In India, A Culture Where Rape is Routine

by Dilip D’Souza

Demonstrators shout slogans during a protest against the rape of a photojournalist by five men in Mumbai on August 23, 2013. (Danish Siddiqui/Reuters)

In these days, as Mumbai is agog with news of another rape, 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.

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!"
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!"
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.
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.
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."
"Why?" I spluttered, confounded.
"Don't you see?" he said. "They are spoiling our Indian culture!"
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.
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 perfect campaign.

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."
Note the "your girlfriend." As ever with moral champions, somehow it's the man corrupting the woman.
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."
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 once saw as well, 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."
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.'"
Had she done this, said Asaram Bapu, "the misconduct wouldn't have happened."
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.
Just days ago, a 16 year-old girl accused the man himself of sexually assaulting her.

"Baseless allegations are leveled against me," said Asaram Bapu, "because I preach Indian culture."
Whatever.
In an angry, passionate outburst after this Mumbai rape, Lakshmi Chaudhry writes: "[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."
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."
 

Source: http://www.thedailybeast.com/witw/articles/2013/08/28/in-india-a-culture-where-rape-is-routine.html

What has changed since December 16?

"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"

by Flavia Agnes

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.

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?
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.

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?
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.

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.

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.

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!) 

This is the most important lesson this incident has taught us.

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.

***The writer is a women’s rights lawyer

Source: http://www.asianage.com/columnists/what-has-changed-december-16-105

A rape is a rape. Period.

"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?"

By: Anil Dharkar

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.

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.
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.

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 —
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.

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?
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?

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.
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.
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.

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?”

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?

The writer is a senior journalist

Source: http://www.asianage.com/columnists/rape-rape-period-869

In India Rape Trial, Even Fast-Track Justice Plods

A student prays during a vigil for a gang rape victim, who was assaulted in New Delhi, in Ahmedabad. (Photo: Reuters)
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.

Seven months later, the trial in a special “fast track” court is still plodding along.Take a recent day in the case.

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.

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.

“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.

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.

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.

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.”

“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.
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.
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.

“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.”


Source:  http://www.irrawaddy.org/archives/41659

Six steps India can take to help rape victims

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.
There were 24,206 rapes reported in 2011 by the National Crime Records Bureau, equivalent to one rape every 20 minutes.

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.
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.

1. GENDER SENSITISATION & MORE FEMALE POLICE
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.

2. MORE POLICE ACCOUNTABILITY
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.
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.
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.

3. GUIDELINES FOR SUPPORT OF RAPE VICTIMS
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.
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.
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.

4. STRENGTHENING RAPE INVESTIGATIONS
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.
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.
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.

5. FAST-TRACK RAPE COURTS
One of the biggest impediments to gaining justice for rape victims is the lengthy duration of the trials, awyers say.
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.
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.
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.

6. WITNESS PROTECTION PROGRAM
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.
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.
Lawyers and activists say India needs an official witness protection program in place for victims of sexual assault and other serious offences.

Source: Thomson Reuters Foundation

Pizza, delivered with a side of attempted rape

There’s one thing that an Indian household has always had: trustworthy strangers. Home delivery may be a modern term, but it’s been part of the average Indian home for decades. Thanks to people like the vegetable and fruit seller, the person who brings the ironed clothes and the domestic help, an Indian household is an ecosystem composed partially of strangers. In it, the food delivery man is a recent entrant, but he has quickly become entrenched in the daily routine of urban Indian households. Especially the pizza delivery boy.
According to a report by the National Restaurant Association of India, around 80% of consumers order in food at least twice a month at the minimum. Italian cuisine — which in home delivery terms consists mainly of pizza – is the most popular cuisine to be ‘ordered in’ in India. The pizza delivery boy is someone most people wait for anxiously and greet with a grin. He isn’t someone from whom we expect to need protection.

