tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-65715559815959538012024-03-14T03:35:16.620+05:30RapevineGetting the rapevines together on alarming incidents of increasing RAPE cases in INDIA. This blog serves as a resource on rape crimes in India. All news sources are duly acknowledged.Speaking Mindhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08914306289607478762noreply@blogger.comBlogger104125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6571555981595953801.post-16247903023572937492016-11-23T13:24:00.001+05:302016-11-23T13:25:45.830+05:30National Crime Records Bureau data, 2015: Slight dip in rape, crime against women<i>Report from <a href="http://indianexpress.com/article/explained/national-crime-records-bureau-data-2015-slight-dip-in-rape-crime-against-women-3004980/" target="_blank">Indian Express</a></i><br />
<br />
<i>But some crimes increased as compared to 2014. Child trafficking
data, released for the first time, show a very high incidence in West
Bengal, Assam and Bihar. <b>DEEPTIMAN TIWARY</b> sifts through the numbers for
latest trends in crimes against the most vulnerable sections of society —
women, children and Dalits.</i><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Kidnappings spiked, mainly to ‘force her into marriage’</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
The year 2015 has witnessed a reduction in crime against women as
compared to 2014. Recording a decrease of 3.1%, 2015 saw the
registration of 3,27,394 cases under the head of Crimes against Women as
compared to 3,37,922 cases in 2014, show figures from the National
Crime Records Bureau.<br />
Cases of rape have fallen by 5.7% — coming down from 36,735 in 2014
to 34,651 in 2015. Incidents of gangrape too have shown a decrease from
2,346 in 2014 to 2,113 in 2015.<br />
<br />
There has been a marginal increase of 2.5%, however, in other sexual
offences against women. Under the category of “assault on women with
intent to outrage her modesty”, 2015 saw 84,222 cases being registered
across the country as against 82,235 in 2014. The category includes
offences such as sexual harrassment, assault or use of criminal force to
women with intent to disrobe, voyeurism, and stalking.<br />
<br />
Forcing a woman into marriage continues to be the chief reason to
kidnap her. According to the data, in 2015, close to 54% of all
abductions of women were carried out to force them into marriage. In
2014 too, this reason was behind over 50% of all kidnappings of women.<br />
Police sources said such high numbers of kidnappings for marriage
were probably due to the fact that parents of girls who eloped often
registered cases of kidnapping against the man the girl had fled with.<br />
<br />
<br />
Delhi has the highest rate of crimes against women overall. With
17,104 cases, the capital recorded a crime rate of 184.3 per 1 lakh
female population. Assam is second with a rate of 148.2, with 23,258
cases.<br />
However, the high rate of crime is often a reflection of police
registering cases and dealing with the crime. It does not necessarily
show deteriorating law and order. As this paper has reported earlier,
Somalia has the lowest crime rate in the world while Sweden has the
highest.<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Children made up half of all human trafficking victims</b></div>
More than 50% cases of human trafficking involved minors and close
90% of them were girls trafficked to be forced into prostitution in
2015.<br />
The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) has for the first time come
out with data on trafficking of children. Earlier, data on human
trafficking only revealed the number of victims without classifying them
into adults and children.<br />
<br />
<b>WATCH VIDEO:<a href="http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x4r6gmw_six-cities-most-unsafe-for-women-in-india_news" rel="nofollow"> <span class="font-xl " id="video_title" title="Six Cities Most Unsafe For Women In India">Six Cities Most Unsafe For Women In India</span></a></b><br />
<br />
<div class="col-sm-5 col-xl-4">
According to the NCRB data for 2015, out
of 6,877 cases of human trafficking in the country, 3,490 (51%) involved
children. Of these 3,087 (88.5%) were cases registered under Section
366A (procuration of girl to force her into sex) of the Indian Penal
Code.</div>
<br />
<br />
Assam and West Bengal have recorded the highest number of trafficking
cases both among adults and children. The two states also have a high
rate (incidents per 1 lakh population) of trafficking. Sources said the
high number of cases were linked to the fact that these states bordered
Bangladesh. The numbers also indicated, however, that the administration
had taken cognizance of the problem, and was registering cases, the
sources added.<br />
<br />
According to the NCRB data, Assam, West Bengal, Bihar and Haryana
alone accounted for 85% of child trafficking cases in the country. Assam
and West Bengal also had the highest rate of child trafficking at 11.1
and 3.8 respectively. In Assam, West Bengal and Bihar, trafficking of
children constituted nearly 90% of all trafficking.<br />
Sources said last year Bihar had seen an unprecedented surge in child
trafficking from Nepal. This was in the aftermath of the Nepal
earthquake that had devastated large parts of the Himalayan country.<br />
The Sashastra Seema Bal, which guards the India-Nepal border, had
made hundreds of arrests, and handed over the victims to state police in
UP and Bihar. Most victims had narrated stories of abject poverty that
had forced them to cross the border to seek a livelihood.<br />
<br />
Assam and West Bengal also account for the highest number of overall
human trafficking cases: with 1,494 and 1,255 cases respectively, they
make up 40% of all human trafficking cases in the country. Other states
that have reported high human trafficking figures include Tamil Nadu
(577), Telangana (561) and Karnataka (507).<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Crimes against children rose 5.3% over 2014</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
Sexual offences along with kidnapping and abduction constituted 81%
of all cases of crimes against children in 2015. According to latest
NCRB data, 2015 witnessed 94,172 cases of crimes against children of
which 76,345 were either related to sexual offences or involved
kidnapping.<br />
The year also saw an increase of 5.3% in crimes against children as compared to 2014, when the figure was 89,423.<br />
With 41,893 kidnapping and abduction of children, the offence
constituted 44.5% of total cases of crimes against children. It was
closely followed by sexual offences which numbered 34,452. Rapes had the
highest share of this at 10,854 cases.<br />
Under the stringent POCSO, 14,913 cases were registered of which
8,800 were rapes. Classification on the basis of relation sbetween
accused and the victim shows that close to 95% victims knew the accused.
This is in line with all rapes in general in India.<br />
However, various states exhibited varying degrees of such
acquaintance. In West Bengal there were only 80.2% cases where the
victim knew the accused. In Jharkhand it was even lesser at 76.2%. Other
states states which just about breached the 90s include Madhya Pradesh
and Assam.<br />
Police say it is always difficult to prevent rapes committed by family members or those known to victims.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Highest rates of crimes against Dalits in Rajasthan, Andhra</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<br />
At a time when atrocities against Dalits have created a political
storm and triggered a heated national debate, data from the National
Crime Records Bureau shows the previous year saw a staggering 45,003
cases of crimes were reported against individuals belonging to the
Scheduled Castes.<br />
As per estimates of the Dalit population population made by the NCRB, this works out to a crime rate of 22.3 per 100,000.<br />
<br />
Reported cases of crimes against Scheduled Tribes in 2015 were fewer
than a fourth of the SC numbers — 10,914 cases countrywide, working out
to a rate of 10.5 per 100,000 ST population.<br />
Rajasthan saw the highest crime rate of 57.3 against SCs, followed by
Andhra Pradesh (52.3), Bihar (38.9) and Madhya Pradesh (36.9) per
100,000 population.<br />
Goa had a rate of 51.1 and Sikkim 38.9, but only 13 and 11 cases were
reported from these states, making them statistically mostly
insignificant.<br />
<br />
Rajasthan also had one of the highest crime rates against STs, behind
only Kerala. But again, Rajasthan’s rate of 34.7 was based on 3,207
cases, while in Kerala, which saw a crime against STs rate of 36.3,
reported only 176 cases of crimes against STs.<br />
<br />
Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Chhattisgarh and Odisha followed, with
crime rates against STs of 27.3, 21.2, 19.4 and 14.5 respectively.<div class="blogger-post-footer">http://www.unicef.org/rss/photoessays.xml</div>Speaking Mindhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08914306289607478762noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6571555981595953801.post-50346492478158542272016-11-23T13:24:00.000+05:302016-11-23T13:25:18.447+05:30National Crime Records Bureau data, 2015: Slight dip in rape, crime against women<i>Report from <a href="http://indianexpress.com/article/explained/national-crime-records-bureau-data-2015-slight-dip-in-rape-crime-against-women-3004980/" target="_blank">Indian Express</a></i><br />
<br />
<i>But some crimes increased as compared to 2014. Child trafficking
data, released for the first time, show a very high incidence in West
Bengal, Assam and Bihar. <b>DEEPTIMAN TIWARY</b> sifts through the numbers for
latest trends in crimes against the most vulnerable sections of society —
women, children and Dalits.</i><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Kidnappings spiked, mainly to ‘force her into marriage’</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
The year 2015 has witnessed a reduction in crime against women as
compared to 2014. Recording a decrease of 3.1%, 2015 saw the
registration of 3,27,394 cases under the head of Crimes against Women as
compared to 3,37,922 cases in 2014, show figures from the National
Crime Records Bureau.<br />
Cases of rape have fallen by 5.7% — coming down from 36,735 in 2014
to 34,651 in 2015. Incidents of gangrape too have shown a decrease from
2,346 in 2014 to 2,113 in 2015.<br />
<br />
There has been a marginal increase of 2.5%, however, in other sexual
offences against women. Under the category of “assault on women with
intent to outrage her modesty”, 2015 saw 84,222 cases being registered
across the country as against 82,235 in 2014. The category includes
offences such as sexual harrassment, assault or use of criminal force to
women with intent to disrobe, voyeurism, and stalking.<br />
<br />
Forcing a woman into marriage continues to be the chief reason to
kidnap her. According to the data, in 2015, close to 54% of all
abductions of women were carried out to force them into marriage. In
2014 too, this reason was behind over 50% of all kidnappings of women.<br />
Police sources said such high numbers of kidnappings for marriage
were probably due to the fact that parents of girls who eloped often
registered cases of kidnapping against the man the girl had fled with.<br />
<br />
<br />
Delhi has the highest rate of crimes against women overall. With
17,104 cases, the capital recorded a crime rate of 184.3 per 1 lakh
female population. Assam is second with a rate of 148.2, with 23,258
cases.<br />
However, the high rate of crime is often a reflection of police
registering cases and dealing with the crime. It does not necessarily
show deteriorating law and order. As this paper has reported earlier,
Somalia has the lowest crime rate in the world while Sweden has the
highest.<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Children made up half of all human trafficking victims</b></div>
More than 50% cases of human trafficking involved minors and close
90% of them were girls trafficked to be forced into prostitution in
2015.<br />
The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) has for the first time come
out with data on trafficking of children. Earlier, data on human
trafficking only revealed the number of victims without classifying them
into adults and children.<br />
<br />
<b>WATCH VIDEO:<a href="http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x4r6gmw_six-cities-most-unsafe-for-women-in-india_news" rel="nofollow"> <span class="font-xl " id="video_title" title="Six Cities Most Unsafe For Women In India">Six Cities Most Unsafe For Women In India</span></a></b><br />
<br />
<div class="col-sm-5 col-xl-4">
According to the NCRB data for 2015, out
of 6,877 cases of human trafficking in the country, 3,490 (51%) involved
children. Of these 3,087 (88.5%) were cases registered under Section
366A (procuration of girl to force her into sex) of the Indian Penal
Code.</div>
<br />
<br />
Assam and West Bengal have recorded the highest number of trafficking
cases both among adults and children. The two states also have a high
rate (incidents per 1 lakh population) of trafficking. Sources said the
high number of cases were linked to the fact that these states bordered
Bangladesh. The numbers also indicated, however, that the administration
had taken cognizance of the problem, and was registering cases, the
sources added.<br />
<br />
According to the NCRB data, Assam, West Bengal, Bihar and Haryana
alone accounted for 85% of child trafficking cases in the country. Assam
and West Bengal also had the highest rate of child trafficking at 11.1
and 3.8 respectively. In Assam, West Bengal and Bihar, trafficking of
children constituted nearly 90% of all trafficking.<br />
Sources said last year Bihar had seen an unprecedented surge in child
trafficking from Nepal. This was in the aftermath of the Nepal
earthquake that had devastated large parts of the Himalayan country.<br />
The Sashastra Seema Bal, which guards the India-Nepal border, had
made hundreds of arrests, and handed over the victims to state police in
UP and Bihar. Most victims had narrated stories of abject poverty that
had forced them to cross the border to seek a livelihood.<br />
<br />
Assam and West Bengal also account for the highest number of overall
human trafficking cases: with 1,494 and 1,255 cases respectively, they
make up 40% of all human trafficking cases in the country. Other states
that have reported high human trafficking figures include Tamil Nadu
(577), Telangana (561) and Karnataka (507).<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Crimes against children rose 5.3% over 2014</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
Sexual offences along with kidnapping and abduction constituted 81%
of all cases of crimes against children in 2015. According to latest
NCRB data, 2015 witnessed 94,172 cases of crimes against children of
which 76,345 were either related to sexual offences or involved
kidnapping.<br />
The year also saw an increase of 5.3% in crimes against children as compared to 2014, when the figure was 89,423.<br />
With 41,893 kidnapping and abduction of children, the offence
constituted 44.5% of total cases of crimes against children. It was
closely followed by sexual offences which numbered 34,452. Rapes had the
highest share of this at 10,854 cases.<br />
Under the stringent POCSO, 14,913 cases were registered of which
8,800 were rapes. Classification on the basis of relation sbetween
accused and the victim shows that close to 95% victims knew the accused.
