Case for castration

Rape, sexual harassment of women other suchlike crimes seem to be taking on epidemic proportions in the country. On Thursday, the police claimed they had arrested a man in Kashmore suspected of kidnapping and subjecting a woman and her five-year-old daughter to gang rape. On the same day in Karachi, a four-year-old boy died in a hospital after he was raped and tortured. Hardly a week passes without such monstrous incidents happening in the country.

By now the government should have set up a commission to closely examine all aspects of the issue and recommend measures to set things right. But so far the authorities have not dealt with such a grave issue with the seriousness that it deserves. Whenever a rape or rape-and-murder incident occurs, the authorities seem to act on the spur of the moment. Sometimes the alleged culprit(s) are arrested, imprisoned or executed. This has been going on endlessly. Experts agree that the issue of rape and sexual violence needs a holistic approach, and if rape and sexual violence cannot be entirely eliminated, they can be drastically reduced if these issues are addressed with all seriousness.

Despite rape having become a routine occurrence, the government has not even announced that it is thinking about chemical castration of rapists to instill fear in such potential criminals. Chemical castration of rapists has given positive results around the world as a deterrent against rape and other sex-related crimes. Many have been hanged or jailed for rape in Pakistan. Sadly though, even the death sentence has so far had no noticeable impact on sexual violence. The horrible Kashmore and Karachi incidents should move the government to act to prevent such brutal and dastardly acts in future. The Kashmore incident shows the lower depths to which the morally depraved can sink. Not only three men, they were reportedly three, repeatedly raped the mother and child but asked the woman to provide another girl in exchange for the release of her daughter. It is time to make rapists have the bitter aftertaste of their monstrous deeds.