The BNS, 2023[1], effective July 1, 2024, replaced the IPC, 1860[2], strengthening rape laws under Sections 64–70 with penalties ranging from 10 years to life imprisonment or death. Supported by the BNSS, 2023[3] and BSA, 2023[4], these laws build on the Criminal Law (Amendment) Acts of 2013[5] (post-Nirbhaya) and 2018[6] (post-Kathua), which broadened rape definitions and introduced death penalties for minors under 12. Yet, the question persists: have these reforms curbed the gruesome crime? The answer is a resounding no, as India’s streets and homes remain perilous for women, with systemic failures undermining even the harshest penalties.
Talking of the most recent tragic incidents that have shaken the nation, the alleged rape of a student at South Calcutta Law College underscores the persistent vulnerability faced by women within educational spaces. A few months prior, the 2024 R.G. Kar case, where a Kolkata doctor was raped and murdered in a hospital, exposed police cover-ups, sparking nationwide outrage. The Kathua gang rape of an 8-year-old[7] and the Hathras case[8], where police burned a Dalit teen’s body, revealed evidence tampering and victim shaming. These atrocities mock deterrence, leaving survivors burdened with trauma and stigma. Isn’t it time to rewrite laws, prioritising survivor justice through robust investigations and societal support over hollow punitive measures?
Critique of the Current System
Twelve years since the Nirbhaya case[9] jolted the national conscience and catalysed sweeping legal reforms, the ground reality remains grim. In 2022 alone, over 31,000 rape cases[10] were reported across the country—an average of 86 each day—yet conviction rates continue to hover dismally low. These figures reflect not merely the persistence of the crime but also the profound systemic gaps that continue to obstruct justice.
Despite India’s increasingly stringent rape laws, their effectiveness remains critically undermined by persistent and interlinked flaws—societal stigma and institutional apathy.
At the societal level, underreporting remains rampant due to the deep-rooted shame and fear associated with sexual violence. In many cases, the perpetrator is known to the victim, whether a family member, neighbor, or acquaintance, which heightens the social pressure to remain silent. Victims, particularly minors, face disproportionate trauma and are subjected to judgment and ostracism rather than support. The fear of retaliation, coupled with concerns about family honor and social alienation, often leads survivors to suppress their voices. Even when women find the courage to report such crimes, they frequently encounter a justice system that is more skeptical than supportive.
Hence, in order to fix the first response, the State must also allow trusted third parties like relatives, teachers, NGO workers, or legal volunteers to file complaints on behalf of survivors who are too afraid or unable to come forward. Alongside, survivor-safe systems like anonymous helplines, women-led complaint cells, and legal aid clinics must be strengthened to create a space where reporting feels less frightening and more protective. Such a reform-driven approach recognises that reporting sexual violence takes immense courage and that courage must be backed by strong systems of support, trust, and protection.
Institutionally, the process of seeking justice is riddled with failures. Police often conduct shoddy investigations, failing to collect crucial forensic evidence in time, or worse, tampering with it. Poor forensic training, lack of gender sensitivity, and entrenched corruption only deepen the crisis. Survivors routinely face hostile or dismissive attitudes, with their character, attire, or behavior being questioned rather than the crime being investigated. This leads to widespread erosion of trust in law enforcement and judicial mechanisms.
If India is serious about delivering justice to rape survivors, police reform cannot be optional—it must be the foundation. Every police station should have at least one trained female officer available at all times to record statements in a safe and sensitive manner. Police personnel must be given mandatory gender sensitisation training and legal education about rape laws. The use of Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs)[11] for evidence collection, especially forensic material, should be strictly enforced and audited. Independent committees should review the handling of sexual assault cases at the district level to ensure accountability. Fast-tracking investigations should not mean careless handling; it should mean assigning dedicated, trained officers who follow timelines without compromising evidence. Until the survivor feels safe walking into a police station, legal reform alone will not bring change.
Together, these failures highlight a troubling disconnect between the law as it exists on paper and justice as it is experienced in practice. India’s rape laws, though severe in their penal provisions, are rendered ineffective when survivors are left unsupported, retraumatised, and alone. What is urgently needed is a paradigm shift—from a punishment-driven framework to a survivor-centric model that prioritises safety, dignity, mental health, and institutional accountability. Only when the justice system listens to, protects, and empowers the survivor can the law truly serve its intended purpose.
