Violence Against Women All Pervading

Violence Against Women All Pervading edited by Ajit Jain published by Elspeth Heyworth Center for Women Release of this publication marks the first anniversary of the horrendous gang rape of 23-year old Jyoti Singh Pandey in a moving bus in New Delhi on December 16, 2012, and her sad demise in Singapore on December 28, 2012, as a consequence of physical injuries caused by six rapists. The publication is also devoted to hundreds of thousands of women who are physically assaulted and raped globally every single day. 02 Introduction Ajit Jain 06 Abuse of Women Sunder Singh Section 1 Canada 10 Ajit Jain Physical Violence Is A Common Occurrence 14 Alok Mukherjee Woman’s Body As Site Of Patriarchal Violence: Bi-National Reflections In The Wake Of The Rape In Delhi 23 Jean Augustine How To Stop Domestic Violence 24 John Valeiro Toronto Police Service On Domestic Violence 26 Judy Sgro Woman: A Third Force Stronger Than Sword And Pen 30 Mohit Bhandari Reducing Abuse … Violence Against Women Against Women Violence Moving Healthcare Professionals To Action 32 Raminder & Ujjal Dosanjh Let Each Home Stand Up 34 Satwinder Bains Living In Fear – Violence As A Societal Scourge 37 Sapali Guruge, Usha George & Vathsala Jayasuriya Intimate Partner Violence Among Immigrant Women In Canada 43 Ajit Jain Reduce Abuse, The Change Begins 54 Susmita Vaidya They Are Beaten, They Are Assaulted, All Pervading Yet The Husband Is Still The Best Person And They Love Him 57 Trina Joshi & Gita Das Gender-Based Violence: System And Society Section 2 India 65 Mamta Mishra Remembering Jyoti Singh Pandey 66 S. Nihal Singh Violence Against Women Is Not Culture-Specific Published By Elspeth Hayworth Center For Women edited by Ajit Jain January 2014 former Managing Editor, India Abroad 69 Prabhat Jha and former Weekly Columnist, Toronto Sun Sexual Violence In India Is Atrocious (Interview With Ajit Jain) 2350 Finch Avenue West, Unit D 73 Rama Singh Toronto, On M9M 2C7 design by David F. Di Benedetto Remembering Jyoti – Rape Victim’s Agony Shocked The World Canada DfDiB Creative & Art Direction 76 Rami Chhabra 416.663.2978 Rising Waves Of Crimes Against Women (Interview With Ajit Jain) 83 Ratna Ghosh www.ehcw.ca The Roots Of Violence Against Women We are indebted for financial support from the 88 Zahra Sohani & Mohit Bhandari Toronto Police Services Board that made this The Reality Of Intimate Partner Violence In India publication possible. 92 Statistical Information Introduction confidence reinforces the notion that rape is a Surgeon at McMaster University Hospital in murder." Bains adds that South Asian women largely invisible crime here, where convictions are Hamilton (Ontario), writes in these pages. "Four "have seen their share of tragic outcomes in this infrequent and victims silently go away." in ten women experience some form of abuse very behavior and in the aftermath, their children Those who assaulted and raped Jyoti have in their lifetime. Physical assault and rape are have become afraid of the very men in their finally received capital punishment but the common. 35% of women experience abuse lives who are wrongly portrayed to be guardians verdict has been appealed by defense lawyers. from their intimate partner such as a spouse or and confidants." As she points out, "This sad, The perpetrators of the crime against the boyfriend. The World Health Organization has heartbreaking betrayal cannot be explained in photojournalist have also been arrested and the estimated that the cost of IPV in Canada alone is any manner of logic or faith, either to our children case is currently before the court. $5 billion annually." or to our society." What about the two men, one of whom lured a The most disturbing figures about violence Widely published reports reveal that "a 5-year-old girl child to a farm and the other who against women come from the United Nations: woman is beaten every 15 seconds; every six later raped her? The rapist was reportedly a friend "One in three women on the planet will be beaten days a woman in Canada is killed by her intimate of the victim’s father. The tragedy occurred in or raped in their lifetime," and it translates to one partner. One in five women who are married By Ajit Jain April 2013, in Nagpur (Madhya Pradesh). The girl billion women who "will experience some type of report being physically abused and 25 per cent of later died of cardiac arrest. "These men should gender-based violence." the perpetrators of physical violence against their be burned alive so that the whole world will see "In the struggle against violence against spouses or girlfriends justify violence. Intimate The gruesome manner in which 23-year-old Jyoti how