This is in line with all rapes in general in India.<br />
However, various states exhibited varying degrees of such
acquaintance. In West Bengal there were only 80.2% cases where the
victim knew the accused. In Jharkhand it was even lesser at 76.2%. Other
states states which just about breached the 90s include Madhya Pradesh
and Assam.<br />
Police say it is always difficult to prevent rapes committed by family members or those known to victims.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Highest rates of crimes against Dalits in Rajasthan, Andhra</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<br />
At a time when atrocities against Dalits have created a political
storm and triggered a heated national debate, data from the National
Crime Records Bureau shows the previous year saw a staggering 45,003
cases of crimes were reported against individuals belonging to the
Scheduled Castes.<br />
As per estimates of the Dalit population population made by the NCRB, this works out to a crime rate of 22.3 per 100,000.<br />
<br />
Reported cases of crimes against Scheduled Tribes in 2015 were fewer
than a fourth of the SC numbers — 10,914 cases countrywide, working out
to a rate of 10.5 per 100,000 ST population.<br />
Rajasthan saw the highest crime rate of 57.3 against SCs, followed by
Andhra Pradesh (52.3), Bihar (38.9) and Madhya Pradesh (36.9) per
100,000 population.<br />
Goa had a rate of 51.1 and Sikkim 38.9, but only 13 and 11 cases were
reported from these states, making them statistically mostly
insignificant.<br />
<br />
Rajasthan also had one of the highest crime rates against STs, behind
only Kerala. But again, Rajasthan’s rate of 34.7 was based on 3,207
cases, while in Kerala, which saw a crime against STs rate of 36.3,
reported only 176 cases of crimes against STs.<br />
<br />
Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Chhattisgarh and Odisha followed, with
crime rates against STs of 27.3, 21.2, 19.4 and 14.5 respectively.<div class="blogger-post-footer">http://www.unicef.org/rss/photoessays.xml</div>Speaking Mindhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08914306289607478762noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6571555981595953801.post-11033803968836167282016-02-28T08:22:00.003+05:302016-02-28T08:22:57.069+05:30Ignoring Murthal highway gang rapes is our national shame<div class="mediumcontent">
<div id="p_1">
</div>
<div id="p_1">
The gang rapes of 10 women at Murthal
near Sonepat in Haryana are the nation's shame. It's a shame for the
governments of Haryana as well as the Centre. It's our collective shame.
Sadly, it's national media's shame too. Why is it a shame for 24/7
media? Let's consider the facts.</div>
<div id="p_1">
<br /></div>
<div id="p_2">
One, <span style="color: #3366ff;"><a href="http://www.tribuneindia.com/news/nation/women-commuters-violated-by-highway-goons/200406.html" style="color: #3366ff;" target="_blank"><em>The Tribune</em>, Chandigarh reported the news</a></span> of the alleged rape of 10 women by 30-odd men on National Highway-1 near Murthal in Haryana on February 22 (Monday). Two, <em>The Tribune</em>
ran a headline, "Women commuters 'violated' by highway goons" on the
front page as a lead. The web edition of the paper carried the story as
well with same prominence aptly with a deck, "Horror of Highway."</div>
<div id="p_3">
Three, <em>The Tribune</em> is a credible newspaper. It's
not known for sensationalism and trivialisation of news. Four, the story
was credited to two of the newspaper's senior reporters who had visited
Murthal, spoken to people living and working around the spot where the
crime took place.</div>
<div id="p_4">
They had also spoken to the police and army officials who
were on duty in the area on the night of February 22 after the violence
triggered by demand for reservation by Jats.</div>
<div id="p_5">
Five, the Punjab and Haryana High Court took suo motu
cognizance of the incident the same morning, February 22, after reading
the newspaper. Justice Naresh Kumar Sanghi who took the cognizance said
say the incident required a probe by the "premier investigating agency"
of the country.</div>
<br /><div id="p_7">
Six, the Haryana Human Rights Commission also took suo motu cognizance of the report the same day. And lastly, <em>The Tribune</em> reported that the Haryana Police after making preliminary inquiries termed the report as a rumour.</div>
<div id="p_8">
The facts are being recounted here for one reason. Never or
seldom, if ever, one comes across high judiciary, high court, and human
rights commission moving with such speed on the basis of a news report.
It reinforces the credibility of the report, the seriousness of the
incident and its magnitude.</div>
<div id="p_9">
<em>The Tribune</em> reported that in the wee hours of
February 22, vehicles on the National Highway-1 at Murthal in Sonepat
district of Haryana were stopped by a group of 30-odd goons. They set
the vehicles on fire. The male occupants of vehicles managed to flee.</div>
<div id="p_10">
Some women, as many as 10, according to the report, who
couldn't flee, were dragged out, stripped and raped. The women were
found lying in the fields nearby when their male relatives returned
after the goons had left. The victims and their families, the report
said, were advised by the district officials not to report the matter to
anyone for the sake of their "honour".</div>
<div id="p_10">
<br /></div>
<div id="p_11">
<strong>The shame of national media:</strong></div>
<div id="p_12">
For full four days after the incident was reported, the
Delhi media was sleeping. It was so pre-occupied with reporting the war
over "your nationalism versus mine"; so engrossed with reported threat
to freedom of speech; and so captivated with the phony war between Arnab
Goswami and Barkha Dutt that it chose to shove the shame of Haryana
under the carpet.</div>
<div id="p_12">
<br /></div>
<div id="p_13">
Murthal is less than 50km from Delhi. It's on the national
highway linking Delhi with Chandigarh. There were tell-tale signs of
molestation and "violation" of women reported by <em>The Tribune</em>. Torn jeans and clothes, dupatas and undergarments were strewn in the fields.</div>
<div id="p_13">
<br /></div>
<div id="p_14">
There were witnesses who had spoken to <em>The Tribune</em>
reporters, roadside eateries' owners who had given shelters to the
women fleeing from the marauders. There were villagers who were talking
of circumstantial evidence pointing to molestations. There were people
from villages nearby who had said that they had rushed to provide
clothes to women who had been stripped and molested.</div>
<div id="p_15">
By the time the Delhi media woke up to rush, the police and goons had silenced the eyewitnesses into submission.</div>
<div id="p_15">
<br /></div>
<div id="p_16">
No less culpable are politicians who were busy scoring
brownie points over each other in Parliament. For political parties,
debating merits and demerits of "Ma Durga versus Mahishasur" constituted
a matter of more urgent national priority than raising the issue of a
mass gang rape.</div>
<div id="p_16">
<br /></div>
<div id="p_17">
Had the opposition parties raised the issue in Parliament
that very day, the culprits wouldn't have the time to suppress the
incident. The Haryana Police would have been under a lot more pressure
to act. The Haryana police chief wouldn't be staging the charade of
calling for victims of rape to come forward to report the case after
four days, rather than going after the culprits.</div>
<div id="p_17">
<br /></div>
<div id="p_18">
Had television reporters rushed there on the same day to
report the horror of highway as "breaking news", had the horror of
Haryana been on the prime time debate on February 22, the shame of
Haryana would been exposed more forcefully.</div>
<div id="p_18">
<br /></div>
<div id="p_19">
If an incident of mass rape of woman in the backyard of the
national capital could remain virtually off the nation's radar for four
days, one shudders to think of the plight of the people who live in the
country's vast hinterland. The horror of Haryana is a collective
national shame for which we all must hang our heads in shame.</div>
</div>
<div id="taglist">
#Haryana, #Indian media, #Jat Agitation, #Murthal Highway Gang Rapes</div>
<div id="taglist">
</div>
<div id="taglist">
Reference Link:
http://www.dailyo.in/politics/murthal-highway-mass-gang-rape-jat-agitation-haryana-national-media-arnab-goswami-mahishasur-barkha-dutt-the-tribune-smriti-irani/story/1/9266.html</div>
<div id="taglist">
</div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">http://www.unicef.org/rss/photoessays.xml</div>Speaking Mindhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08914306289607478762noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6571555981595953801.post-44199381765397744152013-12-21T14:02:00.004+05:302013-12-21T14:02:28.398+05:30Think. Reflect. Act<div style="border: 0px; font-family: arial; font-size: 10px; line-height: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="border: 0px; font-size: small; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Dear Perverts,</span></span><span style="border: 0px; font-size: small; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="border: 0px; font-family: arial; font-size: 10px; line-height: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="border: 0px; font-size: small; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">We know when you are leching at us. And you look like morons.</span></span></div>
<div style="border: 0px; font-family: arial; font-size: 10px; line-height: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br /></div>
<div style="border: 0px; font-family: arial; font-size: 10px; line-height: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="border: 0px; font-size: small; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Sincerely,</span></span></div>
<div style="border: 0px; font-family: arial; font-size: 10px; line-height: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="border: 0px; font-size: small; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="border: 0px; font-family: arial; font-size: 10px; line-height: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="border: 0px; font-size: small; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Women.</span></span></div>
<div style="border: 0px; font-family: arial; font-size: 10px; line-height: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="border: 0px; font-size: small; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="line-height: 15px;">Source: </span></span><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDYFqQZEdRA#t=26">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDYFqQZEdRA#t=26</a><div class="blogger-post-footer">http://www.unicef.org/rss/photoessays.xml</div>Speaking Mindhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08914306289607478762noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6571555981595953801.post-22203281138921533752013-12-18T18:51:00.002+05:302013-12-18T18:51:36.307+05:30The three year old bravehreat that Delhi forgot<div class="google_ads" id="gta">
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<img alt="Lonely battle for justice: the three-year-old braveheart that Delhi forgot" id="story_image_main" src="http://www.ndtv.com/news/images/story_page/Three-year-old_raped_story_360_17Dec13.jpg" title="Lonely battle for justice: the three-year-old braveheart that Delhi forgot" />
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Written by Ketki Angre</div>
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<b>New Delhi: </b>
He chokes as he speaks. His words barely audible as he tries
to compose himself in between sobs. For a man in his mid-30s, he's aged
beyond his years in the last one year. But the trauma, pressure and
despair that he has been staring at, could weaken even the most
resilient.<br /><br />When his three-and-a-half-year-old daughter went to
play-school on December 17, 2012, it was just a regular day. His family
not entirely aware of the emotional and physical trauma another family
in Dwarka was only just beginning to understand. <br /><br />It was barely
eight hours after the 23-year-old paramedic student was gang-raped in a
moving bus last year last that his daughter came home feeling ashamed,
violated and unsure of what she must do. When his daughter explained
what had happened to her, he and his wife realised she had been sexually
abused at her supposedly 'safe' play-school, by her principal's
husband. <br /><br />Delhi and India was seething with rage as horrific
details of the December 16 gang-rape case started coming to light.
That's perhaps where the similarities between the two cases end. As
India battled for a 23-year-old's fight for justice, this family
soldiered on, alone.<br /><br />The mother of the toddler told NDTV, "He
(the accused) threatened my daughter and said if you tell your mom and
dad, I will hang you from the fan." Her husband adds, "Mentally she is
traumatised. Her physical wounds will heal. But what about her
psychological scars? Many nights she wakes up screaming."<br /><br />The
police lodged an FIR. The child was also made to sign as complainant,
though her signature was nothing more than a few letters of the alphabet
she had learned at school, something, that she, not surprisingly,
couldn't remember the next time she was asked about it.<br /><br />The child
even identified the accused in a police line-up, gave a statement to a
magistrate but the case hasn't moved much in the last one year. On the
other hand, the accused, who is in his forties, was arrested, and got
bail in a few weeks.<br /><br />The attempt to buy this family's silence
came just a few days before the bail application. Her mother says, "The
accused's sister came a few days before the bail hearing and offered us
money. She said they would give us <span class="rupee">R<span>s.</span></span>
4-5 lakh, even more, to stop pursuing the case. They tried to
intimidate us by saying it's about our child's honour and that they had
enough money to get away. We told them, our daughter's honour is not for
sale."<br /><br />The four-year-old has spent most of the last one year
between the court room and the police station. In her case, there was no
public outcry for justice - not even a fast-track court. The biggest
irony: for her to get justice she has had to remember every detail of
her trauma during the court hearings that she is trying so hard to
forget.<br /><br />The family has been threatened, intimidated, even lured.
They have had little social support, save an NGO that is helping them
with legal aid but the father is the only earning member, who does two
jobs to keep the house running. <br /><br />Ask him how he finds the
strength to fight, the father says, "My daughter is my inspiration.
Whenever I look at her, it strengthens my determination to fight. I want
to see her smile without any fear. I want my daughters to succeed. Most
of all, I don't want this to happen to anyone else."<br /><br />It's this single-minded determination and hope that has kept him going. <br /><br />One
year after Delhi's gang-rape, many have talked of keeping the flame
Delhi's brave-heart lit alive. It's a spirit that this father and mother
strive for every day no matter what the odds are.<br />
<br />
Source: http://www.ndtv.com/article/cities/lonely-battle-for-justice-the-three-year-old-braveheart-that-delhi-forgot-459942?ndtv_rhs <div class="blogger-post-footer">http://www.unicef.org/rss/photoessays.xml</div>Speaking Mindhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08914306289607478762noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6571555981595953801.post-27781011663486878812013-11-27T17:13:00.002+05:302013-11-27T17:13:39.457+05:30It couldn't get any worse than this!<h1>
<span style="font-size: small;">Assam: 4 men gangrape woman, gouge her eyes out, kill her</span> </h1>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Four men allegedly raped a woman inside a tempo, gouged out her eyes
and beat her before throwing the victim out of the vehicle leading to
her death in upper Assam's Lakhimpur district, sparking outrage from locals.</span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"> </span></h1>
<h1>
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">The incident took place on Friday when the woman had boarded a
shared tempo to pick up her six-year-old daughter from school at
Boginadi area, about 14 km from the district headquarters town
Lakhimpur, police sources said.</span></span>
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The woman was allegedly raped by the four men inside the tempo
before they gouged out her eyes, injured her on the head and neck, they
said.
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<img alt="Assam: 4 men gangrape woman, gouge her eyes out, kill her" src="http://static.ibnlive.in.com/ibnlive/pix/sitepix/11_2013/assam-4-men-gangrape-woman-gorge-her-eyes-kill-her_251113024659.jpg" title="Assam: 4 men gangrape woman, gouge her eyes out, kill her" width="517px" /></div>
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Assam: 4 men gangrape woman, gorge her eyes, kill her</h3>
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The locals saw the accused throwing the injured woman out of the
tempo, about 50 metres away from Boginadi police station on the National
Highway following which they informed the police which admitted her to a
local hospital. The woman was later taken to the Gauhati Medical
College Hospital where she succumbed to her wounds on Sunday.
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Women's organisations and locals blocked the National Highway 52
on Monday with her body and condemned the incident, demanding justice
for the woman and arrest of the culprits.
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On the district administration officials assuring them to nab the
culprits, the protesters withdrew their blockade on the road, which had
disrupted traffic movement to and from Arunachal Pradesh for about two
hours.
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Meanwhile, police has picked up two persons for questioning in this connection.