File photo of pizza. Image courtesy IBN Live

It’s this assumption that led to a young woman being assaulted and almost raped by a pizza delivery boy. A 17-year-old delivery boy returned after making an initial delivery on some pretext, and after attempting to rape the woman, bashed her head in, and then ran away.
Turns out, there is no official vetting process to decide delivery boys. Amar Jhunjhunwala, 46, who owns a fast food joint in Chembur that enjoys enthusiastic patronage from families in the neighbourhood, said, “I’ve never done a background check on a delivery boy, I have to admit. Why would I feel the need? And none of the other restaurant managers I know have done it either. It’s the most basic function of a restaurant.”
But can’t delivery boys at least be vetted as those who have been in the restaurant’s employ for a while? “It actually works the other way,” says Jhunjhunwala, who ran a burger joint in Andheri (East) for five years before starting his second restaurant in Chembur. “Boys work in delivery, and slowly make their way up to the kitchen and managerial roles. Of course, with this incident, I’m sure all restaurant owners are going to be very careful.”
Someone who won’t have a chance to be careful is the owner of Chovisum, the outlet whose delivery boy is guilty of assault and attempted rape. The owner, Swapnil Parab, has seen his business disappear since the incident. “The boy was a dropout who usually never makes deliveries,” Parab insisted in media reports in the Mumbai Mirror and the Hindustan Times. “It was just this time…he’s ruined my business.”
Is there any hope for a regulatory process to be enforced in the restaurant delivery business? According to a member of the National Restaurant Association of India, who spoke to us on the condition of anonymity, it’s almost impossible. “There are many neighbourhood restaurants which are not accounted for by us,” he said. But he admitted that more can be done to ensure a consumer’s safety. “An in-house vetting process should be non-negotiable.”
At present, the Food Safety and Standards regulations are the only rules by which Indian restaurants have to abide. These regulations cover aspects like salary and training of restaurant employees, but do not touch upon home deliveries, which are an increasingly important part of the Indian food industry.
Till then? Recently, after reading the report of the 25-year-old woman being assaulted by the Chovisum employee, a friend of mine and I tried to reconfigure the logistics of accepting home delivery.
“Should we keep the door-chain latched and pass the money through it?” she suggested.
“But a pizza won’t fit through the chain-gap,” I pointed out.
“I guess we could ask them to leave it outside, and take it when the delivery guy is done,” she said triumphantly.
So this could soon be the new guideline to prevent rape: skulk behind your door when receiving a delivery, wait till the sound of steps has faded away, then dart out quickly, grab your food and run back in.

Source: http://www.firstpost.com/india/pizza-delivered-with-a-side-of-attempted-rape-913057.html

Two cops suspended for Gurgaon gang rape

GURGAON: Two policemen were suspended Friday for the gang-rape of two Delhi-based women in a moving car early Thursday, police said.

Balraj Singh, an assistant sub-inspector and in-charge of MG Road police post and head constable Dinesh Kumar were suspended for negligence of duty. They were on duty when the two women were raped in the car.

Police said that when the victims informed the police control room about the incident early Thursday, Kumar failed to convey the message to Singh as he did not have his cellphone number.

Kumar was suspended for not giving his cellphone number to the police post.

Two Delhi-based women aged 25 and 27 were gang raped here in a moving car while going home from a pub.

The women had hired a car outside Sahara Mall to go to Tughlaqabad in south Delhi. The driver picked up two other men. The women were gang-raped on the Gurgaon-Faridabad Road while four friends of the accused followed in another vehicle, police said.

The women were dumped on Gurgaon-Faridabad Road, from where they contacted police.

The five accused are cab drivers and were arrested Thursday. Another accused was arrested Friday while one is absconding. 

 

Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/gurgaon/Two-cops-suspended-for-Gurgaon-gang-rape/articleshow/20819494.cms

Two sentenced to death for rape and murder

NAGPUR: Seven years after a 19-year-old girl from Kalmeshwar was raped and murdered in a gruesome manner, the court on Friday sentenced the perpetrators — two hardened criminals — to the gallows. Rakesh Kamble (25), a resident of Gaurakshan slums in Wardha, and Amarsing Thakur (27), from Bajrang Nagar in city, were convicted for kidnapping, murder, and rape of Kanchan Meshram, a resident of Lonara slums in Kalmeshwar on December 18, 2005.

These two join seven others in the 'death penalty' club of Nagpur court over the last five years.

Looking at the past criminal record of the accused duo, including fleeing from police custody, the third district and sessions judge Vibha Ingle had no hesitation in putting the dastardly act under "rarest of rare" category. "They be hanged by neck till dead," the court mentioned while reading out an operative order in the packed courtroom.

Apart from the capital punishment, the duo was awarded lifer for gang rape, 20 years rigorous imprisonment for kidnapping for murder and another 10 years for criminal intimidation and trespassing into house at night. They were also fined Rs 22,000 on various counts. All the jail terms will run concurrently, the court ordered.

However, the duo was acquitted of charges under the Arms Act and Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989. Citing testimony of 19 witnesses, including the girl's parents, brother and other villagers, assistant public prosecutor (APP) Kalpana Pande strongly advocated the maximum punishment, contending that the accused were serial offenders and showed no signs of reformation.

Security was tight inside and outside the courtroom, considering the fact that the accused duo had a history of fleeing from custody and had created trouble every time they were brought for a hearing. Even Sadar PI Rajratan Bansod was personally present. There was no remorse on the faces of the convicts when the verdict was announced and they even threatened media persons with dire consequences.

The night of horror

Pande said the history-sheeter duo were friends with a cousin of the deceased and used to tease her. A few days before the incident, Kanchan had even rapped Rakesh for indecent behaviour and thrown a slipper at him. An enraged Rakesh then decided to teach her a lesson. He barged into the girl's small hut with Amarsing at about 3am, when she was sleeping with her parents and brother. Both were armed with knives and a country-made revolver.

