WUNRN
Human Rights Watch
INDIA - DIGNITY ON TRIAL
India’s Need for Sound Standards for Conducting and
Interpreting Forensic Examinations of Rape Survivors
September 6, 2010
This 54-page report documents the continued use of the archaic practice and
the continued reliance on the "results" by many defense counsel and
courts. The practice, described in outdated medical jurisprudence textbooks
used by many doctors, lawyers, and judges, involves a doctor inserting fingers
in a rape victim's vagina to determine the presence or absence of the hymen and
the so-called "laxity" of the vagina. These findings perpetuate false
and damaging stereotypes of rape survivors as "loose" women. Defense
attorneys use the findings to challenge the credibility, character, and the
lack of consent of the survivors.