Claiming that his best friend’s mother forced herself on him, made an obscene video featuring him and blackmailed him into having a physical relationship or else she would file a rape case against him, a 16-year-old boy last week filed a written complaint with the RCF police station in Chembur area of Mumbai. The shocked RCF police have opened a preliminary enquiry into the matter.
The boy, in his complaint, says that around three months ago, he had gone to meet his best friend at his residence in Chembur. There, his friend’s mother said his friend was not at home, and asked him to come inside and wait.
She took a video while raping me-
The boy alleged that the woman offered him a soft drink spiked with some chemical which made him lose consciousness. That was when his friend’s mother allegedly stripped him, forced herself upon him, and recorded a video of the act.
The RCF police station will file an FIR against the accused after preliminary investigations are completed.
Indian legal system has no provision for rape against men-
As Section 375 of the Indian Penal Code stands, rape is something that only a man can do to a woman. There is no room for adult male victims, much less female perpetrators. Although child survivors of both sexes are covered by the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act 2012, current rape laws leave out a large swathe of male victims, who cannot come forward for fear of stigma and a lack of legal recourse.
It also goes on explaining that for rape charges to stick, the perpetrator must be male and the victim female.
International law on crime like of a rape-
If we interpret the international law on rape it has now evolved from viewing the crime just as penile-vaginal to penile-orifice and to penetrative-orifice, but within non-consensual manner.
There are no provisions for adult male rape a victim in India and same goes, if, the victim is a child, the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act 2012, would allow for a charge of sexual assault, but not one of penetrative sexual assault, codified as male-only.
Prompt actions needed-
There will soon be a day in India, where fake cases of rape against men and rapes on men will be disastrous situation which will need parliamentarians and the law makingcommittees to take the issue seriously, which they are not at the moment.
It is also important to note that where rape is a gender-neutral crime, this kind of exploitation by men is almost non-existent for the reasons just listed. The survivors who are legally aided by gender-neutrality, however, are substantial.
The impulse to view the rape narrative as exclusively that of a man violating a woman does an injustice to those whose own rape stories do not fit the typical mould that is easiest for us to understand. As these survivors have finally found the courage to share their stories with us, legislating on such an impulse is in itself a criminal act.
