Protibaad Forum Newsletter Protesting Violence Against Women Issue No. 3, July 2013 OPINIONS Rashmi Rao: Couldn’t resist writing these lines: boggle the rational mind of most feminists in India or the I am me, a daughter, a partner, a mother, a lover, a woman West, but policymakers are still groping for answers in the Lest you forget I am a human too, dark. Indira Gandhi ruled for almost 15 years with an iron I smile, I cry, I laugh, I rejoice, fist. Her daughter-in-law Sonia Gandhi is now the head of Don’t make me an object of your desire. the coalition government that runs the country. The chief Gone are the days when irrespective of minister of Delhi, Sheila Dixit, has been a leading politician any gender a birth was rejoiced. It indeed running metropolitan Delhi since 1998. We have had looks like we somehow got transported powerful women chief ministers in the north, central and through a time capsule to a time where south of the country. Yet, the fate of women has not the gender divide is rampant. And the violence against improved, arguably, it has become worst. woman is not just limited to abuse/rape…female feticide, Anusree Mitra: Social attitude change is slow. Let's child marriage, sexual harassment, etc. are topping the face it: no amount of discussion in blogs or social media list. A quick analysis and insight of some stats suggest that will make women safe in a society where a certain way of of the total number of cases that made to court, the dressing is perceived as attracting attention, an invitation overall rate of convictions stand at 26.4%, or 4,072 for men's ogling or worse. I travel extensively in all corners convictions while 11,351 acquittals were recorded. Only of the world, and I try to blend in, without questioning Manipur recorded a 100% conviction rate in rape trials in why I should have to wear less jewelry in a city where 2011-12. And this is just rape trials. What about cases poverty and unemployment is high, or why I can't wear pertaining to other type of abuse? Most of such cases are shorts in a church or a temple. Frankly, I have no issues left unreported. Women are expected to take it low, else with these things individually, for I know that adjusting to they are looked upon as too westernized or someone who those simple constraints don't define who I am. I am sure deserved the abuse meted out to her. A woman irrespective of her social standing, whether she is earning or not, is seen as the person who is expected to do the chores of the household. Maybe the upbringing has undergone a radical shift in gone by centuries, one can only ponder. Not a pessimist, but unfortunately a movement might be needed to change the way society functions and conducts itself with everyone irrespective of the gender. Dinesh Sharma: How is it possible in a country which boasts to have so many women politicians at the local and national level that young ordinary girls feel unsafe on the streets? This should 1 there are people who feel differently, and that's okay with damage inflicted on women's bodies, on the map of India, me. But people need to recognize that there is no such where you can, if you want, create a constantly updating thing as unlimited freedom, and anything that is out of map of violence against women. For some, amnesia sync with existing social norms is likely to invite trouble. becomes a way of self-defence: there is only so much This discussion and debate about the same old stuff darkness you can swallow. among like minded people who are not the problem is not Urvashi Butalia : It is important we going to convince or change the mind of too many people raise our collective voice for women, but who are the real problems. We have every right to debate let's raise it for all women, let's raise it so and discuss, but let us please recognize that we are just that no woman, no matter that she be listening to our own echoes. poor, rich, urban, rural, Dalit, Muslim, Nilanjana Roy : Sometimes, when we Hindu, or whatever, ever, in the future, talk about the history of women in India, has to face sexual violence, and no man assumes that we speak in shorthand. The Mathura rape because of the system and people's mindsets, he can case. The Vishaka guidelines. The simply get away with it. And let's raise it also for men, for Bhanwari Devi case, the Suryanelli affair, transgenders, for the poor all those who become targets the Soni Sori allegations, the business at of violence. Let's not forget that the young rape survivor in Kunan Pushpora. Each of these, the names of women and Delhi was accompanied by a friend who too was subjected places, mapping a geography of pain; unspeakable to violence and nearly killed. Let's talk about him too. NEWS : VAW IN INDIA n ASSAM to a place by one accused. The accused who knew one of An 11-year-old girl was raped allegedly by a teenager the girls, managed to convince them to accompany him on the pretext of showing her a movie on his mobile and have a look at his newly constructed house, but took phone at Nagabat in Assam’s Jorhat district. The perpetra- them to another place where his two friends were pres- tor told the Class V student that he would show her a film ent. The three youths, aged between 20 and 23 years, on his mobile phone when she was on her way for tuition raped the girls and dropped them near the house of one and took her behind the school building and allegedly of the victim’s grandmother after midnight. All the raped her. The victim narrated her plight to her parents accused were arrested. after reaching home. Llocal people caught the accused n MADHYA PRADESH and handed him over to the police. Test confirms Manipuri girls rescued from Jaipur n HARYANA home were sexually abused. A medical examination has found ruptured or absent hymens in 13 of the 15 Manipuri Raped in a vehicle. A woman gang-raped by two men girls rescued from an illegal children’s home in Jaipur in who offered her a lift to a religious function in their March, confirming sexual exploitation. The youngest of vehicle. The two accused have been arrested. The inci- these children is only 7 year old; the oldest is 15. Nine of dent, according to the victim, took place in Sirsa town, 260 the 13 girls have been found suffering from leucorrhoea, a km from Chandigarh. The woman told police that she was vaginal discharge typically seen among sex workers and walking towards the venue of a religious function when a women with poor hygiene. According to the report of the car stopped near her in which three men were present. medical examination, the 20 children (15 girls and five Car occupants told her that they were also going to the boys) were examined by a panel of doctors after more same function and offered her lift in the vehicle. The men than two months of their being repatriated. The children took her to a vacant plot in Sirsa’s Sector 20 and two of were rescued after a raid on Grace Home in Jaipur, run by them gang-raped her, while the third man stood there. pastor Jacob John. 19 of the 20 children belong to Ukhrul n JHARKHAND district; one is from Chandel district. Three minor girls raped in Hazaribagh. Three minor Pastor Jacob John was arrested by the Nagaland girls were kidnapped and raped by three youths at a place police in Jaipur on May 2, and by the Manipur police in under Ichak police station in Hazaribagh district. The Dimapur jail on June 13. Sources in Ukhrul said John, incident occurred when the girls, on their way home after whose first wife was a Tangkhul Naga from the district, appearing for supplementary examination conducted by had been visiting Ukhrul from Jaipur since 1997 to preach the Jharkhand Secondary School Examination, were taken at the Tuinem Baptist Church and Nepali Baptist Church. 2 n MAHARASTRA Jaipur. The victim claimed that the boy raped her for two Pune CEO booked for sexually assaulting his daugh- years and his sister filmed both of them. According to the ter. In a shocking incident, a CEO of a manufacturing girl she was first sexually assaulted in March 2011 where company has been booked for sexually assaulting his 19- she was drugged by accused's sister and the incident was year-old daughter. 45-year-old father has been accused of filmed by his sister. After this the brother-sister duo sexually assaulting his daughter for the last three years blackmailed her with the MMS. They also extorted money and had even forced her to accompany him on ‘business from the girl by threatening her of posting the videos in trips’ where she was raped by his colleagues. The girl is a the internet. Later victim confined in her mother and second year commerce student and now stays with her approached police. mother, who separated from her father three years ago. A n UTTAR PRADESH complaint has been lodged in Koregaon Park police. The 15-year old raped. A 15-year-old girl was allegedly accused are presently absconding.