In this video, recorded and first aired in July 2018, The Wire‘s Srishti Srivastava interviews Madhu Mehra from the legal firm, Partners in Law and Development (PLD) on the various stages of justice for a survivor of sexual violence even before the conviction and punishment of the perpetrator.
PLD has studied dozens of cases and highlighted the many lapses in procedure which rob women of justice – from problems in filing a police complaint, to getting a proper medical examination, and then the long process of coming to courts and attending proceedings.
They found some astonishing cases where the victim was made to wait for hours just to be able to file complaint, where the police officials were insensitive as they are not trained and actually try to get the complainant to withdraw her case, where the medical staff are insensitive and do not follow guidelines, and finally the ordeal in court where victims are asked various inappropriate questions.
Mehra analyses the problem with fast track courts and also discusses how capital punishment cannot be a solution for the problem of women’s safety.