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<span style="font-size: small;"> Source: Press Trust of India - http://ibnlive.in.com/news/assam-4-men-gangrape-woman-gouge-her-eyes-out-kill-her/436045-3-251.html</span></h1>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">http://www.unicef.org/rss/photoessays.xml</div>Speaking Mindhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08914306289607478762noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6571555981595953801.post-10263674459874736522013-11-15T10:19:00.000+05:302013-11-15T12:22:17.610+05:30NIRBHAYA/FEARLESS "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has." Margaret Mead<br />
<br />
An appeal to all of you out there who watch this theatrical form of the 'NIRBHAYA' story - No young girl, women, children should go through such heart wrenching violence in India and through all the corners of this very world.<br />
I salute Purna Jagannathan, Yael Farber and their entire theater group for putting up this story before us. <br />
<br />
To ensure that it reaches all of us, to know, to feel the pain, to understand and mobilse a larger audience to combat violence against women. To not let go off the perpetrators of this heinous crime committed against women across the world. <br />
<br />
"NIRBHAYA" - Inspirational theater empowering the survivors of gender-based violence to speak out worldwide. Directed by Yael Farber.<br />
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Please do watch and share: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/nirbhaya/nirbhaya-award-winning-human-rights-theatre-india<br />
<br />
<iframe frameborder="0" height="360" scrolling="no" src="http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/nirbhaya/nirbhaya-award-winning-human-rights-theatre-india/widget/video.html" width="480"> </iframe><br /><div class="blogger-post-footer">http://www.unicef.org/rss/photoessays.xml</div>Speaking Mindhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08914306289607478762noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6571555981595953801.post-3081514005018697332013-11-12T17:32:00.000+05:302013-11-28T00:47:32.829+05:30Through the eyes of moral values and the mock of intellectual relationships - Sexual Harassment by Jurists gives a new perspective!<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><u>"Through my looking Glass" - by Stella James</u></b></div>
<br />
<i style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;">Sometimes the most difficult things to write about are also the most essential. I feel this is especially true when many people, much more scholarly than oneself, have already said and written a lot around the issue, and yet your own experience does not seem to fit into the wide net that they’ve cast. Gandhi once said “I have something far more powerful than arguments, namely, experience”. And it is from these words that I derive what I consider the ‘value’ of this piece – not my experience per se, but from what I feel that my experience can tell us about much discussed issues in the country today.</i><br />
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Last December was momentous for the feminist movement in the country – almost an entire population seemed to rise up spontaneously against the violence on women, and the injustices of a seemingly apathetic government. In the strange irony of situations that our world is replete with, the protests were the backdrop of my own experience. In Delhi at that time, interning during the winter vacations of my final year in University, I dodged police barricades and fatigue to go to the assistance of a highly reputed, recently retired Supreme Court judge whom I was working under during my penultimate semester. For my supposed diligence, I was rewarded with sexual assault (not physically injurious, but nevertheless violating) from a man old enough to be my grandfather. I won’t go into the gory details, but suffice it to say that long after I’d left the room, the memory remained, in fact, still remains, with me.</div>
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So what bothered me about this incident? As a conditioned member of the society, I had quickly “gotten over” the incident. But was that what worried me: that I had accepted what was essentially an ‘unacceptable’ situation. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that the crux of my unease lay in my inability to find a frame in which to talk, or even <i style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">think</i>, about my experience. While the incident affected me deeply, I felt little anger and almost no rancour towards the man; instead I was shocked and hurt that someone I respected so much would do something like this. My strongest reaction really, was overwhelming sadness. But this sort of response was new to me. That I could understand his actions and forgive him for them, or that I could continue to think of him as an essentially ‘good’ person, seemed a naïve position that were completely at odds with what I had come to accept was the “right” reaction to such incidents.</div>
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This emotional response was also completely at odds with the powerful feelings of righteous anger that the protestors in Delhi displayed. I am not trying to say that anger at the violence that women face is not a just or true response, but the polarization of women’s rights debates in India along with their intense emotionality, left me feeling that my only options were to either strongly condemn the judge or to betray my feminist principles. Perhaps this confusion came out of an inadequate understanding of feminist literature, but if so, isn’t then my skewed perception a failing of feminism itself? If the shared experiences of women cannot be easily understood through a feminist lens, then clearly there is a cognitive vacuum that feminism fails to fill. Feminists talk of the guilt a woman faces when sexually harassed, like it is <i style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">her </i>fault. I felt a similar guilt, except, my guilt wasn’t at being assaulted, but at not reacting more strongly than I did. The very perspective that was meant to help me make sense of my experiences as a woman was the one that obscured the resolution of the problem in my own mind, presumably an effect that feminism does not desire. And if not a result of feminist theory itself, the form that it has taken in India, especially after recent incidents of sexual assault, strengthened the feeling of “If you’re not with us, you’re against us” in a fight that I feel I can no longer take sides in.</div>
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All the talk during that time was of stricter punishment, of baying for the blood of “creepy” men. Five years of law school had taught me to look to the law for all solutions – even where I knew that the law was hopelessly inadequate – and my reluctance to wage a legal battle against the judge left me feeling cowardly. On reflection though, I cannot help but wonder why I should have felt that way. As mentioned earlier, I bore, and still bear, no real ill-will towards the man, and had no desire to put his life’s work and reputation in question. On the other hand, I felt I had a responsibility to ensure that other young girls were not put in a similar situation. But I have been unable to find a solution that allows that. Despite the heated public debates, despite a vast army of feminist vigilantes, despite new criminal laws and sexual harassment laws, I have not found closure. The lack of such an alternative led to my facing a crippling sense of intellectual and moral helplessness.</div>
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The incident is now a while behind me, and they say time heals all wounds. But during the most difficult emotional times, what helped me most was the ‘insensitivity’ of a close friend whose light-hearted mocking allowed me to <i style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">laugh</i> at an incident (and a man) that had caused me so much pain. Allowing myself to feel more than just anger at a man who violated me, something that I had never done before, is liberating! So, I want to ask you to think of one thing alone – when dealing with sexual violence, can we allow ourselves to embrace feelings beyond or besides anger, and to accept the complexity of emotions that we face when dealing with <i style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">any</i> traumatic experience?</div>
Source: <a href="http://jilsblognujs.wordpress.com/2013/11/06/through-my-looking-glass/">http://jilsblognujs.wordpress.com/2013/11/06/through-my-looking-glass/</a><div class="blogger-post-footer">http://www.unicef.org/rss/photoessays.xml</div>Speaking Mindhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08914306289607478762noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6571555981595953801.post-88790454560285727922013-11-06T14:50:00.002+05:302013-11-06T14:50:46.192+05:30Incest was considered sinful many moons back, now rape gets a new name- 'revenge'. All in the name of honor!<h1 style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; color: #333333; display: inline; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Dad, friend rape and kill teen for eloping with boy</span></h1>
<span class="arttle" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; display: block; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 36px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative;"></span><span class="byline" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 11px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 3px 0px 0px;"><span class="imghov top4" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 3px 0px 0px; position: relative; top: 4px;"><span id="auim" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 3px 0px 0px;"></span></span><a class="italic" href="http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/toireporter/author-Sandhya-Nair.cms" rel="author" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; color: #024d99; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Sandhya Nair</a>, TNN</span><br />
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<span class="byline" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 11px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 3px 0px 0px;"><span style="color: #3f3f3f; font-family: georgia; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;">MUMBAI: A 17-year-old girl who had eloped to Mumbai with her </span><a href="http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/topic/boyfriend" style="border: 0px; color: #024d99; font-family: georgia; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">boyfriend</a><span style="color: #3f3f3f; font-family: georgia; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;"> from Uttar Pradesh was allegedly gang-raped and murdered by her father and his friend on October 31 in the </span>jungles of Kashimira<span style="color: #3f3f3f; font-family: georgia; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;">. She was reportedly four months pregnant.</span><br style="color: #3f3f3f; font-family: georgia; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="color: #3f3f3f; font-family: georgia; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="color: #3f3f3f; font-family: georgia; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;">The accused men were arrested on Monday and remanded in police custody till November 15. "They have independently confessed to the rape and murder," said senior inspector Fatehsinh Patil of Kashimira police.</span><br style="color: #3f3f3f; font-family: georgia; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="color: #3f3f3f; font-family: georgia; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="color: #3f3f3f; font-family: georgia; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;">The girl had eloped with her 19-year-old boyfriend from their village of Komalpur in UP's Ghazipur district four months ago. The couple had a wedding ceremony in a temple and were staying in Bhayander(West).</span><br style="color: #3f3f3f; font-family: georgia; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="color: #3f3f3f; font-family: georgia; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="color: #3f3f3f; font-family: georgia; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;">Two weeks ago, the girl's 45-year-old father, a labourer, tracked them down. He and his friend — a resident of Dachkulpada Road of Kashimira — went to the girl's house and dragged her away. The boyfriend, who works as a labourer, allegedly fled during the encounter.</span><br style="color: #3f3f3f; font-family: georgia; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="color: #3f3f3f; font-family: georgia; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="color: #3f3f3f; font-family: georgia; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;">At his friend's home, the father urged the girl to return to their hometown but she refused. Incensed, he and his friend forcibly took her into the jungles at Dachkulpada in Kashimira on the night of October 31. The girl was first raped by the father, who then asked his friend to repeat the act to "teach her a lesson", said the police.</span><br style="color: #3f3f3f; font-family: georgia; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="color: #3f3f3f; font-family: georgia; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="color: #3f3f3f; font-family: georgia; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;">Fearing she would report the sexual assault, they strangled her with her dupatta. The body was left at the spot. They returned to the jungle the next day to confirm the girl was dead and moved the body into some bushes.</span><br style="color: #3f3f3f; font-family: georgia; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="color: #3f3f3f; font-family: georgia; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="color: #3f3f3f; font-family: georgia; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;">According to the Kashimira police, the murder came to light when the father, in a drunk state, mentioned raping and killing his daughter to a waiter in a hotel in Bhayander on Saturday. The waiter informed his boss, who alerted the Kashimira police. On Monday, police picked up the father, who led them to the decomposed body. His friend was arrested on Tuesday morning.</span><br style="color: #3f3f3f; font-family: georgia; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="color: #3f3f3f; font-family: georgia; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="color: #3f3f3f; font-family: georgia; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;">The father told the police that she was four months </span>pregnant<span style="color: #3f3f3f; font-family: georgia; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;"> and that she had eloped with the boy earlier in the year too. He had convinced her to return home on that occasion. He said the elopement had "tarnished the family name" and her frequent elopement for "sex was the reason he raped her and got his friend to do so too".</span><br style="color: #3f3f3f; font-family: georgia; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="color: #3f3f3f; font-family: georgia; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="color: #3f3f3f; font-family: georgia; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;">The father and his friend have been booked under IPC sections 302 (murder), 376 (gang rape), 201 (disappearance of evidence) and 34 (common intention). The police are searching for the girl's boyfriend.</span></span><br />
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<span class="byline" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 11px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 3px 0px 0px;"><span style="color: #3f3f3f; font-family: georgia; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;"><b>Source: </b></span></span><a href="http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai/Dad-friend-rape-and-kill-teen-for-eloping-with-boy/articleshow/25277528.cms">http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai/Dad-friend-rape-and-kill-teen-for-eloping-with-boy/articleshow/25277528.cms</a><div class="blogger-post-footer">http://www.unicef.org/rss/photoessays.xml</div>Speaking Mindhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08914306289607478762noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6571555981595953801.post-76461952363139570002013-10-30T17:32:00.002+05:302013-10-30T17:34:11.989+05:30Gang rape in India, routine and invisible<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 11px;">Ellen Barry & Mansi Choksi</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 11px;">, NYT News Service </span><span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 11px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 3px 0px 0px;">|</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 11px;"> Oct 27, 2013, 12.09 PM IST</span><br />
