In this blogpost, Saumya Agarwal, Student, Amity Law School, Delhi defines what is a crime, tortious act and eve-teasing. She further analysis the laws on eve teasing.
Recently, I was researching about various violent crimes like sexual harassment, stalking, molestation, eve-teasing, etc. that are committed against women in India and the relevant provisions in the IPC for them. I found the relevant sections for the various offences. But I couldn’t find a particular section which was dealing with ‘eve-teasing’. After a good amount of research, I found that eve-teasing is not defined as a crime under IPC.
What is a crime?
Marriam-Webster’s dictionary says that ‘crime’ is an illegal act for which someone can be punished by the government. So that means if a particular wrongful act is not defined by the government as an illegal act then that’s not a crime? It is merely a tortious act. Eve teasing is one such act. It has not been defined in the Indian Penal Code. So the Government of India means to say that it is not a crime?
What is a tortious act?
According to Salmond, it is a civil wrong for which the remedy is a Common Law action for unliquidated damages and which is not exclusively the breach of a contract or the breach of a trust or other merely equitable obligation.
The three essential elements of a tortious act are:
- The act should be a civil wrong.
- The civil wrong should be other than a mere breach of contract or breach of trust.
- This wrong should be remedied by an action for unliquidated damages.
All the elements of a tortious act are fulfilled to define eve-teasing as a tortious act and not a crime.
What is eve-teasing?
Eve-teasing is a euphemism used throughout South Asian continent for public sexual harassment or molestation of the female sex by the men. Eve-teasing is not an English origin word; it is a Hindi-English term. Eve-teasing is an attitude, a mindset, a set of behaviors that is construed as an insult and an act of humiliation of female sex. It is the harassment of women by strangers in public places, streets and public transport. It includes both verbal assaults-making passes or unwelcome sexual jokes and non-verbal assaults such as showing obscene gestures, winking, whistling and staring and physical assaults such as pinching, fondling and rubbing against women in public places. It is expected out of women to ignore such incidents every day. Even if they want to complain about it, the police shoo’s them away!
The biggest problem that the police face is, under what section should they book them?
Whether eve teasing has been recognized as a liability or not, it is long due that the eve-teasing should be recognized as a separate offence under an independent head in the Indian Penal Code.
Current laws dealing with eve-teasing
The cases of eve-teasing are dealt under Section 294 and 509 of the IPC.
Section 294 says that if any person does an obscene act or sings, recites or utters any obscene song, ballads or words in a public place and such act causes annoyance to others then that person shall be imprisoned for a term with either description which may extend to three months or with fine or both.
Section 509 says that if a person with the intent to insult the modesty of a woman utters any word, makes any sound or gesture, or exhibits any object, intending that such word or sound or such gesture or object intrudes the privacy of the woman shall be punished with simple imprisonment which may extend to one year or with fine or both.
As there is no particular section for eve-teasing, the policemen are confused as to under what section should they charge them for the offence. So a clearer picture is needed to be drawn for the issue.
According to the Justice Verma Committee proposal, Section 509 should be repealed. The Committee suggested the use of words, acts or gestures that create an unwelcome threat of a sexual nature should be termed as sexual assault and be punished for year imprisonment or fine or both. Presently, use of words or gestures to “insult a woman’s modesty” is punishable with 1 year of imprisonment or fine or both.
Current Situation
The current situation of Indian women is known to the world. All kinds of violence are committed against women in India. Eve-teasing is a bigger issue than rape as it is faced by every woman once in a lifetime but is not being addressed at all.
Rape is being addressed by the lawmakers vehemently, but there is nothing about eve-teasing in the IPC. Rape is a grave offence which is addressed by the lawmakers, but it is an extended form of violence against the women. If something is being addressed at a smaller level only, then there will be less number of cases of rape too.
While researching for the topic, I searched for the statistics of eve-teasing, but I could not find it anywhere. The reasons could be people don’t take the issue seriously or women ignore the issue, or the police do not take cognizance of the issue. We as a society are failing if we cannot protect our women and children.
Conclusion
Eve-teasing should be dealt with as soon as possible. It should be treated as an independent crime and not mingled with other sections. More stringent laws are needed against eve-teasing and not only a law is needed against eve-teasing, but a better enforcement mechanism is needed. Police should deal with the issue more effectively. If the law-makers make a law dealing with it, then there will be a great decline in the number of cases of eve-teasing in the country. Eve-teasing may sound a harmless crime but if not nibbed in the bud can result in grave offences like rape and murder of the victim.
