He said specialists in the government sector, which he left in 2018 after 16 years, were required to attend to victims whenever they were brought to hospital after a police report had been made.
“As part of procedure, they’re accompanied by a female officer as a chaperone, and their mother if they’re underaged,” he said. “Then we submit our report to the police. Pursuant to that, we’re then called to testify if the case makes it to court.”
He said he had been called to trial so rarely largely because victims withdrew their complaints, commonly because of family pressure or an unwillingness to be subjected to the stigma and scrutiny of a rape investigation.
In addition to some cases being dismissed, he said, “some of the accused confess to the rape, and in some cases the police and deputy public prosecutor decide not to prosecute because of a lack of evidence. But it’s a very small number.”
The official number of rapes per year has declined over the last 10 years, from over 3,500 in 2010 to around 1,700 in 2019,.
Pravin said this did not necessarily mean that fewer rapes were occurring, simply that fewer were being reported.
He said that this was a product of flippant attitudes, pointing to the recent case of a physical education teacher who allegedly joked about rape during class, which went viral on TikTok.
“With Ain (Husniza Saiful Nizam), some people say it’s a joke, but when people joke about things like this it normalises it, makes people think it’s okay.
“An adult at 30 or 40 might know better. But a 14-year-old girl? In the future, if she’s molested or raped, she won’t come forward because it’s something that’s laughed about. And you’re teaching boys that it’s okay to rape their classmates.”
Pravin said parents must instil a deep respect of women in their sons from a very early age and teach their daughters that sexual assault is not to be trivialised.
“We can’t normalise these crimes. Some might say that we’re better than India or Pakistan, but we don’t want the country to get to a terrible point before we all take action.”
He said it’s heartening to see the issue of casual attitudes towards sexual assault being taken seriously now.
“It’s gratifying to see so many supporters for Ain, male and female. You can’t get 100% of the people to be on the same page, but more people seem to be in support of her.”