Sensing trouble, Kanchan's mother signalled her to escape. She ran away from home and took shelter under the bed in her uncle's house. However, the goons entered by breaking open the front door and dragged her out. Her parents and other villagers tried their best to stop them, but the goons brandished their weapons to keep them at bay while taking her away.

Next morning, Kanchan's naked body was found at a nearby farm with 14 injuries, including stab marks and scratches on her private parts. Her blood stained clothes were lying all over the farm and blood was found splattered at many places, providing ample testimony of the spine chilling torment she underwent. The post mortem report confirmed her rape and murder.

The accused had fled to an unknown place after committing the crime. After a complaint was lodged at Kalmeshwar police, Rakesh was arrested at Khamgaon in Buldhana on June 6, 2006, six months after the incident. However, it took over five years for the police to nab the other accused Amarsing on May 29, 2005. In fact, he was arrested by Gwalior police for some other offence and was brought to the city for this case.
 : http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/nagpur/Two-sentenced-to-death-for-rape-and-murder/articleshow/20823395.cms

6-yr-old battles for life after rape

Barasat: Barely three weeks after the brutal rape and murder of a 20-year-old in Barasat'sKamduni, a 6-year-old girl in the same North 24-Parganas town is battling for her life in hospital after being allegedly raped by a 52-year-old man on Thursday evening.

Several stitches were administered to her private parts. The accused and her neighbour, Majid Ali Middyar, has been arrested. Demanding his death sentence, more than one hundred people launched an agitation in front of the Barasat police station on Friday.

The incident comes barely three weeks after the Barasat's Kamduni case in which a 20-year-old college girl was brutally gang raped and murdered by at least eight persons. While the Kamduni incident stirred across the state and even hit the all-India news headlines, but the court trial has not started yet as the CID already missing the chief minister Mamata Banerjee's 15 days deadline, are yet to submit the chargesheet against the accused in Barasat court till on Friday.

At around 7.30pm on Thursday when the girl, a Class-I student of a local primary school, was standing alone in front of her house at Ramakrishnapur near Barasat's Kajipara, Majid - a truck driver - lured her with chocolate and took her to his home. The girl, daughter of a daily wage earner, agreed to go to Majid's house as she also wanted to watch TV.

"After reaching home, Majid sent her daughter-in-law to shop and then gagged the girl and raped her. The girl somehow managed to remove the clothes from her mouth and screamed in pain. On hearing her screams, a neighbour rushed to Majid's home," alleged a local. took the girl to his home, his eldest daughter-in-law was only in the house. He also sent her to a local shop to buy something. Then the monster tortured the little girl brutally even after gagged her with a piece of cloths. He continued the torture her sexually till she somehow managed to remove the cloth from her mouth and screamed in pain. On hearing her screams a woman, a next door neighbour rushed to the Majid's residence to find him torturing the little girl sexually," a local said.

Majid then threatened the woman with dire consequences if she did not leave the place immediately. But the woman started to scream drawing the attention of others in the area, who later roughed up Majid before handing him over to police. also screamed for drawing attention of other locals who rushed to the house and caught the Majid while he tried to flee the spot. Then the angry locals beat him up before handing him over to the police.

The girl was rushed to the Barasat district hospital. According to a hospital sources, the girl was still in critical. "While she was taken to the hospital on Thursday evening she was still bleeding profusely. The doctors had to administer at least five stitches to her private parts. She was recovering slowly," a nurse of the hospital said who was on duty in emergency ward on Friday evening.

On Friday morning the locals gathered in front of the Barasat police station and demanded the accused to be hanged. "Those criminals like Majid deserve only death soon after committing the brutal rape on a little girl. But we have no faith on the police as they hardy take proper action against those culprits even after arresting them and the trial is delayed like recent Kamduni case," said Jharna Bibi, who rescued the girl from the Majid's custody.

The father of the girl said that he was not at his home while Majid lured her daughter to his house. "I was at outside for my job. But I got the news from a local with whom I met there. I rushed to my house while my daughter was already taken to the hospital. Majid, was my neighbour and he lives just after two houses from my residence. He used to come to my house and my daughter called him Majid Dadu. I want him only to be hanged," the father said.

The girl's kin have lodged a complaint of rape with Barasat police on Thursday night. Police, however, registered the case under section PCSO (protection of child from sexual offence), 2012, IPC 4.

"We have arrested Majid on Thursday and produced him in the Barasat court.

The case has been registered for sexual assault on a child according to PCSO (protection of child from sexual offence), 2012 Act," said Bhaskar Mukherjee, additional SP, North 24 Parganas. Majid was remanded in judicial custody for 14 days.

Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kolkata/6-yr-old-battles-for-life-after-rape/articleshow/20823908.cms

Gurgaon gang rape: Main rape accused arrested, but ground reality unchanged

GURGAON: Gurgaon police on Friday nabbed the key accused in the Thursday early morning rape in a moving car, bringing the total number of arrests in the case to six. The accused has been identified as Dharambir, and it was he who planned the rape to get value for the Rs 10,000 he had paid to the two victims and also raped one of them.