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The gang rape of a photojournalist by five suspects in Mumbai reinforces the notion that such crimes remain largely invisible in India.</div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: georgia; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;">MUMBAI, India — At 5:30pm on that Thursday, four young men were playing cards, as usual, when Mohammed Kasim Sheikh's cellphone rang and he announced that it was time to go hunting. Prey had been spotted, he told a friend. When the host asked what they were going to hunt, he said, "A beautiful deer."</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: georgia; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;">As two men rushed out, the host smirked, figuring they did not like losing at cards.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: georgia; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;">Two hours later, a 22-year-old photojournalist limped out of a ruined building. She had been raped repeatedly by five men, asked by one to re-enact pornographic acts displayed on a cellphone. After she left, the men dispersed to their wives or mothers, if they had them; it was dinnertime. None of their previous victims had gone to the police. Why should this one?</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: georgia; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;">The trial in the Mumbai gang-rape case has opened to a drowsy and ill-attended courtroom, without </span><a href="http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/topic/The-Crush" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #024d99; font-family: georgia; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">the crush</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: georgia; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;"> of reporters who documented every twist in a similar case in New Delhi in which a woman died after being gang-raped on a private bus. The accused, barefoot, sit on a bench at the back of the courtroom, observing the arguments with blank expressions, as if they were being conducted in Mandarin. All have pleaded not guilty. They are slight men with ordinary faces, nothing imposing, the kind one might see at any bus stop or tea stall.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: georgia; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;">But the Mumbai case provides an unusual glimpse into a group of bored young men who had committed the same crime often enough to develop a routine. The police say the men had committed at least five rapes in the same spot. Their casual confidence reinforces the notion that rape has been a largely invisible crime here, where convictions are infrequent and victims silently go away. Not until their arrest, at a moment when sexual violence has grabbed headlines and risen to the top of the state's agenda, did the seriousness of the crime sink in.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: georgia; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;">An editor at the photographer's publication, who was present when a witness identified the first of the five suspects, a </span><a href="http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/topic/Juvenile-(musician)" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #024d99; font-family: georgia; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">juvenile</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: georgia; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;">, said the teenager dissolved in tears as soon as he was accused.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: georgia; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;">"It was exactly like watching a kid in school who has been caught doing something," said the editor, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to protect the identity of the victim, who cannot be identified according to Indian law. "It's like a bunch of kids who found a dog and tied a bunch of firecrackers to its tail, just to see what would happen. Only in this case it was far more egregious. It was malevolent, what happened."</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: georgia; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;">In spots Mumbai is an anarchic jumble, its high-rise buildings flanked by vest-pocket slums and vacant properties that have reverted to near-wilderness. One such place is the Shakti Mills, a ruin from the prosperous days of Mumbai's textile industry. When night falls, it is a treacherous span of darkness lined with sinkholes and debris, but still in </span><a href="http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/topic/The-Middle" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #024d99; font-family: georgia; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">the middle</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: georgia; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;"> of the city, still close enough to look up and watch the lights flicker on in the Shangri-La Hotel.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: georgia; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;">The photographer and her colleague, a 21-year-old man, were interns at an English-language publication and had decided to include this spot — the backdrop for any number of fashion shoots — as part of a photo essay on the city's abandoned buildings, the editor said. On that Thursday last August, they reached the ruined mill about an hour before sunset.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: georgia; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;">The five men they encountered there later came from slums near the mill complex, claustrophobic concrete warrens where electrical wires tangle at one's head and acrid water flows in open gutters around one's feet.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: georgia; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;">None of the men worked regularly. There were jobs chicken-plucking at a neighborhood stand — a hot, stinking eight-hour shift that paid 250 rupees, or $4. The men told their families they wanted something better, something indoors, but that thing never seemed to come. They passed time playing cards and drinking. Luxury was pressed in their faces in the sinuous form of the Lodha Bellissimo, a 48-story apartment building rising from an adjacent lot.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: georgia; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;">"Every boy in this neighborhood, including myself, would look at those buildings and say, 'One day, I will own a flat in that building,' " said Yasin Sheikh, 22, who knew two of the accused men from the neighborhood. Because of his work helping find slum locations for film crews, he sometimes has a chance to interact with wealthy people, he said, and it fills him with yearning.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: georgia; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;">"I feel really sad around them, because I want to sit at the table with them," he said.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: georgia; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;">Only Kasim Sheikh, 20, the card player who took the call, seemed to have shaken off the drag of poverty. A plump man in a neighborhood of the half-starved, he wore flashy shirts and hooked up his </span><a href="http://timesofindia.speakingtree.in/topics/life/friends" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #024d99; font-family: georgia; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">friends</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: georgia; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;"> with catering jobs at weddings. He had been convicted of theft — iron, steel and other scrap from a railroad site — and occasionally provided information to the police, according to Mumbai's joint police commissioner, Himanshu Roy.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: georgia; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;">Some people steered clear of Sheikh. The grandmother of one of the accused men, a 16-year-old whose name is being withheld because of his age, had forbidden Sheikh to cross their threshold. But her grandson craved nice things; that was his weakness, his grandmother said. Sheikh "wore good clothes, he had a nice mobile, obviously he would, because he was a thief," said Yasin Sheikh, the neighbor.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: georgia; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;">When another of their friends, a 27-year-old father of two named Salim Ansari, spotted the interns in the mill that day, the first thing he did was call Kasim Sheikh to tell him that their prey had arrived.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: georgia; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;">Nothing to lose</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: georgia; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;">During the year since the Delhi gang rape, sexual violence has been discussed endlessly in India, but there are few clear answers to the questions of how much is it happening or why.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: georgia; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;">One problem is that perpetrators may not view their actions as a grave crime, but something closer to mischief. A survey of more than 10,000 men carried out in six Asian countries — India not among them — and published in The Lancet Global Health journal in September came up with startling data. It found that, when the word "rape" was not used as part of a questionnaire, more than one in 10 men in the region admitted to forcing sex on a woman who was not their partner.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: georgia; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;">Asked why, 73 percent said the reason was "entitlement." Fifty-nine percent said their motivation was "entertainment seeking," agreeing with the statements "I wanted to have fun" or "I was bored." Flavia Agnes, a Mumbai women's rights lawyer who has been working on rape cases since the 1970s, said the findings rang true to her experience.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: georgia; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;">"It's just frivolous; they just do it casually," she said. "There is so much abject poverty. They just want to have a little fun on the side. That's it. See, they have nothing to lose."</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: georgia; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;">The photographer and her colleague reached the mill but, visually, it was not what they wanted. That is when two men approached them, the victim told the police later, offering to show them a route farther in. There the images were better, and the two had been working for half an hour when the two men returned.</span><br />
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<strong style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: georgia; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">'The prey is here'</strong><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: georgia; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;">This time they came back with a third, Sheikh, who told them something odd — "Our boss has seen you, and you have to come with us now" — and insisted they take a path deeper into the complex. As they walked, she called an editor, who said to leave immediately, but it was too late for that. "Come inside, the prey is here," Sheikh called out, and two more men joined them.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: georgia; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;">The men said that the woman's colleague was a murder suspect, asked the pair to remove their belts and used them to tie the man up. After that, the woman told the police, "the third person and a person who had a mustache took me to a place that was like a broken room."</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: georgia; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;">The men had done the same thing a month before, said Roy, the police commissioner, taking turns raping an 18-year-old call-center worker who, accompanied by her boyfriend, had sprained her ankle and was trying to take a shortcut through the mill. They had done the same thing with a woman who worked as a scavenger in a </span><a href="http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/topic/Garbage-(musician)" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #024d99; font-family: georgia; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">garbage</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: georgia; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;"> dump, and a sex worker, and a transvestite, Roy said.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: georgia; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;">Sheikh took the broken neck of a beer bottle out of his shirt pocket and thrust it at the young woman, telling her: "You don't know what a bastard I am. You're not the first girl I've raped," she told the police later, according to the charge sheet filed in the case.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: georgia; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;">On the other side of the wall, her friend heard the woman cry out. "An inquiry is going on," the man guarding him said. They went in to her and returned, one by one.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: georgia; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;">"Did you inquire properly?" Sheikh said to one as he came out.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: georgia; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;">"No, she's not talking," he replied.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: georgia; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;">So Sheikh said he would "go inquire again," and </span><a href="http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/topic/The-Rest-(musician)" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #024d99; font-family: georgia; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">the rest</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: georgia; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;"> of them laughed.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: georgia; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;">At last they brought her out, weeping, and told the two to leave along the railroad tracks. Before releasing her, they threatened to upload video of the attack onto the Internet if she reported the crime, a strategy that had worked with previous victims.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: georgia; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;">But this one did not hesitate. The two caught a cab to the nearest hospital. There they reported the crime, and the woman's mother arrived. "I went inside. I saw her there crying," her mother told the police later. "She told me in English, 'Mummy, I'm vanished.' "</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: georgia; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;">The woman did not respond to a request for an interview.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: georgia; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;">Sheikh, too, saw his mother for a few moments that night. He discussed the rape with her, she said, and tried to explain why it had happened.</span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: georgia; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: georgia; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;">"I asked Kasim, 'Son, why did you do this to her? If it happened to your sister, would you come here and tell me or would you beat him?' " said his mother, Chandbibi Sheikh. He told her that his friends had come upon the couple embracing in the mill, and "they thought: 'What is she doing with this boy here? She must be loose.' "</span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: georgia; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: georgia; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;">She related this exchange from the family's home, a sort of shelf wedged between a gas station and a garbage dump; as she spoke, a rat the size of a kitten clambered over containers stacked in a corner. She said far too much onus was being put on the men.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: georgia; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;">"Obviously, the fault is the girl's," she said. "Why did she have to go to that jungle? It's her fault, too. Also, she was wearing skimpy clothes."</span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: georgia; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: georgia; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;">She did not deny that he had done it. "He must have," she said. "He told me that they tied up the boy who was doing bad things to her and said, 'Madam, let us also do it.' The madam said, 'Don't do it to me, take my mobile, take my camera, but don't do it to me.' Her body was uncovered. How could he control himself? And so it happened."</span><br />
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<strong style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: georgia; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">High-level response</strong><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: georgia; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;">Though the men in the mill may not have known it, rape had become a matter of great public import in India, a gauge of a city's identity. Mumbai's top officials, who had told themselves that the Delhi gang rape could not have happened here, were horrified and initiated a broad, high-level response, as if an act of terrorism had taken place.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: georgia; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;">The police lighted up their </span><a href="http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/topic/Ne(x)tworks" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #024d99; font-family: georgia; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">networks</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: georgia; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;"> of slum informants and all five were arrested and gave confessions in quick succession. Several made pitiful attempts to escape. Sheikh went to the visitor's room of a nearby hospital and covered himself with a blanket, trying to blend in with a crowd of relatives. He was caught with 50 rupees, or about 81 cents, in his pocket. When the police asked him to sign his confession, he told them he could not write, so he signed it with a thumbprint.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: georgia; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;">"It is </span><span class="ads" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: georgia; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 3px 0px 0px;">incredible</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: georgia; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;"> how quickly the whole thing unraveled," said the editor, who was present when the photographer's colleague picked the first of the five men out of a lineup. A second victim, the call-center worker, came forward, inspired by the first, and said she was ready to testify. The suspects confessed to the other rapes under questioning, the police said.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: georgia; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;">The public prosecutor selected for the case is famous for prosecuting terrorists, with a resume of 628 life sentences, 30 death sentences and 12 men, as he put it, "sent to the gallows."</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: georgia; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;">Much news coverage over the next days zeroed in on the defendants' poverty, but Roy shrugged off that line of inquiry. After interrogating the five accused men personally, he said they were "social </span><a href="http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/topic/Outcasts" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #024d99; font-family: georgia; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">outcasts</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: georgia; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;">," not indicative of any deeper tensions in the city.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: georgia; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;">"They were deviants, sociopaths, predators," he said in an interview. "If there was a larger socioeconomic framework, these crimes would be happening again and again. It was only these guys. I'm 100 percent sure that this kind of crime doesn't happen in Mumbai. I've been here all my life and have been born and brought up here."</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: georgia; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;">But in a constellation of neighborhoods around Mumbai, people are still trying to match up the crime with the ordinary men they knew.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: georgia; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;">Shahjahan Ansari, the wife of the oldest accused man, Salim Ansari, looked terrified when a stranger appeared at her door, at a hulking, trash-strewn public housing complex beside a petroleum refinery on a distant edge of the city. The neighbors had started to shun the family since Salim's arrest became public, and she dreaded the extra attention.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: georgia; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;">"We can't even walk on the street. You don't understand," she said. Inside the apartment, she calmed down a little. The whole story baffled her; she said she had no idea who her husband's friends were or what he did during the day when she went to work cleaning houses. All she knew was that until his arrest, he came home for dinner every night, "He was to me like any husband is to his wife," she said.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: georgia; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;">"How do I know how he got into this mess? It must be the Devil," murmured Salim's mother, who was sitting on the floor, one eye blind, cloudy white.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: georgia; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;">Ansari was remembering better days before her husband lost his job, at a factory that made cardboard boxes. He was so proud of the factory, with its big machines, that he brought his sons to watch him on Sunday shifts. Tonight the younger one was streaked with dust; the older one watched from a cot, glassy-eyed and much smaller than his 10 years, bony limbs folded under his chin. She would try, Ms. Ansari said, to move them somewhere else, to a place where no one knew who their father was.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: georgia; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;">"I want my children to grow up to be good human beings, that's all," the mother said.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: georgia; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;">Neha Thirani Bagri contributed reporting.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: georgia; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;">Source: </span>http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Gang-rape-in-India-routine-and-invisible/articleshow/24774478.cms<div class="blogger-post-footer">http://www.unicef.org/rss/photoessays.xml</div>Speaking Mindhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08914306289607478762noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6571555981595953801.post-28353737685829918582013-09-14T19:18:00.000+05:302013-11-06T14:53:17.447+05:30Why Sex Education is important in countries with a high Rape ratio over women's safetyHello everyone,<br />
