Ordinary Women and Extraordinary Offences: NDPS, POCSO and Murder
摘要
In this chapter, we discuss some other very serious offences of which the Indian inmates I met were accused. These offences were murder and offences under the NDPS and POCSO Acts. All these narratives speak volumes about the corruption prevalent in our legal system as well as the tardy nature of our criminal justice system, which miserably fails these inmates time and time again. These are indeed poor people who are suffering even more in their dealings with the criminal justice system because they are very poor. The family background and cultural relationships all led to the creation and supply of criminogenic situations. Although it is true that these women did fabricate a lot while responding to my questions, it is also true that they have also suffered a lot, in many different ways. In other words, the ‘criminals’ had also been victims—in this case, the victims of a very patriarchal society. From most of these case histories / narratives, we see that the crimes were ultimately constructed within a particular set of social relationships: patriarchy. Patriarchy was a strong mechanism which underpinned the victimization of these women. These are the people most vulnerable in criminogenic situations. In the case of most of the Indian respondents I came across who were in prison under NDPS, POCSO or Murder, economic vulnerability was the main cause for everything—ranging from their selling narcotics and psychotropic substances to selling children and young girls into the sex trade, as well as for committing murder.