Recently, I've met a lot of fairly highly educated men in India who are worried by the inclusion of stalking and voyeurism as offences in the "anti-rape" amendments. While these individuals might have no intention of harassing or assaulting a woman, they are wary of seemingly harmless sounding words, that might be used to describe most of the activity on facebook, being now used to describe a crime.
They are also terrified of how this kind of inclusion would lead to widespread misuse by women, and they expect that women would start walking into courts and claiming that they were "stalked" or "seen" just for the thrill of winning a case.
This is what the law states -
Voyeurism
Any man who watches, or captures the image of a woman engaging in a private act in circumstances where she would usually have the expectation of not being observed either by the perpetrator or by any other person at the behest of the perpetrator or disseminates such image.
Stalking
Any man who -
Its not considered stalking if the man proves -
They are also terrified of how this kind of inclusion would lead to widespread misuse by women, and they expect that women would start walking into courts and claiming that they were "stalked" or "seen" just for the thrill of winning a case.
This is what the law states -
Voyeurism
Any man who watches, or captures the image of a woman engaging in a private act in circumstances where she would usually have the expectation of not being observed either by the perpetrator or by any other person at the behest of the perpetrator or disseminates such image.
Stalking
Any man who -
- follows a woman and contacts, or attempts to contact such woman to foster personal interaction repeatedly despite a clear indication of disinterest by such woman; or
- monitors the use by a woman of the internet, email or any other form of electronic communication
Its not considered stalking if the man proves -
(i) it was pursued for the purpose of preventing or detecting
crime and the man accused of stalking had been entrusted with the
responsibility of prevention and detection of crime by the State; or
(ii) it was pursued under any law or to comply with any
condition or requirement imposed by any person under any law; or
(iii)
in the particular circumstances such conduct was reasonable and justified
While we may not be able to use peeking into girls' bathrooms or tailing women till they are creep-ed out enough to decide that we love them; which is a massive cultural shift, as pointed out by some members of the Lok Sabha; our general, healthy, two-sided, voluntary interactions with women are not threatened by law.
Raanjhanaa is a good example of how stalking is glamorized in our country. To quote wikipedia - "Zoya finally changes her mind because of Kundan's consistency of affection and attraction." Should rather be - Zoya finally gives in to Kundan's constant stalking and psychotic obsession.
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