Political Diary
New
Delhi, 14 August 2018
Rape Country
NO PLACE FOR GIRLS
By Poonam I Kaushish
India is at war with its girls
and women. As tales of savagery and nightmarish drugging, beating and rape of young
girls unfolds, horrifying a nation. Of shelter homes meant to
rehabilitate girls and impart a life of dignity turn into brothels for depraved
men. The terrifying saga of Bihar’s Muzaffarpur
where more than 30 girls, the youngest a seven-year-old speech-impaired child
were tortured, intoxicated and sexual assaulted over four years by politically connected owner
Brajesh Thakur nicknamed ‘Hunterwale Uncle’ and his cronies.
Even as Muzaffarpur’s horror
tales continue to make headlines, another sordid saga of abuse of
inmates in another shelter home in UP’s Deoria district unfolded after a
10-year-old escaped from the home being run without a licence for more
than a year to a police station where she recited tales of the ‘Horror Home’. “Girls
used to be taken away in ‘white, black and red’ cars at night and brought back
early morning…they were too traumatised to speak and spent the day crying.”
More shocking, the Deoria
shelter home was being run illegally by an NGO as the UP Government’s Women and
Child Welfare Department had suspended its licence in July 2017, after the CBI
submitted a report alleging financial irregularity against it. So far 24 girls
have been rescued with 18 still missing.
True Muzaffarpur and Deoria’s
owners Brajesh Thakur and Girija Tripathi have been arrested. But does that
absolve them of their horrendous crime? What punishment will be meted to them?
Will the ‘law take its own course’ by them being released on bail and the case
dragging on for at least 20 years?
Typically, the Bihar State
Government reaction-action is getting the Child and Women Affairs Minister to
resign, suspend six babus of the State
Child Protection unit while UP’s Sarkar has
transferred the Deoria District Magistrate in the wake of Opposition's demand for
stringent actions. Duty discharged, both have now washed its hands off the
issue. Completely disregarding that all have
collectively miserably failed time and again in making our cities and
environment safe for women and protecting them.
Our netagan close their eyes
because they would rather see intricacies of blaring fabrications than ugly
cold facts, thereby collectively selling their souls for the magnificence of
propaganda. Sadly, such is the state of affairs we are immune to women being
snatched off the streets, abused and gang raped in moving cars, fields, homes
etc.
Importantly, both seemed to
have opened up a can of worms whereby during raids in other UP shelter homes in
Pratapgarh, 26 women were found missing out of 32 inmates, in Ashtabhuja Nagar only
one out of 17 girls, in Achalpur of 15 inmates 12 women were missing, Pilibhit 23 inmates out of the
30 missing and in Hardoi 19 girls missing.
Scandalously, the agency assigned by
the Supreme Court for pan-India mapping and audit of children’s homes by
December 2017 was denied access to child care institutions in nine States,
including Bihar, UP, Odisha, Delhi, Chhattisgarh, Himachal and Bangla. The
reason? We want to carry out our own audits. Sic. Worse, 1,339 homes are yet to
register.
An “extremely disturbed”
Supreme Court
remarked, “Rapes
are happening right, left and centre. Is this the way we are treating our
girls? It is horrible.” Rape is the fourth
most common crime against women in India. Five rapes occur every minute across
the country, molestation
every 6 minutes; kidnapping every 43 minutes; eve-teasing every 51 minutes; criminal
offense against women every 7 minutes. A yovan
raj. And we call ourselves a civilized society!
To soothe frayed tempers the
Modi Government passed the Criminal Law (Amendment) Ordinance, 2018 whereby the
minimum punishment for rape has been increased from rigorous imprisonment of 7
years to 10 years, extendable to life imprisonment. In case of rape of an under
16 year girl minimum punishment is 20 years, extendable to imprisonment for
rest of life and death penalty for a girl under 12.
Sadly, sexual abuse remains widespread
despite tightening of rape laws. According to the National Crimes Records
Bureau, nearly 39,000 sexual assaults occur in the
country every year, in 2016
the rape of minor girls increased by 82% compared with 2015 and 42% of girls have
been sexually abused. In 40% of the rape cases, the victims were under 18.
Chillingly, across all rape
cases, 95% of rapists were not strangers but family, friends and neighbours. One woman is killed
every hour for not bringing enough dowry, over 50% Indian men believe that sometimes women
deserve a beating. So
much for the Government’s Beti Bachao slogan. Sic.
The tragedy is that oppression of
girls has been recast as a virtue sanctified by loving families, perfumed by our
definitions of goodness. And the family remains impenetrable and untouchable. Girls
are trained in silence, they are told to be quiet, dheere bolo, have no opinions, no arguments, no conflicts. Silent
women who are easy to ignore, overrule, and violate without repercussions.
Impunity flourishes. It serves a culture of violence to create pleasers.
Alas, as our polity
brags about Mera Desh Mahan and Brand
India women and young girls live in an increasingly unsafe environment wherein
they are viewed as sex objects and mince-meat for male lust camouflaged as
human animals. Not a few complain that to rise professionally they need a
‘godfather’ who can make or break them. Comply or reconcile to battling it out
at every level.
Such is the state of
affairs we are immune to women being snatched off the streets and gang raped in
moving cars, unless it is a high profile one. In a survey conducted by a London
firm of 150 safe cities, New Delhi is rated as the rape Capital and 139 while Mumbai
is ranked at 126 the bottom of the heap.
Where does one go
from here? Clearly our leaders need to pay heed and seriously address that it
not stopped, atrocities against women will get worse. For starters, policing
laws need strengthening which would deter men to think thousand times before
they commit a crime.
In a milieu which has
systematically obliterated morality and ethics where incidents of moral
turpitude pervade across the country and where our conscience marches past us
in perfect synchrony and Indian women lick yesterday’s wounds and wait for
tomorrow’s hurt, the time has come to seriously ponder: For how long will women
continue to be playthings at the hands of the voyeuristic animals in the garb
of men?
Underscoring the importance of
voicing out sexual harassment issues, women who have been sexually harassed need
to speak up as it will make more people aware and come out in support thereby
taking action collectively. If they continue to suffer in silence, they would
only encourage men to continue their crime. Alongside, the right groundwork
must be laid for women to work in a safe and secure work environment and an
orientation session for men and women on what constitutes sexual harassment.
Tough times call for tough
action. A revolutionary change is needed. Merely mouthing platitudes will no
longer work. Time to remember that democracy is not a harlot to be picked up in
the street by a man. Will we break new ground and unshackle women or live in
rape country where women are unsafe? ---- INFA
(Copyright, India News & Feature Alliance)
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