<br />
While this blog is focused on sharing news and resources on Rape and sexual crimes. I couldn't resist sharing this picture and information I found below on Facebook. Here it is for you to read and share widely!<br />
<br />
Have a super weekend!!!<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDHM0Jk-gESwjgnKCOvQe2Wg4A5Rhu3JhjqyxQqpmu-KEk2BDsi3oxIFYFhPA8rYVNCEf4DZTfobWwHig4SQYLhZIqt5YnnKIHQ97Vwk7htOVt8MDJt71Ty2BGSBEhnwD-Dsc6P2ZjutA/s1600/1235298_544805788906936_854163387_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="420" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDHM0Jk-gESwjgnKCOvQe2Wg4A5Rhu3JhjqyxQqpmu-KEk2BDsi3oxIFYFhPA8rYVNCEf4DZTfobWwHig4SQYLhZIqt5YnnKIHQ97Vwk7htOVt8MDJt71Ty2BGSBEhnwD-Dsc6P2ZjutA/s640/1235298_544805788906936_854163387_n.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
The first response many give when asked about rape is 'death sentence
for rapists'. While the individual who is sexually assaulted has all the
right to argue fo<span class="text_exposed_show">r death penalty for
rapists, the society must understand that there is absolutely no country
that has prevented or eliminated rape by implementing death sentence.<br /> <br /> What does not prevent rape:<br /> <br /> 1) Shouting death sentence for rapists every time a rape incident gets media publicity.<br /> <br /> 2) Making women cover themselves from head to feet.<br /> <br /> 3) Cultural worshiping of women as goddess and respectable beings.<br /> <br /> What can prevent rape:<br /> <br /> 1) Implementing Sex Education in schools and colleges.<br /> <br />
2) Taking action against educational institutions that punish boys and
girls for talking to each other. These institutions are the reason many
men dont even know how to approach a woman.<br /> <br /> 3) Teaching our
children that no one is inferior because of their gender and making them
understand the art of asking consent from the person they wish to have
sex with.<br /> <br /> The loudness of the mob voice that shouts for death
penalty makes us blind to the various underlying social and cultural
factors that produce rapists. If we can reach the childhood of these
rapists and change their understanding of women and sex when they were
kids, they would not turn into rapists in future. Lets try to create a
social and educational system that does not produce rapists in the first
place.</span><br />
<br />
<span class="text_exposed_show">Source: Picture and text taken from Facebook </span><div class="blogger-post-footer">http://www.unicef.org/rss/photoessays.xml</div>Speaking Mindhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08914306289607478762noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6571555981595953801.post-38697467114284226272013-09-13T20:30:00.000+05:302013-09-13T20:47:52.704+05:30Judgment in Dec 16 gang-rape case: Salient features <div class="first">
NEW DELHI: <b><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">While pronouncing the verdict, the
fast-track court described the Dec 16 gang-rape as "premeditated" and
"brutal" act.</span><br /> </b><br />
<br />
<b>Salient features of the judgment</b><br />
<br />
*
Delhi court convicts four accused of murder, gang-rape, unnatural
offences, kidnapping, dacoity, destruction of evidence and criminal
conspiracy, among others.</div>
* The court describes the Dec 16 gang-rape as "premeditated" and "brutal" act.<br />
* The court says the facts made all the accused liable for the "cold blooded murder" of the "defenceless victim".<br />
* The injuries were caused in a "brutal manner" and the death was also not accidental, the court says in a 237 page judgment.<br />
* The rods caused as many as "18 internal injuries to several organs"
and the cause of death in the case was the direct consequence of the
multiple injuries sustained by her.<br />
* The victim was "humiliated" and beaten up inside the bus with the intention of causing death.<br />
* Rejecting claim of Mukesh, that he was only driving the bus and had
not participated in the gang rape, the court said they all are liable
for gang rape committed with the victim<br />
* The accused had knowledge of what they were doing, says court.<br />
* Court says gang rapists tried to kill her male friend of the victim
and says that his evidence is of vital importance in deciding the act
of all the accused.<br />
* Court praised Delhi Police investigators for their prompt and professional action.<br />
* Court says dying declaration of victim was consistent, corroborative of the material aspects of the case.<br />
* Court says the bus was on the road not for earning through dropping
passenger to their destination bit the purpose was to commit the crime.<br />
<br />
<b>Timeline of Delhi gang rape case</b><br />
<br />
* Dec 16, 2012: A 23-year-old physiotherapy intern raped by six people, including a juvenile, inside a moving bus in Delhi.<br />
<br />
* Dec 17: Bus driver Ram Singh and two other accused are arrested.<br />
<br />
* Dec 18: Protests over the incident, crowds clash with police in central Delhi. Fourth accused arrested.<br />
<br />
* Dec 19: Two accused brought before a Delhi court. Accused Vinay tells court "hang me".<br />
<br />
*
Dec 21: Fifth accused, who was 17-and-half years old at the time of the
crime, arrested from Anand Vihar in east Delhi while boarding a bus to
flee to his hometown in Uttar Pradesh.<br />
<br />
Sixth accused Akshay Kumar Singh nabbed from Bihar.<br />
<br />
* Dec 22: Gang rape victim records statement before a sub-divisional magistrate.<br />
<br />
* Dec 23: Fast track court set up by the Delhi High Court.<br />
<br />
*
Dec 24: The government announces setting up of a committee to suggest
amendments to laws for speedy trials and enhanced punishment for
criminals in rape cases.<br />
<br />
* Dec 27: Victim airlifted to Singapore for treatment.<br />
<br />
* Dec 29: She succumbs to her injuries at a Singapore hospital.<br />
<br />
* Dec 30: The body of the gang rape victim flown back to Delhi, cremated.<br />
<br />
*
Jan 3, 2013: A case of rape, murder, kidnapping, destruction of
evidence, and attempted murder filed against all the six accused in the
case.<br />
<br />
* Jan 7: Court orders in-camera trial.<br />
<br />
* Jan 28: Juvenile Justice Board (JJB) declares that one of the accused is a minor.<br />
<br />
* Feb 2: Fast track court paves the way for trial and charges five men for murder, gang rape and other offences.<br />
<br />
*
Feb 3: The Criminal Law (Amendment) Ordinance, 2013, issued. The
relevant bill passed by the Lok Sabha March 19 and the Rajya Sabha March
21, making laws more stringent.<br />
<br />
* Feb 5: Trial begins in the case and court records statements of accused.<br />
<br />
* March 11: Accused Ram Singh found hanging in his Tihar Jail cell.<br />
<br />
* May 17: Victim's mother appears as a prosecution witness before the trial court and says "give justice to my daughter".<br />
<br />
* June 14: Juvenile accused turns 18 in custody. Age determined based on school certificate.<br />
<br />
* July 11: Juvenile Justice Board in New Delhi defers verdict on the minor accused to July 25.<br />
<br />
* July 25: Juvenile Justice Board defers verdict on minor accused till Aug 5.<br />
<br />
* Aug 22: The Supreme Court allows the juvenile board to go ahead with pronouncing its verdict.<br />
<br />
* Aug 31: Juvenile Justice Board sentences the minor accused to a three-year stay in a special home.<br />
<br />
* Sep 3: Delhi court reserves its order.<br />
<br />
*
Sep 10: All the four accused Mukesh, Pawan Gupta, Vinay Sharma and
Akshay Kumar Singh are held guilty on all counts. Court to pronounce
quantum of punishment Sep 11.<br />
<br />
* Sep 11: Delhi court defers verdict on the four men accused to Sep 13.<br />
<br />
* Sep 13: The court sentences to death Mukesh, Pawan Gupta, Vinay Sharma and Akshay Kumar Singh.<br />
<br />
<b>Source: http://in.news.yahoo.com/judgment-dec-16-gang-rape-case-salient-features-163203988.html</b> <div class="blogger-post-footer">http://www.unicef.org/rss/photoessays.xml</div>Speaking Mindhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08914306289607478762noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6571555981595953801.post-48325266020363490752013-09-13T15:23:00.001+05:302013-09-13T15:24:55.080+05:30Delhi gang rapists sentenced to death<h2 class="articleSumm" id="ctl00_cphBody_dvSummary" style="background-color: white; color: #1e1e1e; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; margin: 0px;">
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The four men faced either life imprisonment or death by hanging [AFP]</div>
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<tr><td class="DetailedSummary" id="ctl00_cphBody_tdTextContent" style="color: black; font-family: Arial; line-height: 1.5em;">An Indian court has sentenced four men to death for the gang rape and murder of a studen</td></tr>
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Four men have been convicted over roles in rape and murder of 23-year-old woman in capital Delhi last year.</h2>
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An Indian court has sentenced four men to death for the gang rape and murder of a student in the capital Delhi.</div>
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Friday's ruling came after her parents begged for the "cold-blooded" killers' execution.<br /><br />Mukesh Singh, Vinay Sharma, Akshay Thakur and Pawan Gupta were convicted on Tuesday in the December attack of the 23-year-old woman, a crime that unleashed a wave of public anger over the treatment of women in India.<br /><br />The woman died two weeks after the attack of internal injuries.<br /><br />Judge Yogesh Khanna said on Friday the case fell in the "rarest of rare category", rejecting pleas for lighter sentence.<br /><br /><strong>'Cannot turn blind eye'</strong></div>
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Khanna said the attack "shocked the collective conscience" of India, and that "courts cannot turn a blind eye" to such crimes.</div>
<div style="color: black; font-family: Arial; line-height: 21px;">
"This case definitely falls in the rarest of rare categories and warrants the exemplary punishment of death," he added.<br /><br />The four men faced either life imprisonment or death by hanging.<br /><br />The men called out to reporters as police drove them into the courthouse complex before the sentencing hearing.</div>
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"Save us, brothers! Save us!" they could be heard shouting from the police van.<br /><br />One of the convicted men, Vinay Sharma, broke down in tears and cried loudly as the sentence was announced.<br /><br />Earlier, protesters outside the court had demanded that the four men must be hanged.<br /><br />As the news broke, crowds inside the building and outside the courtroom roared with cheers and applauded the judgement.<br /><br />The prosecution team congratulated each other, with lead lawyer Dayan Krishnan saying: "We did our job. We are happy with this sentence".<br /><br />The father of the victim, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said the family was also satisfied as he left with his wife and sons.<br /><br />"We are very happy. Justice has been delivered," he told reporters inside court flanked by his wife and sons.</div>
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<b>Source<span style="color: #999999;">: </span></b><a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/news/asia/2013/09/201391392314350126.html" style="background-color: transparent;">http://www.aljazeera.com/news/asia/2013/09/201391392314350126.html</a></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">http://www.unicef.org/rss/photoessays.xml</div>Speaking Mindhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08914306289607478762noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6571555981595953801.post-76425272634176276702013-09-13T15:21:00.000+05:302013-09-13T15:21:35.094+05:30Delhi rape suspects face death sentences<div>
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Juvenile convict was sentenced to three years in a correctional facility, the maximum allowed by law [AFP]</div>
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Four men will learn on Friday if they are to hang for the shocking murder and gang rape of an Indian </td></tr>
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<span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Indian judge will announce if case of four men, accused for rape and murder, fulfills for meriting death sentence.</span></div>
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Four men will learn on Friday if they are to hang for the shocking murder and gang rape of an Indian student after her parents begged for the "cold-blooded" killers' execution.</div>
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Three days after finding the gang guilty of a murderous assault which sickened a nation, Judge Yogesh Khanna will announce whether it fulfils the "rarest of rare" criteria for crimes that merit capital punishment.</div>
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There has been a huge clamour for the four, Akshay Thakur, Pawan Gupta, Vinay Sharma and Mukesh Singh to be executed for their attack on a 23-year-old physiotherapy student and her male companion on board a bus on December 16.</div>
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After prosecution lawyers argued on Wednesday the gang were guilty of a "diabolical" crime, the victim's mother implored the judge to hand down the death sentence.</div>
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"We beg the court that justice should be given to our daughter," said the mother, who cannot be named to protect the identity of her late daughter.</div>
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"It was not merely a mistake, they planned and killed her mercilessly," she told reporters.</div>
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The victim's father has said only the death penalty can bring the family some closure.</div>
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During Wednesday's hearing, defence lawyers argued Judge Khanna should resist "political pressure" and instead jail the gang for life, citing the youth of their clients who are all in their teens or 20s.</div>
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<strong>Rape cases increasing</strong></div>
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Handing down his verdict at the end of a seven-month trial on Tuesday, Khanna found the men guilty of the "cold-blooded" murder of a "helpless victim" whose fight for life won her the nickname of Braveheart.</div>
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Feelings though are running high in a country disgusted by daily reports of gang rapes and sex assaults on children.</div>
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A total of 1,098 cases of rape have been reported to police in Delhi alone so far this year, according to figures in The Times of India on Friday.</div>
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That represents a massive increase on the 450 recorded in the same period last year, although campaigners say the rise is reflective of a greater willingness by victims to come forward after the December 16 attack.</div>
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Lawyers for the men have already said they will appeal the convictions in the Delhi High Court, which will spell years of argument and delays in India's notoriously slow legal system.</div>
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In appeal, the defence is likely to advocate lesser sentences for some of the gang, and argue it was a "spur of the moment" crime and not premeditated.</div>
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There was widespread anger after a juvenile who was convicted last month for his role in the bus attack was sentenced to just three years in a correctional facility, the maximum allowed by law.</div>
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Rattled by the mass protests, the government rushed through new anti-rape laws and ordered the trial be held in a special fast-track court.</div>
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<b>Source: </b> <a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/news/asia/2013/09/201391362338796515.html">http://www.aljazeera.com/news/asia/2013/09/201391362338796515.html</a><div class="blogger-post-footer">http://www.unicef.org/rss/photoessays.xml</div>Speaking Mindhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08914306289607478762noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6571555981595953801.post-80099947390366130252013-09-12T17:20:00.002+05:302013-09-12T17:20:46.544+05:30Delhi rape sentencing: A look at death penalty in India<span style="color: #262626; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;"><br /></span>