Justice Beyond the Courtroom: The Mental Trauma We Keep Ignoring
One of the most neglected aspects of India’s existing rape laws is the survivor’s psychological well-being. Rape is not just a physical act of violence; rather, it breaks a person mentally, emotionally, and socially. Most survivors struggle with long-term trauma, including anxiety, nightmares, PTSD[12], and even suicidal thoughts. However, despite all the legal amendments over the years, mental health is barely mentioned, let alone made mandatory. Hence, there is no structured system to ensure counselling, and most survivors are expected to move on without any emotional support. What makes it even worse is the constant judgment they face from society, which often blames them instead of helping them to heal. If justice refers to restoring dignity and safety, then trauma care has to be treated as a core part of legal justice- not just an optional service.
Comparative Lessons: Survivor-Centric Models Abroad
Looking beyond India’s borders offers significant insights. In the United Kingdom, the role of Independent Sexual Violence Advisors (ISVAs) ensures survivors with the needed ‘professional support’ throughout the legal processes, including reporting, trial, and recovery process. These advisors symbolise as consistent, real-time guiding individuals, ensuring that the survivor doesn’t feel lost in the over-complicated maze of police procedures and court hearings.
In the United States, the state-run Victim Compensation Program covers not just the medical costs but also the essential facilities like counselling, relocation, and lost wages, thereby recognising that recovery is multi-dimensional in nature. Most of the states have legislated effective reforms, including structural frameworks, thereby ensuring time-bound survivors’ support.
Accordingly, in South Africa’s Thuthuzela Care Centres (TCCs) duly integrates the police, medical staff, and psychologists are all under one roof, so that survivors need not relive the enduring trauma at multiple points of contact.
These models underline the idea that the justice process is incomplete without incorporating ‘survivor rehabilitation’. India can similarly adapt such mechanisms by institutionalising survivor-support officers, ensuring compensation extends to mental health, and creating survivor-sensitive multi-service centres that are accessible nationwide.
Restorative Justice Solution
Towards a Victim-Centric Justice Model: Reforms India Urgently Needs
While India has made notable legal reforms in response to rising sexual violence, a justice system that prioritises only punishment does not go far enough. Survivors need more than convictions—they need dignity, support, and empowerment. Rooted in Articles 21[13] and 39A[14] of the Indian Constitution, which guarantee the right to life with utmost dignity and equal justice, a ‘victim-centric’ model must prioritise safety, mental health, social reintegration, and protection from secondary victimisation are not just policy suggestions but constitutional entitlements. Here are key provisions and reforms that must shape a truly victim-centric framework:
1. Compensation Beyond Finances
Compensation schemes must move beyond being just financial relief and instead include psychological care and social rehabilitation. Healing should be as much a part of justice as punishment, and restorative justice should emphasise repairing harm through an inclusive process. Each survivor’s experience and needs are different, and factors like age, trauma level, and social circumstances should be considered when deciding on compensatory relief. Accordingly, compensation should fund therapy, vocational training, and safe housing measures, especially for marginalised survivors such as Dalit women or minors. Such programs help align with restorative principles by empowering survivors to rebuild their lives. To ensure effectiveness, states must audit compensation schemes so that funds reach survivors rather than remaining in bureaucratic coffers.
2. Accessible and Holistic Medical Treatment
While the law mandates free medical treatment for rape survivors in both public and private hospitals, the ground reality often tells a different story. Rural areas face staff shortages, and many facilities lack basic forensic kits. Medical response must include not only immediate physical care but also long-term psychological treatment. Survivors deserve trauma counselling as part of their recovery, not as an optional afterthought.
3. Strengthened Legal Aid and Police Training
Though legal aid is a right, it remains largely ineffective due to poor implementation. States must ensure that trained legal professionals are made available to survivors. Police, especially women officers, must receive proper sensitivity training. More importantly, police must inform survivors of their rights from the outset—something that often gets overlooked. Furthermore, Article 39A, which ensures equal justice and free legal aid, should be provided to women in need.
Moreover, restorative justice requires trust in institutions. Police training must include restorative practices, such as mediated dialogues (wherein survivors consent), to foster accountability. Legal aid should mandatorily include survivor advocates- trained volunteers who guide survivors through courts. Independent oversight committees, as recommended by the Justice Verma Committee, can monitor police conduct, ensuring accountability and reducing victim-blaming, a key barrier to justice.
4. Fully Functional One-Stop Centres
Post-Nirbhaya, One-Stop Centres (Sakhi Centres) were introduced as a significant step towards integrated support. However, most centres suffer from poor coordination and limited reach. These centres must operate 24/7, with trained staff offering counselling, shelter, legal, and medical help. Regular audits, periodic monitoring, and accountability systems should ensure that they actually serve the survivors they were meant to help.
