DCW seeks panel to implement death penalty for child rapists

NEW DELHI: The Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) has appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to set up committees in each state of the country to implement the death penalty for child rapists. The appeal has come on the sixth anniversary of the Nirbhaya rape case.

On December 16, 2012, a 23-year-old paramedic student was raped inside a moving bus in South Delhi by five men and a juvenile. The victim, who was severely assaulted, was thrown out on the road along with her male friend. She succumbed to injuries at Mount Elizabeth Hospital in Singapore. This had lead to an outrage across the nation and the world.

DCW chief Swati Maliwal, in a letter to PM Modi, talked about the gory incident that shook the nation six years ago. She said that till date, "Nirbhaya has not been given justice." Maliwal also reminded the prime minister that the law, he passed for awarding death sentence to rapists of minors after her hunger strike, was yet to be implemented.

Expressing her disappointment, she said that despite assurances, police resources and fast-track courts are not yet active in the country, leading to a lack of proper implementation of the death penalty law.

Maliwal made an appeal to immediately set up high-level committees in each state consisting of the chief minister, the chief justice of the High Court, police commissioner and women commission chief to chalk out a roadmap for implementation of the death penalty law in their respective states. Maliwal also stated that it was a shame for independent India that the prime minister needed the DCW chief to ask him to work on women safety.

Maliwal asked the reasons for not fulfilling the Delhi Police's demand for 66,000 police personnel by the Centre. This, she stated, was the demand of every woman living in Delhi. She also questioned the hesitation on digitising the police force across the country as well as not creating enough fast track courts.