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<span style="color: #262626; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">India: Four men convicted on Tuesday of gang-raping and murdering a young woman in December face sentencing on Friday. The men, including a part-time bus driver, were joy-riding through New Delhi on a bus on the night of December 16 when they lured the 23-year-old woman and a male friend of hers into boarding. They then beat the friend, took turns raping the woman and violated her savagely with an iron rod. She died two weeks later of internal injuries. They now face the possibility of execution or life in prison. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #262626; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">The prosecutor asked Judge Yogesh Khanna on Wednesday to sentence the men to death, calling the crime barbaric. Their lawyers have called for prison sentences, citing their poverty, poor education and lack of criminal history. Representational image. AFP -India’s legal system allows for execution in what the Supreme Court calls “the rarest of the rare cases.” What defines those cases remains highly debated, but the only executions in recent years have been of convicted terrorists. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #262626; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">The vast majority of the 100-150 death sentences handed down each year are eventually commuted to life in prison. India is thought to have carried out about 50 executions since independence in 1947. -All execution orders must be confirmed by India’s High Court, and cases can also be appealed to the Supreme Court. Final appeals for clemency are made to India’s president. The office of the current president, Pranab Mukherjee, says it does not keep track of how many clemency appeals it receives or signs.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #262626; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;"> Media reports indicate he has rejected the clemency pleas of 17 people, and commuted one execution. That hard-line attitude is widely seen as an effort by the Congress party, which faces national elections next year, not to look weak on terrorism. Mukherjee is a long-time Congress leader. -For nearly a decade, India had an unofficial moratorium on executions. That ended in November 2012 with the execution of Mohammed Ajmal Kasab, the lone surviving gunmen in the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks. Two months later, Mohammad Afzal Guru, convicted in a deadly 2001 attack on India’s Parliament complex, was also hanged. Both of the executions were done secretly, without any public notice. If the four men are sentenced to hang, it is unclear when they would be executed. -Executions are done by hanging in India, carried out in prisons across the country. Many of the ropes used are made by prisoners at a jail in eastern India.</span><br style="color: #262626; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="color: #262626; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="color: #262626; font-family: Lucida Grande, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">Source: </span></span><a href="http://www.firstpost.com/india/delhi-rape-sentencing-a-look-at-death-penalty-in-india-1103957.html">http://www.firstpost.com/india/delhi-rape-sentencing-a-look-at-death-penalty-in-india-1103957.html</a><div class="blogger-post-footer">http://www.unicef.org/rss/photoessays.xml</div>Speaking Mindhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08914306289607478762noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6571555981595953801.post-89148270494834732662013-09-11T16:07:00.000+05:302013-09-12T16:42:13.690+05:30India prosecutors seek death for Delhi rapists, defense urges mercy<span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans; font-size: 12px; line-height: 19px;">By Sanjeev Miglani and Sruthi Gottipat</span><br />
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By Sanjeev Miglani and Sruthi Gottipati</div>
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- Indian prosecutors demanded on Wednesday the death penalty for four men convicted of raping and murdering a 23-year-old trainee physiotherapist last December, saying it was important to send a signal to the country that such crimes would not be tolerated.</div>
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<b style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.6;">"The common man will lose faith in the judiciary if the harshest punishment is not given," </b><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.6;">special public prosecutor Dayan Krishnan told trial judge Yogesh Khanna, who will sentence the men on Friday.</span></div>
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Indeed, outside the court, popular opinion on social media sites and comments by top politicians suggest many Indians want to see the men hanged for a crime the brutality of which shocked even in a country where sex crimes against women are rife.</div>
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Social commentators say the attack has forced Indians to confront an uncomfortable truth - that social change, in particular patriarchal attitudes towards women, has not kept pace with rapid economic growth over the past decade.</div>
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<b>The case has resonated with thousands of urban Indians who took to the streets in fury after the attack. The victim became a symbol of the daily dangers women face in a country where a rape is reported on average every 21 minutes and acid attacks and incidents of molestation are common.</b></div>
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Bus cleaner Akshay Kumar Singh, gym instructor Vinay Sharma, fruit-seller Pawan Gupta, and unemployed Mukesh Singh stood at the back of the courtroom surrounded by policemen. They showed no emotion as Krishnan described their crime as "diabolical" and called for them to be hanged.</div>
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The parents of the victim, who may not be identified for legal reasons, sat just feet away from the men. After the hearing, her father bluntly told reporters: "They finished my daughter, they deserve the same fate."</div>
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The men were found guilty on Tuesday of luring the woman and a male friend onto a bus as the pair returned home from watching a movie at a shopping mall on December 16.</div>
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As the bus drove through the streets of the capital, the men repeatedly raped the victim before dumping her and her friend, naked and semi-conscious, on the road.</div>
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The men used a metal rod and their hands to pull the woman's organs from her body after raping her, Krishnan said. Her injuries were so severe that she died in hospital in Singapore two weeks after the attack.</div>
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<b>"This is an extreme case of depravity," Krishnan said, likening the woman's injuries to someone "cutting open a fruit".</b></div>
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<b>All four of the men denied the charges. Three of them said they were never on the bus while a fourth admitted driving the vehicle but said he knew nothing of the crime. The prosecution said mobile phone records, CCTV footage, DNA evidence and bite marks on the woman's body placed the men at the scene.</b></div>
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India's interior minister, Sushilkumar Shinde said the death penalty was assured in the case, while a senior leader of the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Sushma Swaraj, said it was important to "set an example for the future".</div>
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Under Indian law, the death penalty is reserved for the "rarest of rare" cases. Even when it is imposed, the authorities rarely carry out executions.</div>
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<b>"Hang them, hang them," chanted a small group of protesters outside the court.</b></div>
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There are 477 prisoners on death row in India, according to the interior ministry. Last year, India carried out its first hanging in eight years when it executed the lone survivor of a squad of<a data-ls-seen="1" href="http://www.reuters.com/places/pakistan" style="color: #006e97; cursor: pointer; outline: none; text-decoration: none;" title="Full coverage of Pakistan">Pakistan</a>-based militants who attacked Mumbai in 2008, killing 166 people.</div>
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<b>"JUDGES SHOULD NOT BE BLOODTHIRSTY"</b></div>
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Inside the court, lawyers for the four men pleaded for mercy and repeatedly highlighted the reluctance of Indian judges in the past to impose the death sentence.</div>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;">Judges should not be bloodthirsty, said lawyer Vivek Sharma, who represents 19-year-old Gupta, the youngest of the four on trial. </span><b>"You can't give capital punishment on demand."</b></div>
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Sharma said his client had not taken part in the rape or torture of the woman. He asked the court to take into account that Gupta was the sole breadwinner for his family and had to take care of his elderly parents and brother and sister.</div>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;">A.P. Singh, lawyer for Kumar Singh and Sharma, said the death penalty was a</span><b> "primitive and cold blooded and simplistic response to complex issues"</b>. He painted his clients as downtrodden who deserved a second chance.</div>
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Mukesh Singh, who said he had been driving the bus at the time of the attack, should not face the same penalty as his co-accused, his lawyer V.K. Anand told the court.</div>
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<b>"At best, he can be held for aiding the others. Punish him, but punish him keeping in mind he was only driving the bus."</b></div>
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Women's rights groups have welcomed the guilty verdict but cautioned against giving the death sentence, saying that research across the world has shown that capital punishment does not act as a deterrent and the case should not set a precedent for all rapes to be punished with hanging.</div>
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<b>If the men do receive the death penalty, India's high court will still have to confirm the sentences. The four are expected to file appeals, so proceedings could still go on for months or even years.</b></div>
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(This story has been refiled to remove reference to alias of one of the convicted men in paragraph 20)</div>
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(Additional reporting by Suchitra Mohanty and Anurag Kotoky; Writing by Ross Colvin; Editing by Robert Birsel)</div>
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<span style="line-height: 1.6;"><b>Source: </b></span><a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/09/11/us-india-rape-idUSBRE98A09M20130911" style="background-color: transparent;">http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/09/11/us-india-rape-idUSBRE98A09M20130911</a></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">http://www.unicef.org/rss/photoessays.xml</div>Speaking Mindhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08914306289607478762noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6571555981595953801.post-77357776285060807002013-09-04T16:01:00.001+05:302013-09-04T16:01:53.628+05:30Delhi gang rape verdict on September 10<div class="body" style="background-color: white; color: #3b3a39; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 20px; outline: none;">
A fast track court in Delhi on Tuesday said it will give its judgment on September 10 in the December 16, 2012 Delhi gang rape case in which four accused are facing trial.</div>
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Additional Session Judge Yogesh Khanna reserved the order after defence counsel concluded their arguments. The prosecution ended its arguments earlier.</div>
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The case relates to a 23-year-old physiotherapist, who was brutally gang-raped in a moving bus by five men and a juvenile, after she boarded the vehicle with her male friend.</div>
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The victim later succumbed in a Singapore hospital, where she had been taken for treatment for her injuries.</div>
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One of the accused allegedly committed suicide in Tihar Jail, where he was lodged.</div>
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The juvenile was sentenced to three years stay at reform home by a Juvenile Justice Board on August 31.</div>
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<b>Source:</b> http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/delhi-gang-rape-verdict-on-september-10/article5089281.ece</div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">http://www.unicef.org/rss/photoessays.xml</div>Speaking Mindhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08914306289607478762noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6571555981595953801.post-7494423577055692802013-09-04T15:51:00.001+05:302013-09-04T15:52:12.616+05:30Punjab minor’s rapists get life imprisonment till death<div class="body" style="background-color: white; color: #3b3a39; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 20px; outline: none;">
Believed to be the first judgment of its kind in the country after the amendment in the anti-rape laws, a Punjab court on Tuesday sentenced two men to life imprisonment till death for a minor’s rape.</div>
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Additional District and Sessions Judge J.S. Bhinder in Hoshiarpur town sentenced Daljit Singh and Amarjit Singh to “undergo imprisonment for life, which shall mean imprisonment for the remainder of the convicts’ natural life”.</div>
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The court also imposed a penalty of Rs. 50,000 each on both the convicts. They were also sentenced to undergo five years rigorous imprisonment under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act 2012. Both sentences would run concurrently.</div>
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The victim, a five-year-old, had gone missing from her house in Ibrahimpur village on February 18. Her mother traced her to the house of village resident Daljit Singh. The mother found the child being sexually molested by the two men.</div>
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Both of them were later arrested by police and charged for rape and other offences.</div>
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Source: http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/other-states/punjab-minors-rapists-get-life-imprisonment-till-death/article5089737.ece</div>
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">http://www.unicef.org/rss/photoessays.xml</div>Speaking Mindhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08914306289607478762noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6571555981595953801.post-58247870409660490742013-09-03T16:52:00.000+05:302013-09-03T16:52:02.053+05:30Indian guru arrested for raping minor, pleads innocent - report<span id="tab-container-landscape"><span id="tab-container"><span class="meta author">Author: Nita Bhalla</span></span></span><br />
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Indian guru arrested for raping minor, pleads innocent - report</h1>
<span class="meta source left">Source: Thomson Reuters Foundation - Mon, 2 Sep 2013 03:25 PM</span>
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<span id="tab-container-landscape"><span id="tab-container">Police escort spiritual leader
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DELHI (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – A popular Indian spiritual leader
who sparked controversy earlier this year when he said a gang rape and
murder victim should share the blame for her assault has been arrested
for raping a minor at his ashram, the Times of India reported on Monday.<br />
Asaram Bapu, 72 – who has millions of followers in India and
overseas – was charged on August 21 with the rape and sexual assault of
a 16-year-old girl in the western city of Jodhpur, but he evaded arrest
for several days citing ill health and other reasons.<br />
Medical tests conducted on the guru – who said he was
impotent and could not have committed the assault – found him to be
capable of the rape, the newspaper said.<br />
"A potency test was conducted on him, which confirmed that
he was strong enough to commit the crime of sexual assault and rape on
the 16-year-old girl," Jodhpur's Police Commissioner Biju George Joseph
was quoted as saying.<br />
The alleged assault took place on August 15 when the girl,
who was studying at a school owned by Asaram, was taken by her parents
to the guru's ashram near Jodhpur after she became ill. The girl alleged
he took her into his room and raped her, threatening to have his guards
kill her family if she refused.<br />
Asaram, who has denied the charges, has been remanded in
custody for 14 days. Scores of his supporters have staged demonstrations
in cities such as Mumbai and New Delhi claiming the guru is being
framed. Some of the protests have turned violent.<br />
Right-wing Hindu political groups have also opposed his arrest saying the allegations were an attack on "Hindu culture".<br />
<br />
Asaram caused outrage in January when he suggested a
23-year-old student who died after she was beaten and raped on a moving
bus in New Delhi and left bleeding on a highway in December should share
the blame for the attack. She died in a Singapore hospita two weeks
after the assault from internal injuries.<br />
"Guilt is not one-sided," the guru had told his followers,
adding that if the student had pleaded with her six attackers in God's
name and told them she was of the "weaker sex", they would have
relented.</span></span> </div>
<div class="caption-rights left">
<b>Source: </b>http://www.trust.org/item/20130902152548-0pcgw/?source=hptop</div>
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</span></span><div class="blogger-post-footer">http://www.unicef.org/rss/photoessays.xml</div>Speaking Mindhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08914306289607478762noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6571555981595953801.post-62178220939511233092013-09-02T15:58:00.000+05:302013-09-03T16:00:17.706+05:30India Convicts Youngest Delhi Gang Rape Defendant<span class="postAuthor"><em>By</em>
ASHOK SHARMA / AP WRITER</span><br />
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<img alt="" class="size-full wp-image-43223" height="436" src="http://www.irrawaddy.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/1.AP-India-rape.jpg" width="610" /><div class="wp-caption-text">
Students
in Ahmedabad, India, hold candles as they pray during a candlelight
vigil for a gang rape victim who was assaulted in New Delhi. (Photo:
Reuters)</div>
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NEW DELHI — An Indian juvenile court on Saturday handed down the
first conviction in the fatal gang rape of a young woman on a moving New
Delhi bus, convicting a teenager of rape and murder and sentencing him
to three years in a reform home, lawyers said.<br />
The victim’s parents denounced the sentence, which was the maximum
the defendant faced. The family had long insisted the teen, who was 17
at the time of the December attack and is now 18, be tried as an
adult—and thus face the death penalty—insisting he was the most brutal
of the woman’s attackers.<br />
“He should be hanged irrespective of whether he is a juvenile or not.
He should be punished for what he did to my daughter,” the victim’s
mother, Asha Devi, told reporters after the verdict was announced.<br />
Indian law forbids the publication of the teen’s name because he was sentenced in a juvenile court.<br />
The attack, which left the 23-year-old victim with such extensive
internal injuries that she died two weeks later, sparked protests across
the country and led to reforms of India’s antiquated sexual violence
laws. The government, facing immense public pressure, had promised swift
justice in the case.<br />
The convicted teen was one of six people accused of tricking the
woman and her male companion into boarding an off-duty bus Dec. 16 after
they had seen an afternoon showing of “Life of Pi” at an upscale
shopping mall. Police say the men raped the woman and used a metal bar
to inflict massive internal injuries to her. They also beat her
companion. The victims were dumped naked on the roadside, and the woman
later died from her injuries in a Singapore hospital.<br />
The victim’s father said the family was deeply disappointed with the sentence.<br />
“This is completely unacceptable to us,” Badrinath Singh said. “We
are not satisfied with this outcome. He is virtually being set free.
