation, Privatisation and Globalisation. Here, crimes refer to only those crimes which are prescribed in criminal laws that have been taken up for analysis. Some of the special laws related to Crimes against Women have been analysed in addition to the general offences enumerated under IPC. 1.0 INTRODUCTION Since the commencement of the state system, safeguarding the law and order and thereby establishing criminal justice have been considered as one of the most important duties of all sovereign countries. Defending women against crimes and punishing the criminals, who carry out such crimes, are regarded as the 'sine qua non' of criminal justice system. In the past, protecting women was considered as the sovereign responsibility of the state and also a moral duty of the heads of the family and heads of the community. But afterward, on account of the diverse socio, economic, cultural and political changes, the plight of women became poorer and there arises suffering in the form of discrimination, repression, mistreatment, deprivation, hostility and humiliation. In spite of the protective role of the state and the society, crimes against women continued to rise up. Women too are no exception to this. But still, they become the sufferers of crimes, rather than offenders. This
common observation can be had so far as the history of the world, from the past to the present is concerned. 1.1 RATIONAL OF THE STUDY India too is no exception to the fact that with the advancement of modernization, women empowerment and gender equality, crimes against women are on the rise. In ancient Indian Society, women obtained a very important position and respected place. Vedas valued woman as the mother, the originator and the one who gives life. The Vedic society she was worshipped as a 'Devi' or 'Goddess'. Later on the "Manu's Code", which is the architect of a "Patriarchal Indian Society" considered woman to be a lifelong dependent upon others, in the childhood on her father, in adulthood on her husband and in old age on her son. Hence Indian women began to be totally suppressed. This led to the gripping of the orthodox beliefs leading to violence against women, both at the familial level and in the social level physically, emotionally and mentally. Right now, even though women in India represent almost about fifty percent of its total population, it is only the male gender that