Theme : Government Policies & Interventions
Paper : GS - 2
TABLE OF CONTENT
- Context
- Per-Vaginum Examination or Two- Finger Test
- Re-Traumatized Women
- Why is the Two-Finger Test Banned?
- What did the Government & Courts Say?
- Road Ahead
Context : The Supreme Court recently declared that any person conducting the Invasive ‘two-finger’ or ‘three-finger’ vaginal test on rape or sexual assault survivors will be found guilty of misconduct.
Per-Vaginum Examination or Two- Finger Test :
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The guidelines state: “Per-Vaginum examination commonly referred to by lay persons as ‘two-finger’ test must not be conducted for establishing rape, sexual violence” by medical practitioners who carry out medico-legal examination of victims of sexual assault.
Re-Traumatized Women :
- Justice D.Y. Chandrachud said the sole reason behind using the “regressive” test on traumatised sexual assault survivors is to see whether the woman or girl was “habituated” to sexual intercourse.
- The faulty logic behind the test was that “a woman cannot be believed when she said she was raped merely for the reason that she was sexually active”.
- This so-called test has no scientific basis and neither proves nor disproves allegations of rape. It instead re-victimises and re-traumatises women who may have been sexually assaulted, and is an affront to their dignity.
Why is the Two-Finger Test Banned?
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Re-victimises and re-traumatized women: First, there is the gruesome act and then follows the difficult task of reporting the assault.
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An impediment to report a sexual offence: As the two-finger test causes a horror upon horrors.
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An affront to dignity & privacy of women: The two-finger test undoubtedly violated the right of rape survivors to privacy, physical and mental integrity, and dignity.
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No scientific basis for the test: The test is based on the incorrect assumption that a sexually active woman cannot be raped.
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It is irrelevant for the purposes of determining whether there has been a rape under Section 375 of the Indian Penal Code.
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Patriarchal: It is patriarchal and sexist to suggest that a woman cannot be believed when she states that she was raped.
What did the Government & Courts Say?
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The Court pointed at a legislative measure of 2013 when Section 53A was added to the Indian Evidence Act which clearly said that the “evidence of a victim’s character or of her previous sexual experience with any person shall not be relevant to the issue of consent or the quality of consent, in prosecutions of sexual offences.
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The 2013 SC judgment called the test as cruel, inhuman, or degrading.
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It added that a victim’s health, both mental and physical, should be of paramount consideration when dealing with gender-based violence.
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The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare had issued guidelines (2014), saying the finger test must not be conducted.
Road Ahead :
- Ensure that guidelines formulated by the health ministry in 2014 were circulated to all government and private hospitals.
- Conduct workshops for health providers to communicate the appropriate procedure to be adopted while examining survivors of sexual assault and rape
- Review the curriculum in medical schools with a view to ensuring that the two-finger test is not prescribed as one of the procedures to be adopted while examining survivors of sexual assault and rape.
FAQs :
1. When did MoH&FW issued guidelines about the Two-Finger Test?
Answer : The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare had issued guidelines (2014), saying the finger test must not be conducted.
2. Is Two Finger Test Scientific ?
Answer : No, It is not Scientific.