This is very wrong.”<br />
“No family should have a daughter if this is the fate that lies ahead
for women. In this country, it is crime to be born a girl,” he said.<br />
Indian law forbids the publication of the names of rape victims, even if they die.<br />
S.K. Singh, a lawyer for the victim’s family, said they would challenge the juvenile court’s verdict in a higher court.<br />
<br />
“We will also seek a review of the man’s age by a medical panel,
since we believe he was not a juvenile when the incident took place,” he
said.<br />
<br />
In India, especially in rural areas, many people do not have their
births properly registered, and school certificates are used as proof of
age.<br />
<br />
Singh and the defendant’s lawyer, Rajesh Tewari, both confirmed the conviction and sentence.<br />
Reporters were not allowed inside the courtroom. Scores of television
crews lined up on the road outside the court building beginning early
Saturday, waiting for the verdict.<br />
<br />
Four of the other defendants are being tried in a special fast-track
court in New Delhi and face the death penalty. The sixth accused was
found dead in his jail cell in March. The court is expected to hand down
the rest of the verdicts in September.<br />
<br />
The convicted defendant was tried as a minor on charges including
murder and rape. The time he has spent in a juvenile home since he was
arrested in December will count toward his sentence, Tewari said.<br />
The attack set off furious protests across India about the treatment
of women in the country and led to an overhaul of sexual assault laws.<br />
<br />
<b>A government panel set to suggest reforms to sexual assault laws
rejected calls to lower the age at which people can be tried as adults
from 18 to 16.</b><br />
<br />
<b>In July, India’s top court also refused to reduce the age of a
juvenile from 18 to 16 years. However, it later agreed to hear a new
petition seeking to take the “mental and intellectual maturity” of the
defendant into account, and not just age. </b><br />
<br />
<b>Source: </b>http://www.irrawaddy.org/archives/43221<div class="blogger-post-footer">http://www.unicef.org/rss/photoessays.xml</div>Speaking Mindhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08914306289607478762noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6571555981595953801.post-74958798650405434582013-08-28T19:16:00.001+05:302013-08-28T19:16:10.698+05:30In India, A Culture Where Rape is Routine<small class="byline"> by Dilip D’Souza</small><br />
<br />
<div class="media">
<img alt="130828-india-rape-dsouza-tease" class="img-100" src="http://cdn.thedailybeast.com/content/witw/articles/2013/08/28/in-india-a-culture-where-rape-is-routine/jcr:content/top/image.img.620.jpg/1377679520878.cached.jpg" title="130828-india-rape-dsouza-tease" /><figcaption class="photocredit">Demonstrators
shout slogans during a protest against the rape of a photojournalist by
five men in Mumbai on August 23, 2013. (Danish Siddiqui/Reuters)</figcaption></div>
<br />
<div class="copy">
In these days, as Mumbai is agog with <a href="http://www.dnaindia.com/mumbai/1880031/report-mumbai-gang-rape-full-text-of-the-victim-s-statement-to-the-police" target="_blank">news of another rape</a>,
a young journalist friend told me about a conversation on a suburban
train. She was in the women's compartment, on her way to work not far
from where this latest outrage happened. Naturally, several women around
her were discussing the episode.<br />
<br />
One woman zeroed in on—wait for it—the core of the issue. "You look
at the clothes these girls are wearing these days," she said. "Why just
one, she should have been raped by 10 men!"<br />
Outraged by this remark, my friend tried to say something. The woman
rounded on her: "You keep out of this, I wasn't talking to you!"<br />
Rudeness apart, here's my opinion, whatever it's worth: Attitudes
like this—and it's a delusion to think they are not widespread—will
ensure that women keep getting raped. And this is why the lesson for me,
to take from one more ghastly rape, is about attitudes.<br />
Like the rickshaw driver's attitude: Not long ago, I took a rickshaw
home from the airport. We passed a long stretch that is a favorite spot
for young lovers seeking a modicum of privacy. In a city that affords
them so little, they find it, ironically, on the side of a busy highway.
On any given evening, that stretch is populated by dozens of young
couples, embracing and chatting and kissing, as couples must do. All as
cars and buses and taxis, sometimes with loads of gawkers, zip past.<br />
As we drove by that day, my til-then-silent rickshaw driver began
muttering. He was clearly irate about something and soon he couldn't
keep his feelings to himself any longer. "All these people," he burst
out, waving a hairy arm at the lovers so vigorously that our rickshaw
careened across the lanes, "someone should bring a gun and shoot them
all dead, one by one."<br />
"Why?" I spluttered, confounded.<br />
"Don't you see?" he said. "They are spoiling our Indian culture!"<br />
Ah yes, that Indian culture that, no doubt, calls for the wholesale
murder of cooing couples. That's the one my driver must have meant.<br />
Like the collegiate moral brigade's attitude: One evening a few weeks
ago, 70 city college students turned up at another favorite lovers'
hangout spot, a 20-minute walk from the highway stretch. It was
International Youth Day, August 12, and to observe it, these kids had
come up with the <a href="http://www.hindustantimes.com/India-news/Mumbai/Mumbai-Students-indulge-in-moral-policing/Article1-1107377.aspx" target="_blank">perfect campaign</a>.<br />
<br />
What they did was they surrounded other young people they found
there—more couples doing some cuddling—and "asked them to refrain from
public displays of affection (PDA)." They held up placards that said (in
Hindi, in which it rhymes better): "The crime you're committing with
your girlfriend, go get a room", and "Have some shame, do all this in
your home."<br />
Note the "your girlfriend." As ever with moral champions, somehow it's the man corrupting the woman.<br />
One of these moral policewomen—herself just 17—had this to say: "We
would like to frequent places such as [this] but prefer not to because
it is full of people indulging in embarrassing displays of affection. We
are not against couples, but only against those indulging in PDA which
makes others uncomfortable. They should instead get rooms and do it in
privacy."<br />
It embarrasses her and makes her uncomfortable, but she chooses
nevertheless to close in on these couples and harass them. What we're
seeing here is what Alexander Cockburn <a href="http://articles.latimes.com/1998/jan/23/local/me-11244" target="_blank">once saw as well</a>,
after the Monica Lewinsky episode: "What we're seeing here is one of
the most disgusting of all spectacles: Puritans wringing their hands
while clambering on one another's shoulders to peep in the bedroom
window."
<br />
Like the god-man's attitude: soon after the horrifying rape of a
young woman in Delhi last December, the famous "spiritual leader" Asaram
Bapu announced that the girl was as much at fault for what happened to
her as the rapists were. Mistakes, he said, are "not committed [only]
from one side." What's more, he said, the woman "should have taken God's
name and ... held the hand of one of the men and said 'I consider you
as my brother', and should have said to the other two, 'Brother I am
helpless, you are my brother, my religious brother.'"<br />
Had she done this, said Asaram Bapu, "the misconduct wouldn't have happened."<br />
Never mind the reference to a gang rape and murder—for the woman
eventually died of her wounds—as mere "misconduct.” Never mind the
nearly obscene advice that a woman about to be raped should call the
murderous thugs "brothers" in the hope that this would save her. Never
mind those things, and merely consider Asaram Bapu's most recent
appearance in the public eye.<br />
Just days ago, a 16 year-old girl <a href="http://www.firstpost.com/india/asaram-bapu-granted-time-till-30-august-to-appear-before-jodhpur-police-1059889.html" target="_blank">accused the man himself</a> of sexually assaulting her.<br />
<br />
"Baseless allegations are leveled against me," said Asaram Bapu, "because I preach Indian culture."<br />
Whatever.<br />
In an angry, passionate outburst after this Mumbai rape, <a href="http://www.firstpost.com/living/tourist-trap-the-dumb-white-chick-vs-creepy-indian-lecher-debate-1052873.html" target="_blank">Lakshmi Chaudhry writes</a>:
"[Indian women] all live with a debilitating sense of being under
constant siege, an ever-present anxiety that a lewd comment or casual
grope may lead to a full-on assault; the nagging worry that this auto or
cab or bus driver may turn out to be the wrong one; the paranoia
triggered by a slowly circling car filled with men. This, this is the
price of being a woman in India. And it is paid by all of us,
irrespective of color, caste or class."<br />
The price, indeed. Let's talk about attitude. Let's talk about
culture. In fact, let's give Chaudhry the last word there: "The ugl[y]
reality is that while rape may be considered a crime, we live in a
culture where sexual harassment is so routine as to be unremarkable."<br />
</div>
<div class="copy">
Source: http://www.thedailybeast.com/witw/articles/2013/08/28/in-india-a-culture-where-rape-is-routine.html </div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">http://www.unicef.org/rss/photoessays.xml</div>Speaking Mindhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08914306289607478762noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6571555981595953801.post-47371266302038182932013-08-27T17:49:00.000+05:302013-08-27T18:07:48.205+05:30What has changed since December 16?<div class="qa-author-content clearfix">
<div class="qa-quotes" style="color: #005596; padding-left: 20px; padding-top: 20px; width: 310px;">
<b></b><br />
<blockquote>
<div class="bq-inner;color:#005596">
<div style="font-size: 20px;">
<b>"The
rape victim opted for life than to become a martyr at the altar of
sexual purity and has challenged the judicial premise that virginity is
the most priced possession of an Indian woman"</b></div>
</div>
</blockquote>
<b>
</b></div>
</div>
<div class="all-attached-images">
by Flavia Agnes<br />
<br />
Since
the gang rape of a photojournalist in Mumbai on August 22, I’m
constantly being asked two questions by the media — print media,
television media, international media, the British, the American, the
French, the Australian, the entire lot.<br />
<br />
The first question: Has there been any change at all since the public
protests following the gruesome gangrape of a young women in Delhi in
December and the law reforms that followed or does one get a feeling of
déja vu? And the second: Is Mumbai going the Delhi way and losing its
sheen as a safe city for women? And the associated question — Will this
incident change the way women in Mumbai think, feel, work and will
their lives be ruled by the constant shadow of rape that will hover over
them?<br />
I hope not. I believe that women of Mumbai are made of sterner metal and
one such incident cannot change the way they think or work. Incidents
such as these are not unusual for Mumbai or any other city for that
matter. We have had a fair share of them. Many go unreported, and even
if reported, many don’t get a lot of media attention — most at best get a
three-line report on the ninth page of the newspaper, which no one
notices.<br />
<br />
But what has changed now is the media attention, both national and
international, and the curiosity and voyeurism masquerading as concern.
As a photojournalist and an acquaintance of the survivor responded,
shrugging her well-built shoulders during a talk show on television,
“Not at all, why should this incident change my life? I have surmounted
worse hurdles and have emerged a winner. Why would this incident mar my
life?” This summarises the spirit of a working woman in Mumbai whose
labour holds up this financial capital. How can five lumpen youth from
poverty stricken and marginalised families shake its base?<br />
The blood-thirsty media has splashed photographs of old and frail
women in their meagre dwellings in a vulgar display of this flashy and
opulent city’s underbelly of poverty and subhuman existence for us to
gloat over. They seem to be making the point that it is these women and
their dwellings that breed rapists. And it appears that once again we
will be braying for the blood of a teenaged boy on the cusp of maturity
to cleanse the city of sexual crimes rather than ponder a viable scheme
of income redistribution and poverty elevation, so that every poor
child’s basic needs are fulfilled and an innocent child is not turned
into a drug addict, a murderer or a rapist.<br />
<br />
Why did the youth rape her? Because they thought they could get away
with it. It is for the same reason that fathers, brothers, uncles,
grandfathers, cousins, neighbours, boyfriends, acquaintances, teachers,
wardens, jailers, politicians, policemen, bosses, men who wield any type
of power over a vulnerable woman think they can rape. Because reporting
rape causes greater stigma to the victim and navigating the justice
delivery system is an ordeal only the few brave ones can endure. Only
when women learn to survive rape with courage and dignity, and when the
justice delivery mechanism is able to sensitively respond to their need,
will the situation improve. Opting out of work or not venturing out at
night will not, since most rapes occur within the domestic space or in
the neighbourhood. But, ironically, these rapes do not invoke the same
type of media attention as the ones where the victim is from the middle
class and the accused are lower class. The class bias in the media glare
is very disturbing indeed.<br />
<br />
The hordes of television cameras parked outside Jaslok Hospital in
Mumbai to catch a glimpse of the young woman or her family members,
threatening to intrude into their privacy, must be an equally
frightening thought for the young woman as the threatening advances of
the gang of five. Reporters have visited not only the scene of the
crime, but also the girl’s residence. They have spoken to the watchman
and are baffled that he and other residents were not aware that a woman
from the building was raped the night before. Well, thanks to the media,
now they know! In a recent case, popularly referred to as “the Spanish
woman’s rape case”, while awaiting the test identification parade before
flying out of the country, the young woman and her support person went
around the city in a burqa to shield themselves from the intruding
cameras which always seem to lurk round the corner as she got in and out
of the car. This constant intrusion was her biggest nightmare, post the
incident.<br />
<br />
What has changed since the December incident? Well, that our women
parliamentarians did not screech in high-pitched voices and proclaim
that the woman has become a “zinda lash”, a living corpse; that
threatened with a broken bottle, the young woman did not think that she
must fight till she dies to save her honour and her virginity. Sensing
danger, she acquiesced. She opted for life rather than to become a
martyr at the altar of sexual purity and has challenged the judicial
premise that virginity is the most priced possession of an Indian woman.
What has changed is that she has pledged from her hospital bed that she
will not let this incident ruin her life and that she is eager to get
back to work. (The hounding by the media will hopefully stop by then!)
<br />
<br />
This is the most important lesson this incident has taught us.<br />
<br />
It may take a few weeks, a few months or even a few years to overcome
the trauma, but hopefully, when she does, she will be able to tell us
the story of how she survived rape and became a survivor. <br />
<br />
<em>***The writer is a women’s rights lawyer</em></div>
<br />
<b>Source</b>: http://www.asianage.com/columnists/what-has-changed-december-16-105<div class="blogger-post-footer">http://www.unicef.org/rss/photoessays.xml</div>Speaking Mindhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08914306289607478762noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6571555981595953801.post-83126472856234113472013-08-26T17:53:00.000+05:302013-08-27T17:57:31.186+05:30A rape is a rape. Period.<div class="qa-author-content clearfix">
<div class="qa-quotes" style="color: #005596; padding-left: 20px; padding-top: 20px; width: 310px;">
<b></b><br />
<blockquote>
<div class="bq-inner;color:#005596">
<div style="font-size: 20px;">
<b>"We
get roused into action only when someone like us is affected. But
isn’t every single rape a human tragedy of the worst kind? And surely
every single rape should shock us into action?"</b></div>
</div>
</blockquote>
By: Anil Dharkar<br />
<br />
<b>
</b></div>
</div>
<div class="all-attached-images">
A
rape is a rape is a rape. At least one would think so: any violation of
a woman’s body is brutal, it is physically damaging, but more than that
it is psychologically traumatising to such an extent that the person is
scarred for life.<br />
<br />
Our hearts, therefore, go out to the victim of the gang rape in
Mumbai; we want to say sorry to her on behalf of every male in the
world, but we know that’s a meaningless gesture. We end up doing
nothing, except hoping that time will heal the wounds.<br />
In the first three months of this year, 91 cases of rape were registered
across various police stations in Mumbai, for long considered India’s
safest city. If that average is maintained through the year, 2013 will
be one of the worst years ever. Figures over the recent past confirm a
rising graph: in the years 2010, 2011 and 2012, the number of rapes
totalled 192, 219 and 231 respectively. Here we are talking of
registered rapes; as any sociologist will tell you, there are many more
that go unreported. That’s because many take place within families, and
families do a cover-up to “save face”; many others go unreported because
the woman is too scared to file a report.<br />
<br />
Then, of course, there are rapes which do not enter our consciousness.