The Toyota Corolla Altis car in which the two women were raped by the accused has been retrieved and the five persons who were arrested on Thursday were sent in judicial custody on Friday. Dharmabir had been trying to get to girls over the past week but when he couldn't he got a friend to lure them to get into his car and then carried out the rape of the victims. Police are currently interrogating him about the whereabouts of last of the seven accused, Vikram, who is at large.

"Dharambir, 27, is a native of Dor Kalan village near Narnaul and used to work as a taxi driver. We recovered the Corolla Altis car, which was used in the rape. We found out during the interrogation that the accused had raped the victims without using contraceptives. There is a possibility of getting strong biological evidence against the accused from the car," an investigating officer said.

The victims of the horrific incident were two Delhi-based women who had hired a private cab a little after 12.30am on Thursday after finishing their work in a pub. The two residents of Tughlakabad had left Empire Club in Metropolitan Mall on MG Road at 12 midnight. Sources said that the two were entry "escorts" and regulars at the club for three days in a week and would help boys to gain the cheaper "couple entry" and avoid the expensive "stag entry".

On the same day police arrested five of accused, identified as Devender, Parmod, Harish Khan alias Nisar, Satish and Devinder. One of the accused is a native of Mewat district while the other four belong to Nangal Peepa village in Mahendergarh distirct. An Indica car has been retrieved from them. One of the two victims, who is 27 years old, told police that they had come out of Empire Club a little after midnight and reached in front of Club-18 in an auto. Since their taxi driver had not reached in time to pick them up, they hired a Toyota Altis car for Rs 300 in front of Vipul Agora Mall building.

Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/gurgaon/Gurgaon-gang-rape-Main-rape-accused-arrested-but-ground-reality-unchanged/articleshow/20823417.cms?

New Anti-Rape Laws In India Fails to Address Root Causes

Monday, 6 May 2013, 11:30 am
Press Release: UN News
‘Opportunity Lost’ As New Anti-Rape Laws In India Fail to Address Root Causes – UN Expert

New York, May 3 2013 - Laws recently passed in India to prevent and prosecute rape and other sex crimes “do not go far enough,” a United Nations independent expert said today, lamenting that the legislation failed to address systemic gender inequalities in Indian society.
“The opportunity to establish a substantive and specific equality and non-discrimination rights legislative framework for women, to address de facto inequality and discrimination, and to protect and prevent against all forms of violence against women, was lost,” said Rashida Manjoo, the Special Rapporteur on violence against women.

Just back from a 10-say visit to India, she said that while the reforms were commendable, they did not fully reflect the recommendations in the report produced by the Verma Committee – named after former Chief Justice Jagdish Sharan Verma – which was set up in the wake of the death of a 23-year-old woman whose gang-rape in New Delhi sparked nationwide protests.

The report made a series of recommendations to tackle violence against women in India, and UN human rights officials urged the Government to follow through with them. Ms. Manjoo reiterated those calls, pressing authorities to address the multiple and intersecting inequalities and discrimination that women face.
“My mandate has consistently voiced the view that the failure in response and prevention measures stems from a Government’s inability and/or unwillingness to acknowledge and address the core structural causes of violence against women,” she said, adding: “The unfortunate reality is that the rights of many women in India continue to be violated, with impunity as the norm.”

Violence again against women and girls in India manifests itself in numerous ways, including domestic violence, caste-based discrimination, dowry-related deaths, witch-hunting, sexual violence, conflict-related sexual violence, and forced marriages.

During her visit, the independent expert met with Government authorities and civil society in New Delhi, Rajasthan, Gujarat, and Tamil Nadu, among other regions.

Independent experts or special rapporteurs are appointed by the UN Human Rights Council to examine and report back, in an unpaid capacity, on specific human rights themes. Ms. Manjoo will present her findings to the Council in June 2014.

For more details go to UN News Centre at http://www.un.org/news

SOURCE: http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO1305/S00126/new-anti-rape-laws-in-india-fail-to-address-root-causes.htm

U.N. expert says India's new anti-rape law is insufficient

Demonstrators shout slogans in New Delhi, on Feb. 7, 2013, during a protest to demand harsher punishments and quicker trials for rape cases. REUTERS/Adnan Abidi

 NEW DELHI (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - India missed a golden opportunity to tackle violence against women, by enacting a law that toughens punishments against sex offenders but fails to address the root causes and consequences of gender abuse, a U.N. expert said Wednesday.

The Criminal Law (Amendment) Act 2013, or "anti-rape law" was enacted last month, after the fatal December gang rape of a student sparked protests over the treatment of women in the largely patriarchal country.

The legislation, which includes death for repeat rapists, was based on a recommendations made by a panel headed by late former Chief Justice J.S. Verma, but it disappointed many activists who said it had been watered down.

