Silenced By Design: Institutional Failure And The Underreporting Of Sexual Violence
Khushi Baid, Gujarat National Law University
ABSTRACT
This paper argues that the persistent underreporting of sexual violence in India and comparable jurisdictions is not a personal failing of survivors but a rational response to institutions that have repeatedly betrayed the trust placed in them. Drawing on global and Indian prevalence data, conviction statistics, and a sequence of high-visibility cases, the paper traces how discretion at the point of police registration, delay and re-traumatisation within the judiciary, unscientific and under-resourced forensic practice, and weak workplace redress mechanisms combine to produce a system in which justice is dispensed only when a case becomes too visible to ignore. A comparative section situates India's institutional failures alongside similar attrition patterns in the United States and the United Kingdom, showing that the underlying dynamic is not a marker of legal underdevelopment but a structural feature that even well-resourced systems must be pressured into correcting. The paper concludes that without enforceable accountability for institutional non-compliance, judicially mandated protections for survivors will continue to exist on paper without translating into practice.
