Enhanced sentences, faster trials, better implementation of existing laws and gender sensitization of lawmakers are among some of the recommendations made by a recently formed panel reviewing India’s sex-crime laws after the Dec. 16 gang rape of a 23-year-old paramedical student, who later died as a result of the attack. The three-member commission, headed by former Supreme Court Chief Justice J.S. Verma, was set up in late December during the wave of public protest and revulsion that rocked the country after the brutal crime. The commission was given a month to come up with recommendations and submitted its 657-page report on Wednesday. “We have submitted the report in 29 days,” Verma said during a televised news conference Wednesday afternoon. “The government, with its might and resources, should also act fast.” (PHOTOS: In India, a Rape Sparks Violent Protests and Demands for Justice) As well as legal changes, the panel called for a review of patriarchal attitudes legitimizing violence and injustice against women and proposed a crackdown on the khap panchayats (informal, all-male village councils given to making sexist pronouncements, from demanding that women be banned from using mobile phones to suggesting that the way to tackle sexual harassment is to marry girls off early). The panel also suggested that the humiliating digital vaginal examinations made when victims report rape be ended (a long-standing demand of women’s-rights activists) and proposed that sexual offenders to be barred from political office. The armed forces also came under the spotlight, with a recommendation that “sexual offenses by armed forces and uniformed men in conflict areas” be brought under ordinary criminal law. Under the Armed Forces Special Powers Act, personnel in conflict areas are not punishable under civilian law. The act has been widely slammed by activists, particularly after the 2004 case of Manorama Devi, a woman allegedly picked up by soldiers of the Assam Rifles for suspected complicity with insurgents and who was raped and killed, her pelvis riddled with bullets. The issue came up again more recently in October 2011, when Soni Sori, … Continue reading Panel Calls for Legal and Social Changes in Wake of Delhi Gang Rape