Social activist and actress Nandita Das believes that death sentence cannot act as a deterrence against a crime like rape. “I don’t believe that death sentence is a solution to stop this because the conviction rate in our country is so low,” the 43-year-old said at an award ceremony. Recently the gang-rape of a 23-year-old girl in Delhi, who died of her injuries in a Singapore hospital, shocked everyone and triggered nationwide protests demanding new law for the culprits of such crimes. “Despite all that has been happening, there are still reports of such crimes (rapes) still happening,” she said. Nandita said there are other ways that should instead be adopted. “In other countries such reports have been filed which state that death sentence has not lowered the graph of such crimes. In fact, the countries where such crimes happen less, they don’t even have any such thing as death sentence. Such criminals should instead be brought to speedy trial, social humiliation and other such things,” she suggested. Nandita is aghast at current statements by many that hold women responsible for rapes. “This accusation that some people have been flinging these days that these crimes and rapes happen because girls wear skirts and other such clothes is utter nonsense.