such criminals ought to be punished," the women, not enough has changed," Raminder partner violence is a global issue: one in every Singh was raped by six men in New Delhi in victim’s mother is quoted in published reports and Ujjal Dosanjh write in these pages. "These two women is from either India or China." December 2012, and the fact that she died from as suggesting. The police not only hesitated to days sound much like yesterday and the present One report suggests people should "treat rape her brutal injuries, shook the conscience of the register the complaint, they tried to bribe the is reminiscent of the past. The barbarity of attacks as a desecration against mothers, irrespective of entire civilized world. As one report put it: "She parents with Rs. 2,000 ($37), suggesting "they on wives, common law spouses, partners and just race, nation, and culture, caste. It stems from the wasn’t your sister; she wasn’t your daughter. But should keep quiet about the case." It is incidents casual dates remains unchanged." imagined ‘power’ of males over females." she could be. The brutality has to stop right here." like this that have led some people to suggest To Dr. Satwinder Bains, Director, Center for In this respect, what happened to Jyoti is "one Then there’s another case involving a young that the first thing that has to be done, at least in Indo-Canadian Studies, University of Fraser of the most brutal examples of a violence that photojournalist from Mumbai, who was also gang India, is to depoliticize the police and make it a Valley in British Columbia, "the word ‘violence’ is is perpetrated against women of all ages daily raped, this time by five men. The leader of the professional force. embedded in the reality of a violation. Violation and in every part of the world," says Dr. Alok group threatened to smash her face with a broken Every day and in all parts of the world, innocent of self and the other are both intrinsically linked Mukherjee, Chair of Toronto Police Services beer bottle that he pulled out of his jacket pocket. women and girls are raped, tortured, physically in the act when violence occurs" and "women Board. He cites some troubling statistics: In According to the New York Times (October assaulted, financially and emotionally exploited come out of the act of violence with deep scars the US, a rape occurs every 6.2 minutes; and in 27, 2013), "this case provides a glimpse of bored and harassed by their spouses or other intimate of pain, anger and rage leaving an indelible mark South Africa, one in four men admit to having young men who had committed the same crime partners. It is not something that’s confined on the psyche that are extremely detrimental to committed rape. In dismay and sadness, he enough to develop a routine. The police say the to India or to the South Asian subcontinent. her and our society at large." The sexual violence, says, "India has an unenviable record of sexual men had raped at least five women in the same Intimate partner violence (IPV) "is known to be she says, "has its roots in the imbalance of brute violence against women that is surpassed only spot (of Shakti Mills, ruins from the prosperous the most common cause of nonfatal injury to force that expresses itself in the most violent by the United States and South Africa." days of Mumbai Textile Mill).Their casual women worldwide," Dr. Mohit Bhandari, Trauma and violated physical manner – that of rape and "There’s an increase in sexual violence in page 2 • Introduction Violence Against Women All Pervading www.ehcw.ca Introduction • page 3 India," agrees Dr. Prabhat Jha, Director of the One of these women interviewed, who’s an situation but also be sensitive to their unique and being. But the sad reality is that such occurrences Center for Global Health Research, St. Michael’s Indo-Canadian, says her husband would beat her important cultural realities." are taking place in various forms all over the Hospital in Toronto. if she didn’t cook the food he liked. He would "We have to talk about this in schools; we have world. A woman continues to be "an object of What’s the root cause of violence against pick up the telephone and make a long distance to talk in the society in general terms and see fun in male gatherings and most men are smug in women? Some experts say in the South Asian call to her parents in India to complain about her where these examples (of discrimination against their belief that they are simply superior beings," subcontinent and in Muslim countries, women poor cooking. women) are coming from," explains Dr. Paula Nihal Singh rightly puts it. "The male mindset and girls are deemed inferior to men.

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