Rashida Manjoo, U.N. Special Rapporteur on violence against women, who was on a 10-day visit to investigate gender abuses in the country, told a news conference that the making of a new law had presented a "golden moment" for India, but that this has had been lost.

"While this legislative reform is to be commended, it is regrettable that the amendments do not fully reflect the Verma Committee's recommendations," Manjoo said.

"This development foreclosed the opportunity to establish a holistic and remedial framework which is underpinned by transformative norms and standards, including those relating to sexual and bodily integrity rights. Furthermore the approach adopted fails to address the structural and root causes of and consequences of violence against women."

Manjoo, a South African national, said criminalising marital rape, lowering the age of consent from 18 to 16, and addressing sexual abuses faced by gays, lesbians and transgenders should have been part of the legislative reforms.

PAIN AND ANGUISH

Indian girls and women face a plethora of threats. These include sexual and domestic violence, dowry-related deaths, crimes in the name of honour, witch-branding, acid attacks, female foeticide, early marriage and human trafficking.

According to latest figures from the National Crimes Records Bureau (NCRB), there were 228,650 reported crimes committed against women in 2011, an increase of seven percent from the previous year.

Manjoo, who travelled to various regions of the country including Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Manipur and Tamil Nadu, met with many women who shared their personal experiences of violence and survival.

"The pain and anguish in the testimonies of loss, dispossession, and various human rights violations, was visceral and often difficult to deal with," she said. "The denial of constitutional rights in general, and the violation of the rights of equality, dignity, bodily integrity, life and access to justice in particular, was a theme that was common in many testimonies."

The U.N. envoy said that she did not meet with very senior officials, despite requests to meet with parliamentarians, the minister for women and child development, members of the judiciary and Sonia Gandhi, leader of the ruling Congress-led coalition government.

She added that although it was part of her mandate, she also did not gain access to shelters, psychiatric hospitals, detention centres or jails. "Unfortunately it didn't happen on this mission. But the norm on many of my missions is that I do get access to speaking to people," she said. "There was no refusal in India about meeting with anyone in particular. There was silence and silence is not acquiescence."

Source: http://www.trust.org/item/20130502035819-30c1v/

Awareness, activism opens floodgate for rape complaints

Soumittra S Bose, TNN | May 8, 2013, 05.46 AM IST


NAGPUR: It's raining rape complaints at police stations in the city and rural areas. The graph of registration of such offences, along with that of the outraging of modesty of a woman, has suddenly taken an upswing.
Whether it's activism or awareness, a comparison of the crime statistics of the first three months of 2011 and the ongoing year have shown that rape offences have almost doubled and outraging of modesty risen by three times.

Till March this year, the city police have recorded 20 offences of rape and another 51 for outraging of modesty. In rural, it's 19 and 50, respectively. In 2011, the count stood at 9 and 7 in the city, and 11-18 in rural.

Social worker Madhuri Sakulkar, president of Bharatiya Stree Shakti, said that the uproar following the Delhi gang rape in a bus in December has helped lift the stigma attached to the sexual abuse against women. "The women have realized that speaking up is the answer to the issue and not shedding silent tears. Police too have changed their approach by not discouraging registration of offences," she said.

Last year till March, city police had registered 12 cases of rape and 22 of outraging modesty of a woman. In rural, it was 6-14.

Former assistant commissioner of police Madhuri Godse said that society is ailing with sickening mentality and low respect of women's dignity due to imbalanced exposure to explicit materials on latest gadgets. "There is no other way but to initiate a moral cleansing from home particularly with the young adults," she said.

Former family court judge Meera Khadakkar said that the increase in complaints can be linked to the sustained awareness and fights of the pressure groups which are hitting the roads crying foul against atrocities against women.

NCP city women president Nutan Rewatkar, who helped two rape victims file complaints this year, said that the recent incidents underline the need for an exclusive police station for women. "Not the law but punishments should be drastic and quick," she said.

Additional public prosecutor advocate Jyoti Vajani, who has helped several rape victims get justice, stated that law cannot help until morality is drilled into the next generation. "We cannot afford acquittals in rape cases. Acquittals boost the morals of the perpetrators who would go on victimizing women. The prosecutions, public prosecutors, police and judges all need to play their respective roles with sensitivity and responsibility so that all these factors can come together to bring justice to a devastated soul," she said.

Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/City/Nagpur/Awareness-activism-opens-floodgate-for-rape-complaints/articleshow/19942509.cms

Girl attacked with acid for resisting advances

TNN May 7, 2013, 01.25AM IST

 

ALLAHABAD: An 18-year-old man, whose attempt to rape a 16-year-old girl was thwarted recently, came back with vengeance and threw acid on the girl in the trans-Yamuna area of Allahabad district on Monday.
The man, identified as Manjoo, has been arrested and sent to jail. Police said the accused threw acid on the girl at Bhita village under Ghoorpur police station in the wee hours of Monday. "The accused managed to enter the house of the victim at around 1.30am while the family was asleep. He then threw acid on the girl, resulting in burn injuries on her face and hands," the police said.

