December 21, 2012

(part 1) abuse of women/girls -- india's shame


Five days ago, during early night hours of Sunday, December 16, another crime against humanity took place in the India part of our planet, on the streets of its capital city, Delhi. But this time the degree of the crime was extremely high. Not that this crime was a first of its kind but it was indeed much much more shameful than previous crimes of the same dastardly nature.

A 23-year old girl was raped by 5-6 men, her private parts violated with such violence (sexual and with metal rods) that it shudders one to even think about it (this newsreport has some of the shocking details --> ....The girl is in a critical condition and faces the prospect of never being able to eat a meal in her life if she survives.But doctors said she was fighting on, and her brother told HT that she had written, “Mother, I want to live,” on a piece of paper. As outrage continued to build across the nation, he added:  “We want the culprits to be hanged as early as possible.” A doctor in the hospital said that it appeared that the girl had been violated with a metal rod. “It appears to be that a rod was inserted into her and it was pulled out with so much force that the act brought out her intestines along. That is probably the only thing that explains such severe damage to her intestines,” he said. According to sources, one of the accused persons who were brought to the hospital for a medical examination on Tuesday confessed to having seen a rope-like object — likely her intestines — being pulled out of the girl by the other assailants on the bus. The sources said that the girl had bite marks on her body. “There was permanent damage to her intestines, and with the intestines completely gone she will have to feed through intravenous fluids all her life. But that is secondary, our primary focus at the moment is to save her life,” said Dr BD Athani, Medical Superintendent, Safdarjung Hospital. ) and beaten up with metal rods; and her boy-friend was brutally beaten up as well. All this happened in a moving bus........).

My heart goes out for this young girl, her boy-friend and their families and friends. The girl is in a critical condition as of this moment.

The police of Delhi, the central government of India under whose jurisdiction the Delhi police comes and the state government of Delhi under whose jurisdiction the transport department (supposed to monitor movement of buses, among other vehicles) have pre-dominantly been in a denial mode or at best adopting a defensive posture. Delhi police serves more as the private army of Indian government's politicians and bureacrats than as the protectors of the general public.

The hope is that the outrage among women, men and children of Delhi and rest of India against this rarest of rare crime will lead to improvements in the law and order scenario for women and girls in India.

Foreigners, particularly the Americans and British, when they look at India for investment and business purpose, they all harp about how India's rule of law is attractive. Well, certainly, it is attractive for them (companies and businesses but not female foreign tourists), but it is largely absent for Indians themselves.

Here are some recent posts from another blog which offers more information and perspectives on the rate of crime against Indian girls and women.



http://genderbytes.wordpress.com/2012/12/19/girl-brutally-gang-raped-in-delhi-outpouring-of-indians-womens-rage/


Girl Brutally Gang-Raped in Delhi; Outpouring of Indian Women’s Rage!

December 19, 2012


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photo by The Hindu
New Delhi, December 2012 
On December 16, a 23-year-old woman returning home with her boyfriend after seeing a movie, was brutally assaulted in a moving bus in New Delhi by seven men.  She was gang-raped and physically assaulted for over an hour with an iron rod.  She’s currently battling for her life in a hospital in the country’s capital.  Her intestines were badly ruptured in addition to a number of other injuries, and she has undergone numerous surgeries already.

This however is not an isolated incidence, and it is not limited to this city.  Rape and other forms of sexual assault against women and girls have reached epidemic proportions in India.  Rape is fastest growing crime in India has seen an increase of 871% since 1971.  See this post.
For the first two days the government of India had no response! The political leaders did and said nothing! And then there was an outburst.  Women and girls poured into streets, demanding justice, government accountability and action! Twitter and other social media networks became a platform for this OUTRAGE!

As women gathered to protest outside the home of the Chief Minister of Delhi, Sheila Dixit, demanding to know why the city was so unsafe for women under a woman’s leadership, the police attacked the crowds with water cannons!
It finally forced the government to respond.  Women leaders finally spoke out.  And where earlier the response from politicians, even the female politicians and heads of departments like The National Commission for Women has been to blame the female victim,  saying they didn’t wear the right clothes, they shouldn’t be out at night etc.  the government realized the mood of Indian women is changing.  They are not going to take it lying down any more!!  They are demanding harsher penalties and police action.   It has forced the female politicians, even ones like Mayawati that have governed states with high rape rates and have consistently blamed and humiliated women, to change their tunes!! They too are mouthing what the female public is now demanding!

THAT SHOWS THAT THE WOMEN OF INDIA HAVE TO KEEP THE PRESSURE UP! WE NEED TO GET MORE VOCAL! AND WE NEED TO VOCALLY CLAIM OUR RIGHT TO SAFETY AND LIFE FROM THE GOVERNMENT BODIES AND POLITICIANS!  NO MORE MISOGYNISTIC EXCUSES! THIS FAR —- AN NO MORE!

 

http://genderbytes.wordpress.com/news/

News

The 50 Million Missing keeps a log on available newspaper reports of violence against women and girls in India.  Click on the news tags listed below to read the latest reports posted.
Most Recent News Reports
Killing of Infant Girls (Infanticides)
Killing of Women for Dowry (Dowry Murder/Dowry Death)
Dowry “Deaths” (via Maps for Aid)
Women Killed for giving birth to a girl
“Honor” Killings
Women Dying Due to Forced Abortion of Girls
Rape of Minor Girls
Gang Rapes
Women Tortured or Killed as “Witches” (Witch Hunting)
Reports on Rape
Forced Abortions of female fetuses (Female Feticides)
Female Infanticide/ Feticide (via Maps for Aid)
Rape (via Maps for Aid)
Rape and Murder (via Maps for Aid)
Reports on minor girls
Reports on dowry
Reports of Gang style violence on women
Reports involving police
Sexual Harassment at Work (via Maps 4 Aid)
Sexual Harassment on Streets/ Public Places (via Maps 4 Aid)
Women raped commit suicide (via Maps for Aid)

Comments

November 1, 2012 7:52 am
Oh my God..! These events are awful..! How anyone can treat other human beings like this is beyond my comprehension and fills me with great sadness for these poor souls that reside in nightmare realities such as you’ve highlighted here…
I sincerely hope that change can be brought about by people such as yourself.. who highlight and bring awarerness to others through dedication and caring.. the knowledge about the plights of these souls and how the perpertrators of these horrendous actions actually get away with it yet again because of corrupt people who sit in positions of power….
Jennifer. xxx



December 10, 2012 8:09 pm
This is the most important blog/site on the internet! We must get governments to react! We hear of horror stories in the Middle East, but nothing happening there can top these horror stories. The entire world needs to react with the outrage needed to stop this. What is the Indian government doing to stop this kind of killings? INDIA! Your women are your most important assets! STOP MURDERING THEM! The entire world knows now. The Indian governments should make this their top priority!



December 12, 2012 5:24 pm
Jean — you are absolutely right! This is exactly what we are saying. That the sort of horror stories that one hears in India on a daily basis is far worse than what is actually happening in many countries in the Mid-East. So we too are puzzled why many people in the west who feel very angry about misogyny in ‘Muslim’ countries are so much more tolerant when it comes to this scale of violence in India which is much worse, and almost ‘normalized’ the way it happens every where, every day.