the molestation of a teenage girl on july 9 2012 in guwahati assam which took place in full public view has brought ignominy to the nation not a day passes without cases of atrocities against women dominating the news headlines this systematic attack on women in public spaces is symptomatic of not just the appalling levels of gender violence in our society but also of the insensitivity of the political class to push through radical reforms to address the same crimes against women especially relating to rape and sexual assault including molestation are steadily rising in the country this is notwithstanding the fact that due to social stigma many sexual crimes go unreported in official records the national crime records bureau ncrb reveals that the proportion of ipc crimes committed against women to the total ipc crimes has increased from 88 in 2007 to 94 during the year 2011 however there has been no radical overhaul of the laws relating to rape and sexual assault but rather a steady decline in the conviction rates of rapists with everfewer victims getting justice despite important high court and supreme court mandated guidelines on dealing with rape cases the systemic inadequacies of an illequipped understaffed police and investigative machinery are reflected in a shameful 26 rape conviction rate nationwide as reported by the ncrb in 2011 it is clear from some of these statistics that the indian state continues to play a passive role in tackling the prickly issue of gender violence in society there have been a number of governmentmandated commissions including the national commission of women ncw and the law commission of india that have called for a fundamental overhaul in the indian penal code indian evidence act and code of criminal procedure to deal with the specific phenomenon of sexual crimes against women but most of these proposals have been placed on the backburner for want of political will with the result that prevailing laws of the land fail to reflect and adequately deal with the myriad ways in which women are routinely humiliated denigrated and assaulted in this regard section 375 of the ipc which deals with rape understood purely in terms of nonconsensual sexual intercourse remains highly problematic the 172nd report of the law commission in 2000 recognised this definitional limitation and called for a thorough review of this provision favouring a more genderneutral and broadbased definition to cover other forms of acts like unlawful sexual contact crimes of molestation and sexual assault that fall outside the purview of rape further it widened the gamut of sexual assault committed by people in positions of authority private as well as public and prescribed an enhanced punishment under section 376 of the ipc which included imprisonment for life as well many of the commissions recommendations were incorporated in the home ministrys draft criminal law amendment bill 2010 which is still pending cabinet approval in addition section 354 of the ipc which deals with assault and use of criminal force with