One-Stop Centres can embody restorative justice by serving as safe spaces for dialogue and healing. Additionally, community involvement-engaging local women’s groups- can help reduce stigma, encouraging reporting. Restorative justice principles suggest involving survivors in centre governance, giving them agency in shaping services.
5. Mental Health Care Must Be a Legal Right
India urgently needs a legal mandate that requires mental health care for rape survivors. Trauma is not visible, but it is deep and long-lasting. The state must ensure that qualified professionals are available to provide proper therapy and ongoing mental health support to survivors.
Restorative justice should prioritise healing over retribution. India’s current psychiatrist shortage demands innovative solutions. Community-based peer support groups have been witnessed to help reduce isolation, a practice India should undertake on an immediate basis to motivate real-time implementation of solutions. Legislation must enshrine therapy as a right, ensuring survivors access care without stigma, fulfilling Article 21’s promise of dignity.
6. Awareness and Public Engagement
Finally, awareness campaigns must go beyond legal jargon and touch societal attitudes. Survivors are not responsible for the crimes committed against them—not their clothes, not their behaviour, and not their identity. It’s time for widespread campaigns that de-stigmatise survivors and hold perpetrators accountable. Sensitisation must start at schools, workplaces, and local communities to create a culture that listens to survivors without judgment.
Restorative justice involves communities in healing. Campaigns should be incorporated within India’s jurisdiction to help shift existing attitudes by engaging men and women in conversations about consent. Schools must teach gender equality, as recommended by the Justice Verma Committee, to dismantle patriarchal norms. Restorative practices, such as community dialogues in villages, can rebuild trust for survivors. Engaging media to portray survivors as resilient, not victims, aligns with restorative goals, fostering a society that upholds survivors’ dignity and rights.
Conclusion
India’s rape laws may have evolved in terms of punishment, but justice still feels incomplete for most survivors. The system focuses more on sentencing the accused than on supporting the victim’s journey to recovery. Until we bring mental health, social reintegration, and dignity into the centre of our legal response, justice will remain one-sided. Hence, ensuring mental health care and legal aid isn’t a policy matter; it flows directly from Articles 21 and 39A of our constitution, which promotes dignity and equal justice for all. Survivors don’t just need court verdicts—they need to feel safe, heard, and human again. Moreover, the Justice Verma Committee Report strongly recommended better police training, survivor support services, and judicial responsiveness, yet much of it remains unimplemented; hence, practical implementation should be made a priority, and the same is possible wherein the Indian judicial setup undertakes a survivor-centric model. Such enactment mandates that trauma healing is not just a recommendation but something the state owes survivors. It’s time the law stopped treating rape as just a legal offence and started treating it as a deep personal trauma. True justice means the survivor can walk into a workplace, school, or public space without being treated like a symbol of tragedy but simply as a person with rights, dignity, and equal worth.
[1] Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, No. 45 of 2023, §§ 64–70, India Code (2023).
[2] Indian Penal Code, No. 45 of 1860, India Code (1860).
[3] Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, No. 46 of 2023, India Code (2023).
[4] Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, No. 47 of 2023, India Code (2023).
[5] The Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, No. 13 of 2013, India Code (2013).
[6] The Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, No. 22 of 2018, India Code (2018).
[7] Mohd. Akhtar v. State of Jammu & Kashmir, (2018) SCC OnLine SC 415 (India S.C., May 7, 2018).
[8] Satyama Dubey v. Union Of India, (2020) SCC OnLine SC 874 (India S.C., Oct. 27, 2020).
[9] Mukesh v. State (NCT of Delhi), (2017) 6 SCC 1 (India S.C., May 5, 2017).
[10] Reuters, India’s struggles with high rape cases, low conviction rates (Aug. 15, 2024), https://www.reuters.com/world/india/indias-struggles-with-high-rape-cases-low-conviction-rates-2024-08-15/.
[11] National Human Rights Commission, Standard Operating Procedure on Collection & Processing of Scientific/Forensic Evidence in Sexual Assault Cases of Women (2020), https://nhrc.nic.in/sites/default/files/SOP_on_Collection_Processing_of_ScientificForensic_Evidences_in_case_of_Sexual_Assault_on_Women.pdf
[12] Dworkin, E. R., Jaffe, A. E., Bedard-Gilligan, M., & Fitzpatrick, S., PTSD in the Year Following Sexual Assault: A Meta-Analysis of Prospective Studies, 24 TRAUMA, VIOLENCE & ABUSE 497, 497–514 (2023), https://doi.org/10.1177/15248380211032213.
[13] India Const. art. 21.
[14] India Const. art. 39A.
Author: Priyadarshini Goenka
Juris Centre 