As the girl shrieked, her family members rushed to her and found her in a semi-conscious condition. She was rushed to the SRN Hospital, where her condition is "serious".
Station Officer, Ghoorpur, JP Rai told TOI: "The police have arrested the accused. He had earlier made an abortive attempt to outrage the modesty of the girl but the villagers had sorted out the issue through the village panchayat."
He added that the girl, a student of Class IX, was admitted to the emergency ward of the hospital. Locals said the accused had been harassing the girl for a long time but the police had not taken any action.

Source: http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2013-05-07/allahabad/39089801_1_16-year-old-girl-burn-injuries-acid

 

4-Year-Old Indian Girl Raped, Left With Severe Brain Injuries In Critical Condition

By Cavan Sieczkowski
Posted: 04/23/2013 1:52 pm EDT  |  Updated: 04/23/2013 2:18 pm EDT




A 4-year-old Indian rape victim was left with severe brain injuries after allegedly being suffocated. Here, Indian schoolgirls hold a placard and participate in a silent rally against the rape of a 5-year-old girl in New Delhi, in Hyderabad, India, Tuesday, April 23, 2013. (AP Photo/Mahesh Kumar A.)

A 4-year-old Indian girl who was raped last week is currently in critical condition, having sustained severe brain injuries after allegedly being suffocated.

The unnamed child was reportedly raped in her village in Madhya Pradesh on April 17, according to Press Trust of India.

The girl's family found the child, who went missing on Wednesday, the next morning lying unconscious and profusely bleeding near a crematorium in her village, according to The Times of India. She had lacerations, tears and bruises on her body, and had allegedly been suffocated, which caused serious brain injuries.

Firoz Khan, a 35-year-old welder, is accused of raping the 4-year-old. His alleged accomplice is accused of using chocolate to lure the girl from her home, NDTV reports.

“The condition of the 4-year-old child, who was found unconscious in a field in Ghansur town of MP, is still critical. She is totally unconscious from the time she was brought to Nagpur," a doctor told The Hindu. "We have done all the examinations including MRI brain and EEG which indicates gross damage to her brain. Her brain’s functioning has reduced to an abnormal level. This is hypoxic brain damage which means inability of brain to work due lack of oxygen supply."

“She has been put on a life support system and is being treated by a team of senior doctors. Nothing else can be said about her situation now" he added.

Police are still searching for Khan, who may have left the country, according to NDTV. The other suspect has been arrested.

News of this horrific incident comes in the midst of fury over the rape and torture of a 5-year-old girl in the Indian capital . The girl was found Wednesday in a New Delhi apartment building and doctors discovered a candle and a bottle of hair oil inside her little body.

Hundreds of protesters have taken to the streets in the wake of the crime, alleging that police did not respond to the tragedy.

"The police must be held accountable for their shocking levels of apathy. They urgently need to review police processes to ensure that all cases of rape and sexual violence – not just those highlighted by the media – are fully and promptly investigated," G. Ananthapadmanabhan, who heads the India chapter of the human rights group Amnesty International, said, according to the Associated Press. "Those who fail to do their job must be held accountable."

Two suspects -- aged 19 and 24 -- have been arrested in connection with the rape, according to the report.

     

Delhi rape case: Demand for death penalty for rapist's increases, Delhi Police take some protesters into custody

New Delhi:  April 21 (ANI): Even as the public clamours for giving the death penalty to rapists, police in Delhi took several protesters into preventive custody on Sunday.

A demonstrator fell unconscious while protesting the brutal rape of the five-year old girl in New Delhi, and demanding more safety for women.

An irate protester, Shikha Rai, said the police and the government should take adequate security measures for the safety of women in the country.

She added: "Our demand is to make safe a safe place for women. We elect government for the security and safety of the people and if they or if Delhi police are unable to provide that security that I think, we will have to come out and take care of ourselves."

Meanwhile, reports of protests against the rape of a five-year-old are coming in from other parts of the country.

Protesters took to the streets raising slogans, demanding a harsh punishment for the man suspected of raping the five-year-old girl who is battling for her life at a hospital in New Delhi.

To express solidarity with the five-year-old girl, protesters shouted slogans against Delhi Police and the Union government demanding the resignation of Police Commissioner Neeraj Kumar.

An agitated protester, Neelam said, "We are demonstrating against the brutal incident done by an animal like human being with the small girl. We demand resignation of Delhi Police Commissioner Neeraj Kumar, as during his tenure, another horrifying incident happened after the December 16 incident. Attitude of police has not changed. They still do not lodge FIR and the family of victims is asked to compromise and shut their mouth. We want to ask them as to what is their role? What is their duty? Is it to make the victim keep quite or to help them?"

Lashing out at United Progressive Alliance (UPA), a protester Sharda, urged the government to hang the accused.