On Thursday, August 22, the day the gangrape of the photojournalist took
place in Mumbai, only about three kilometers away an unidentified man
lured a six-year-old girl with chocolate, took her to a secluded spot
and molested her. For some unexplained reason, he didn’t rape her, which
is the only surprising element in the story because our newspapers
carry tiny items like this on the city pages every other day: the
“action” takes place in a slum, a man —<br />
usually a neighbour — sees a little girl by herself, offers to buy her
chocolate (the only weapon needed in these cases), takes her to an
isolated place and rapes her. If she is lucky, he sends her off with a
warning; if she isn’t, he kills her.<br />
<br />
The police may register these cases if the girl’s parents insist, but
they certainly don’t register all. For us, this has happened in a slum,
in the underbelly of the city where “these things happen”. These
brutalised young girls probably suffer even greater physical and mental
trauma than an older, educated woman who can secure better medical
treatment and counselling, but do we really care?<br />
Don’t misunderstand me: I am in no way belittling the horror of the
young (and brave) photojournalist; I am just pointing out that a rape is
a rape is a rape isn’t necessarily true. We get roused into action only
when someone like us is affected. But isn’t every single rape a human
tragedy of the worst kind? And surely every single rape should shock us
into action?<br />
<br />
What should that action be? The Shakti Mills rape case has brought on
the usual shrill cries of “Hang the rapists!” or “Castrate them all!”
Spokesmen of political outfits like the Shiv Sena, always looking for
opportunities to flaunt their favourite battle-cry, jump up and say,
“These crimes happen because of outsiders and migrants.” They say this
even before any of the suspects are caught and, for all you know, all of
them were born and brought up in Amchi Mumbai. Whatever their origins,
punishment like castration and hanging should never feature in any
debate on rape. At least not in a civilised country. Chemical castration
has been used in the West, but only for habitual offenders who, after
repeated sexual crimes and repeated incarcerations, show no sign of
either repentance or reform.<br />
So what is to be done in rape cases? Punishment, without doubt, should
be severe — perhaps as severe as life imprisonment. The judicial process
should be quick and taken up in fast-track courts so that the accused
doesn’t get off on bail with a chance to further traumatise the victim.<br />
Yet, will this stop rapes? Realistically, it is impossible for the
police force, given its small numbers, to patrol all isolated areas.
Some experts have said that rapes wouldn’t happen if people were afraid
of the law, but is this really true? Most rapes are committed on the
spur of the moment: an opportunity is seen and, literally, seized. In
such a scenario, the rapist acts without any thought of the
consequences, so the prospect of even a long jail term does not act as a
deterrent. If we look at both the December 16 gangrape in New Delhi and
now the gangrape in Mumbai, the rapists don’t seem to have considered
the consequences of their actions at all. In Delhi, they dumped the
23-year-old victim and her friend out of the bus in Mumbai, they only
threatened the young photojournalist with uploading the pictures of the
rape.<br />
<br />
For women, and for us as a society, any solution has to be long term.
And they have to focus on our attitudes to women. Recently, three women
tourists from Delhi visiting a historic fort in Maharashtra were
harassed by a group of young men who constantly brushed against them and
also photographed them. A Chicago University student Michaela Cross’
article on the CNN blog has gone viral on the Internet. “Do I tell
people about our first night in Pune when we danced in the Ganesh
festival?” she writes, “Or do I tell them how the festival stopped when
we started dancing, and every man began to film us? Do I tell them about
bargaining at the bazaar for beautiful saris or the men who pushed by
us, clawing at our breasts and groins? When people compliment me on my
Indian sandals, do I talk about the man who stalked me for 45 minutes
after I purchased them?”<br />
<br />
This, sadly, is par for the course if you are a woman. How will all this
change? With education? Better living spaces than slums? How long will
all that take? Do women have to live through hell until then?<br />
<em><br /></em>
<em>The writer is a senior journalist</em><br />
<em><br /></em>
<em><b>Source: </b></em><i>http://www.asianage.com/columnists/rape-rape-period-869</i></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">http://www.unicef.org/rss/photoessays.xml</div>Speaking Mindhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08914306289607478762noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6571555981595953801.post-30496921766521981882013-08-09T16:03:00.000+05:302013-09-03T16:28:00.458+05:30In India Rape Trial, Even Fast-Track Justice Plods<div class="wp-caption aligncenter" id="attachment_41661" style="width: 620px;">
<img alt="" class="size-full wp-image-41661" height="432" src="http://www.irrawaddy.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/3.-India-rape-follo-pic-e1357189126489.jpg" title="3.-India-rape-follo-pic-e1357189126489" width="640" /><br />
<div class="wp-caption-text">
A student prays during a vigil for a gang rape victim, who was assaulted in New Delhi, in Ahmedabad. (Photo: Reuters)<br />
NEW DELHI — The government promised swift justice after the gang rape
of a young university student on a moving bus in India’s capital late
last year sparked nationwide outrage.But speed is relative in a legal system so overburdened that even a normal criminal trial can stretch well over a decade.</div>
</div>
Seven months later, the trial in a special “fast track” court is still plodding along.Take a recent day in the case.<br />
<br />
The court was in session just two hours, as it is every day of the
trial. Only one witness—out of nearly 100 called in the case—had time to
testify. The judge himself translated the testimony
sentence-by-sentence from Hindi into English, and carefully corrected
the court stenographer’s errors.“That’s not how you spell ‘sign,’” the judge admonished, as assembled reporters and police nodded off in boredom.That was one of the more efficient days in the trial.On the bad days, the three mercurial defense lawyers delay
proceedings with their infighting, accusing each other of colluding with
the police or the prosecution. Or witnesses listed for
cross-examination don’t show up—so the court adjourns early.<br />
<br />
The attack on the 23-year-old woman in the heart of New Delhi on Dec.
16 shook a country long inured to brutality against its women. Hundreds
of thousands of protesters poured into the streets demanding justice
now, not the usual yearslong trial.The pressure led to the creation of a fast-track court for violence
against women, and the rape was its first case. Optimists say closing
arguments could be made by the end of August and a verdict reached in
September.<br />
<br />
“The judge has a busy case load and all of us lawyers also have other
clients. We cannot drop all of them and just work on this case,” said
A.P. Singh, one of the defense lawyers.While it’s not unusual in other countries for high-profile cases to
drag on, the court hearing this trial was formed specifically for speed,
a standard it hardly begins to meet.Still, if the case does wrap up soon, it would be remarkably fast by Indian standards.<br />
<br />
One reason for the delays in India’s justice system is a shortage of
judges. India—a country of 1.2 billion people—has approximately 11
judges for every million people, compared with roughly 110 per million
in the United States, according to a 2009 report by India’s Law
Commission, which was set up by the Law Ministry to suggest reforms.
Then there is the endemic problem of corruption, which delays the
process of gathering evidence and ensuring cases are trial ready. Court
procedures lack flexibility and often involve excruciating layers of
paperwork.<br />
<br />
The commission has suggested the entire legal system be overhauled,
with more judges, time limits on trials and bans on “frivolous”
adjournments.Meanwhile, the rape case keeps throwing up new twists. Last month,
the lawyer of two of the surviving adult defendants accused a third of
changing his testimony at the last minute to get a lighter sentence at
the cost of his co-accused.The four defendants are accused of convincing the woman and her male
companion to board an off-duty bus after the pair had watched an evening
movie at an upscale shopping mall. The police say the men then raped
the woman, using a metal rod to inflict such horrific injuries that she
died two weeks later at a Singapore hospital. The four adult defendants
all face charges of gang rape, murder and kidnapping and are likely to
face the death sentence if convicted. A fifth defendant was found dead
in his cell in March and a sixth is being tried as a juvenile.<br />
<br />
The verdict in the trial of the juvenile was expected last month but has been indefinitely delayed.Mukesh Singh has testified he was driving the bus—even though his
brother was the official bus driver—and did not attack the woman. But he
said all the other defendants charged were there. The others have all
claimed they were framed by the police and were not on the bus. A.P. Singh, who represents two other defendants, said Mukesh Singh
had earlier said he didn’t know who was on the bus, but changed his
account because “his lawyer has been hijacked by the police and is
colluding with them.”One of the lawyers on Mukesh Singh’s defense team, Vibhor Anand, called A.P. Singh’s accusations “weird.”<br />
<br />
“My client is only speaking the truth. He hasn’t changed his story at
all. These are all false stories cooked up by other defense counsel,”
Anand said. News reports say defense lawyers have shouted at one another in
court. On a recent day in court, one defense lawyer smirked and giggled
openly as another’s witness testified. The four accused, who in the
early days of the trial came to court with their faces covered by caps
and scarves, surrounded by dozens of policemen, now sit at the back of
the courtroom listening blankly to the ongoing testimony. Each man is
flanked by an officer. A few other policemen wait outside the courtroom.<br />
While prosecutors refused to talk on the record to The Associated
Press, news reports say they have consistently blamed the defense team
for deliberately delaying proceedings. The defense blames the
prosecutors, who have called a whopping 82 witnesses compared to their
15.<br />
Rebecca John, a criminal lawyer who practices in India’s top court,
said the prosecution had put up such a massive witness list because of
the high profile nature of the case. She also criticized the fast track
court system, saying it promised justice in only a few very visible
cases.<br />
<span style="color: #134f5c;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #134f5c;"><u><b>“The entire Indian legal system needs to be overhauled and made
fast-track,” she said. “When you fast-track one case out of 100 you
actually slow-track all the others.”</b></u></span><br />
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<b>Source: </b>http://www.irrawaddy.org/archives/41659<div class="blogger-post-footer">http://www.unicef.org/rss/photoessays.xml</div>Speaking Mindhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08914306289607478762noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6571555981595953801.post-13140971306353416062013-06-29T18:52:00.001+05:302013-06-29T18:52:39.256+05:30Six steps India can take to help rape victims<br />
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NEW DELHI (TrustLaw) - The outcry over the brutal
gang rape of a young woman in New Delhi last month has not only brought
into focus the issue of violence against women in India but has also
shone a light on the way the country's criminal justice system
frequently fails rape victims.<br />
There were 24,206 rapes reported in 2011 by the <a href="http://ncrb.nic.in/" target="_blank">National Crime Records Bureau</a>, equivalent to one rape every 20 minutes.<br />
<br />
While
many Indians are calling for changes in the law such as capital
punishment for rapists and new legislation to protect women, many civil
rights' lawyers disagree. They say India has good gender laws already,
but they need to be strengthened and enforced.<br />
The
following is a list of six steps India can take to ensure rape victims
receive adequate care and support and that swift justice is delivered,
compiled from interviews with police, lawyers and human rights
activists. <br /> <br /><strong> 1. GENDER SENSITISATION & MORE FEMALE POLICE</strong><br />
Like
most large organisations in the country, India's police force is
male-dominated – only 6.5 percent of officers are women. Deep-rooted
patriarchal beliefs mean the police force, like many other institutions
such as government bodies or parliament, is often seen as insensitive to
the issues faced by women. Gender sensitisation
training as well as increasing the number of female police officers in
India will help change attitudes within the police force, activists and
lawyers say. This would also help ensure victims' complaints are treated
seriously and sympathetically.<br /> <br /> <strong>2. MORE POLICE ACCOUNTABILITY</strong><br />
There
have been numerous cases of girls and women being turned away by the
police when they try to report a rape – officers do not take the crime
seriously or they blame the victim.<br />
In many instances,
the largely underpaid, overworked police officers have little interest
in registering or investigating a gender crime that can take years to
reach judgment. Sometimes, if the accused is powerful or wealthy, police
can be influenced into taking no action.<br />
Activists say
current methods of filing complaints against the police are cumbersome
and difficult for the average Indian. A simple mechanism should be set
up to channel and address public complaints and police should be
penalised or suspended if found guilty of dereliction of duty, they add.<br />
<br />
<strong>3. GUIDELINES FOR SUPPORT OF RAPE VICTIMS</strong><br />
India
has no formal protocol in place for medical or psychological support of
victims. They are often not given adequate treatment for injuries or
infections, let alone counselling.<br />
Cases have been
reported of traumatised victims who are made to go from one government
hospital to another for medical examinations or who are forced to sit
for hours in bloodied clothes after the assault.<br />
Activists
say there needs to be a standard protocol across the country to examine
and treat rape victims, such as the World Health Organisation's
guidelines for medico-legal care for sexual assault victims.<br />
<br />
<strong>4. STRENGTHENING RAPE INVESTIGATIONS</strong><br />
A
failure to invest in the police force has left many officers lacking
the expertise and resources required to conduct adequate investigations,
resulting in weak evidence and low convictions.<br />
Lawyers
say the handling of forensic evidence such as fingerprints, hair or
nail samples – a key component in rape cases where the onus lies with
the prosecution to prove the rape – is often collected, transported and
stored in a careless manner.<br />
The core competencies of
the police need to be strengthened and officers must be given training
and resources to carry out their work, lawyers say. Standard operating
procedures for conducting investigations need to be applied across the
country, they add.<br />
<br />
<strong>5. FAST-TRACK RAPE COURTS</strong><br />
One of the biggest impediments to gaining justice for rape victims is the lengthy duration of the trials, awyers say.<br />
A
lack of prosecutors, judges and courts mean that an average rape case
can take five to 10 years to get to the judgment stage, leaving victims
or other witnesses vulnerable to intimidation or unwilling to pursue
such drawn-out court trials.<br />
The Delhi gang rape has
fuelled demands for special fast-track courts to deal with crimes
against women, but some lawyers say not only are such courts costly but
that swift justice does not always mean just justice.<br />
Some
legal experts add that India needs to invest more in the legal and
judicial system and concentrate on hiring of thousands more judges and
prosecutors.<br />
<br />
<strong>6. WITNESS PROTECTION PROGRAM</strong><br />
Victims
and witnesses can be intimidated by the accused, who in some cases is
granted bail by the court, even though rape is a non-bailable offence.<br />
As
a result, victims can feel pressured into accepting illegal
"out-of-court" settlements such as a small cash payment. In more extreme
instances, the victim's family is pressurised into marrying their
daughter to the accused.<br />
Lawyers and activists say India
needs an official witness protection program in place for victims of
sexual assault and other serious offences.<br />
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<span class="meta source left">Source: Thomson Reuters Foundation</span><div class="blogger-post-footer">http://www.unicef.org/rss/photoessays.xml</div>Speaking Mindhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08914306289607478762noreply@blogger.com0