December 16, 2012 marked an unfortunate day in Indian history, when a 23-year old paramedical student was gang-raped and brutally assaulted with an iron rod by six men in the national capital. The said incident has shocked the conscience of the nation and has raised serious questions about women’s safety in India. The nation is demanding justice for the victim, who has now been given a symbolic name ‘Damini’/ ‘Nirbhaya’. People are demanding the most stringent punishment for the accused criminals including death sentence.

Damini rape case undeniably is a very tragic incident but it has pierced the ignorance of Indians about women’s safety and has put forth various larger issues to be addressed in order to make India a safer place for women. Though the demand for stringent punishment to be given to the criminals in the said case and seems to be a very justified demand, but India as a nation really needs to rethink the underlying social and legal issues, which extend beyond this rape-case and pertain to many ‘Daminis’ living across the nation.

However, the proposed change in people’s mindsets cannot be accomplished in a short span of time because a huge percentage of Indian populace is still trapped in their conservative thoughts, which inherently perceive women to be ‘inferior’ to men. Therefore, it would be wrong to assume that rapes in India would stop at once. Since such appalling crimes would continue, so there is a need to strengthen the ways in which women can fight against them.

For prevention of rapes, it is suggested that courses on ‘self-defence’ should be introduced at schools, offices, women unions, clubs, societies, panchayats etc. Such a course should be brought with an immediate effect so that women can better protect themselves. Apart from this, focus should be there on increasing the accessibility of the police in case a crime is apprehended. In fact, states like Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Tamil Nadu etc. Have already proposed to come up with quick dial helpline numbers solely for the protection of women against sexual offences. If these helplines could come handy to women in times of distress, it would strengthen the faith of common people in the police.

In the preceding ideas taken from the ‘Damini case’, the emphasis has primarily been on the society, the victim, the police, the state etc. However, one must also think from the perspective of a rapist. The shortcomings of the criminal justice system in India give ample loopholes to the rapists to be absolutely fearless to the deterrent value of law. Hence, India badly needs to instil a sense of fear in the minds of the criminal that they cannot go scot-free, if they commit a crime against women.

How can such a fear be bought in? The establishment of DNA databases as envisaged by the pending Draft DNA Profiling Bill, 2007 seems like a very promising solution to this problem.

A DNA database is essentially a depository of the DNA profiles of the citizens. If India has DNA databases, the police would just need to run the DNA sample obtained from the crime-scene against such a database in order to obtain useful insights about the rapist. Such a facilitation of the rape investigations would increase the chances of the conviction manifolds and would prove to be a strong deterrent for men to not rape.

One might say that having such a database is not a very practicable idea, however, it has to be noted that the only phase which would demand substantial time and efforts is the one where the experts generate DNA codes from the DNA samples.

An adequate pool of experts to carry on this task can take care of this issue. As far as other steps such as the collection of DNA samples, maintenance of records is contained etc. are concerned, there would not be much of a problem in case it is done in a systematic way with the requisite intent.

The government should notify certain centres where the data for establishing the DNA database would be collected. Also, people should be given proper forms and information as to how the collected information in their profiles would be used. Having authorised DNA collection centres, which also disseminate information about the usage of the prospective DNA profiling, address the ‘privacy’ concern about which the opponents of DNA database often talk about. Such governmental centres should be placed under an obligation to keep the access to these DNA profiles restricted only to the investigation agencies when crime investigation is to be done.

All the states would need to establish centres for DNA profiling where people would get their DNA profiled. First, a record would have to be maintained with respect to the identity and residence of the persons registering. Next, the persons would be handled bottles with specific numbering wherein they would be asked to put in their saliva (which is a valid DNA sample) and the bottle number would be recorded thereafter.

It is important to collect the DNA sample in the DNA database centre itself so that nobody can abuse the system. After this, the DNA profiling can be done by a large pool of forensic experts. It is clear that creating a DNA database is really not that much complex as it seems to be. Even if it is, the cost-benefit analysis of the same would lead to an inescapable conclusion that India should take steps to come up with a DNA database because such a database would substantially reduce the rape-cases, which happen in the country every day.