"The biggest problem is that the culprits are not being punished due to which they are fearlessly raping women. I just want to say that in such cases, the culprits should be hanged to death or else women will have to find ways to protect themselves," said Sharda

A woman also fainted while raising her voice against the safety for women during the protest. She was immediately taken to the hospital for treatment.

The victim, whose parents work as labourers and live in the eastern neighbourhood of Delhi, went missing on April 15.

Police found her with bruise marks on her body in the suspect's house in a semi-conscious condition on Thursday after her parents had registered a complaint.

Delhi police had arrested the 25-year-old man for the rape of the child from arrested from Muzaffarpur town in India's eastern state of Bihar. The man was taken into transit custody to be brought to New Delhi.

The rape, which left the young girl in a critical condition, revived memories of the brutal gang rape by five adult men and a teenaged boy of a 23-year-old physiotherapy student on a bus on December 16 in New Delhi. That woman died of her injuries.

Earlier Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said in a statement that he was deeply disturbed by the latest incident. In December his administration had faced criticism for failing to respond to public anger over the horrific attack on the physiotherapy student.

Singh's government passed tougher laws to fight gender crimes in March, putting in place new provisions and tougher punishments, which include criminalising voyeurism and stalking and making acid attacks and human trafficking specific offences.

Source: http://in.news.yahoo.com/delhi-rape-case-demand-death-penalty-rapists-increases-121825672.html

Women hit back at India's rape culture

• Gethin Chamberlain in Lucknow
• The Observer, Saturday 6 April 2013 11.55 BST
• 
  
• A self-defence group in Lucknow have a simple message to the men who make their lives a misery – stop it, or else
• 
  
• 

Young women from the Red Brigade walk through the Midiyav slum in the city of Lucknow. Their leader, Usha Vishwakarma, 25, is in white. Photograph: Gethin Chamberlain for the Observer

The male tormentor of the young women of the Madiyav slum did not spot the danger until it was too late. One moment he was taunting them with sexual suggestions and provocations; the next they had hold of his arms and legs and had hoisted him into the air.

Then the beating began. Some of the young women lightly used their fists, others took off their shoes and hit him with those. When it was over, they let him limp away to nurse his wounds, certain that he had learned an important lesson: don't push your luck with the Red Brigade.

Named for their bright red outfits, the Red Brigade was formed in November 2011 as a self-defence group for young women suffering sexual abuse in the northern Indian city of Lucknow, 300 miles south-east of Delhi. Galvanised by the gang rape and murder of a 23-year-old medical student in Delhi last December and the nationwide protests that followed against a rising tide of rapes, they are now gaining in confidence.

From a core membership of 15, ranging in age from 11 to 25, they now have more than 100 members, intelligent and sassy and with a simple message for the men who have made their lives a misery: they will no longer tolerate being groped, gawped at and worse. Their activities are a lesson in empowerment.

Men who fall foul of the Red Brigade can first expect a visit and a warning. Sometimes the Red Brigade will ask the police to get involved, but if all else fails they take matters into their own hands. Their leader, 25-year-old teacher Usha Vishwakarma, has her own experience of the daily danger faced by many young women in the country. She was just 18 when a fellow teacher tried to rape her. "He grabbed me and put his hands round me and tried to open my belt and trousers," says Usha, sitting in the bare-brick front room of her small house. "But I was saved by my jeans because they were too tight for him to open, and that gave me a chance to fight, so I kicked him in the sensitive place and pushed him down and ran out of the door."

No one at the school took her accusations seriously, telling her to forget it and stop causing trouble. The experience left her traumatised and for two years she did nothing. But little by little her confidence came back. In 2009 she set up her own small school for local girls in an outbuilding next to her family home. Yet all around her, she says, she saw more and more young women suffering the same abuse she had faced. And it was threatening to wreck the chances of her young female students.

"Parents were telling girls to stay in their homes so there would be no incidents. They said, 'if you go to school, boys will be troubling you, so stay home and there will be no sexual violence'," says Vishwakarma. "But we said no, and we decided to form a group to fight for ourselves. We decided we would not just complain; we would take a lead and fight for ourselves." They bought red kameez (shirts) and black salwar (trousers) and began to plan the fightback. "We chose red because it means danger and black for protest," says Vishwakarma.

There is much to fight back against. "It is in the minds of men that girls are objects and it has been like that always," says Vishwakarma. "Religion shows women as very powerless and that whoever is strong can do anything."

Other members of the group drift in and join her, sitting on the bed along one wall of the front room. At the other end of the room is a table laden with the placards they carry with them when they go out to protest on the 29th day of every month. The demonstrations mark the date of the Delhi bus rape and murder on 29 December. Their slogans read: "Stop rape now" and "We want safety".

"In the electronic era there are pictures everywhere of women and girls being treated like objects. It is now very simple to see pornography and it is feeding the hunger for sex. The men think that if you are looking sexy, then you want sex," says Vishwakarma.

They have started martial arts training so that the men do not have a physical advantage over them. Pooja, Vishwakarma's 18-year-old sister, laughs as she recalls the reaction of the boy they grabbed in the street when his taunts became too much. "We all stopped and turned round and we surrounded him and grabbed his arms and legs and he thought it was a joke, but we were not kidding and four of us lifted him in the air and the others started to hit him with their shoes and fists," she says.

The rough justice the Red Brigade metes out might seem extreme to western sensibilities, but many Indian women are making it clear that they are no longer prepared to put up with endemic abuse. That much is clear from the crime figures: reports of molestation in Delhi are up 590% year on year and rape reports by 147%. The rape cases have hit tourist numbers, which were down 25% in the first three months of the year – 35% fewer women are travelling to India.

The Red Brigade say sexual abuse is a part of daily life for young women like them. They all have stories of abuse, attempted rapes and daily harassment. "This is what happens in India," says 16-year-old Laxmi, one of Vishwakarma's lieutenants. "These things happen all the time. All of us know this, so don't let anyone say otherwise. This is why we have formed the Red Brigade."

Seventeen-year-old Preeti Verma nods in agreement. Her family are too poor to have a toilet in the house, so she has to go out into the fields, she says. Every time she went out, the man in the neighbouring house threw stones at her to try to scare her into jumping up. "He wanted to see my body," she says. "I told him: 'What are you doing? You are shameless, don't you have a mother and sister in your house?' But he replied that his mother is for his father, his sister is for her husband and that I was for him." She told Vishwakarma, and the man received a visit from the Red Brigade and another from the police. She has had no trouble from him since.

"We've caught a lot of men recently," says 17-year-old Sufia Hashmi. "I joined up because men always used to pass comments on me and touch my body, but now we beat them the men cannot do anything and they run away. You feel powerful and you feel good."

The next day, they gather on the roof of a gym across the city to run through their moves, a mixture of kicks, punches and throws. An instructor shows Pooja how to use a wooden stick to keep a boy at bay. She holds it against his assistant's throat and the boy looks terrified. The others gasp and giggle.

Yet it is not just the young men of the neighbourhood that the Red Brigade must overcome. Many of the members are very young and, although some of their parents are supportive, others are convinced they are wasting their lives. "The attitude of my parents is very demoralising," says 16-year-old Simpi Diwari, a tiny young woman who a few moments ago was kicking away the legs of one of her colleagues. "I want to be like Usha, fighting against the cruel things, I want to be a teacher and a motivator too, but I am fighting with my parents just to be allowed out of the house."

On the way back to the slum, the rickshaws pass a public park and for a moment these tough young women show themselves for what they really are – children forced to grow up fast. They beg and plead to stop. "Please, please," they say, their eyes gleaming in excitement. Shrieking gleefully, they race off towards the swings, slides and roundabouts. Later they stroll back through the market, eating ice-creams, heading for their homes. The sun is low in the sky, the shadows long. The men watch sullenly as they pass, like wolves who have just discovered the sheep are armed. No one risks a word.

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/apr/06/red-brigade-india-sex-abuse

School denies admission to gang rape victim

Published: Friday, Mar 29, 2013, 3:30 IST  By Prasanta Mazumdar | Place: GUWAHATI | Agency: DNA

In a move bound to raise eyebrows, a school in Meghalaya has reportedly denied admission to a girl who was gang raped. Harassed by people in her hometown Williamnagar following the incident, the victim relocated to Tura in the state’s Western Garo Hills to avoid humiliation and pursue studies but only to be denied admission by at least one school there. The victim, a 16-year-old student of class IX, has now been kept at an unspecified location by the authorities to protect her from public glare. Her parents have been allegedly threatened by some people to withdraw the case. Seventeen people, including eight juveniles, have been arrested in connection with the case. Two of the accused are relatives of a minister and a surrendered militant leader. The incident of gang rape took place in December last when the girl was returning home along with a friend from a festival in Williamnagar. “We are not aware of the denial of admission by the school to the girl. However, exemplary action will be taken against the school if it is found guilty,” Western Garo Hills deputy commissioner Prabin Bakshi told DNA. Social organisations in the state have expressed concern over the threat to the girl’s life.  But Bakshi claimed she was in ‘safe hands’. “She is safe. She is in a hostel and is being looked after by Meghalaya State Women Commission. They are now in the process of finding a school for her,” he said. Asked about the alleged threats to the parents, Bakshi said, “We have come to know about the alleged threats. However, we are yet to receive any formal complaint.” “Trial in the case is going on a very fast pace. All efforts are being made to ensure that it goes on in a free and fair manner,”he added. A women’s group has slammed the authorities for allegedly protecting a minister. “Such crimes will continue. The people involved are very influential. The policemen are public servants. But in this case, they are protecting a minister. So, where is justice then,” asked Agnes Kharshing, president of Civil Society Women Organisation. Source:http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_school-denies-admission-to-gang-rape-victim_1816748