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Women and Men Against Violence against women - ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!
Written By murali772 - 21 December, 2012
Bangalore law and order law enforcement
On Friday, 21.12.12, at TOWN HALL, 5PM to 7 PM
A 23 year old student gets in to a Delhi Bus with her boy friend and gets gang raped and her friend gets assaulted. She lies in Hospital in a critical condition fighting for her life.
Nearer home, we read daily news…
A MIGRANT LABOURER WENT TO BUY GROCERIES AND WAS RAPED BY THE GROCER - SHE WAS FIFTEEN; SHE WAS FIVE YEARS OLD AND IS UNDERGOING RECONSTRUCTIVE SURGERY AFTER SEXUAL ATTACK; SHE WAS PULLED OUT OF A CAR IN UNIVERSITY CAMPUS AND RAPED BY FOUR MEN; SEVEN YEAR OLD DROWNED IN LAKE BY THE RAPIST; EIGHT YEAR OLD GIRL RAPED BY NEIGHBOUR; FIVE YEAR OLD SEXUALLY ASSAULTED BY DRIVER OF SCHOOL VAN; FATHER'S FRIEND RAPES 5 YEAR OLD
97 cases were the registered rape cases in 2011 in Bangalore city which means 7 women victims each month. If the hundreds of cases of Molestation, abductions of women, child sexual abuse, harassment and abuse on the streets/ auto rickshaws / buses or other public spaces in the city are counted then by any standard, living and working in the city is truly a daily hazard for women and children. The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) statistics for 2011 said Bangalore ranks fourth among cities of the country in recorded rape cases.
How many women and girls must fall victims to rape and other sexual crimes before the administration wakes up to the fact that living and working in mega cities or going about in public spaces is becoming a hazard for women and girls? Yet, there is a deafening silence from the State, the administration and the public! And this silence comes from the shameless justification.... why was she out so late at night? why do women wear provocative clothes? why did she argue back? who was she with? ....
What kind of a society are we that we continue to condone this unjustifiable violence at the cost of women's dignity, respect and basic human rights both within and outside the home?
Come, Join us – not just for this day, but to continue to resist our streets becoming inaccessible to women and to resist moral policing that will use this vulnerability to push women back in time!
Women are coming out - in freedom and without fear. State and the Society must welcome this movement towards a healthier and harmonious future for all and the future generations...
VIMOCHANA
Forum for Women's Rights
33/1-9, Thyagraj Layout
Jaibharath Nagar, Bangalore 560033, INDIA
Tel: +91-80-25492783, 782, 781
http://www.vimochana.in
COMMENTS
Is punishment sufficient deterrent?
sanjayv - 21 December, 2012 - 12:42
Murali sir, here I have to disagree with you. Let me state at the outset that violence against women should stop and should have been stopped a long time ago. However, as a result of the horrific event of the recent past, my inbox is flooded with petitions for capital punishment and castration as a punishment for rape.
Somehow, as a society we seem to drift away from the fundamentals so easily. Our police force is outdated and policing techniques and capacities are insufficient. Sensitivity required in investigating a crime such as this is lacking. Prosecution is poor. Conviction is abbysmal. i am not even going to bring hard data here to back up these claims... this much is well known.
To prevent violence against women there needs to (a) be a lot of positive activities on the education and sensitization front. I am not going there (b) There needs to be preventive activities. These include - More and better policing, trsaining for police, better invesitgation techniques, police using force multipliers, better prosecution, more forensic labs, faster criminal justice system, better RTO system, high security license plates, stricter laws etc. etc. These fundamentals have to be addressed before any impact happens on the deterrent front.
idontspam - 21 December, 2012 - 13:46
Reminds me of Broken window theory, can you think of how it can be applied in this case?
Eg: The broken wndow scenario I applied to traffic was like this. Maintaining neat pothole free roads with properly marked lanes & working signals will lead to better driving. Discipline on these roads by 20% of the people will make the rest 80% behave. Pick connectors from commercial vehicles segment in this 20% to drive it to tipping point.
kbsyed61 - 21 December, 2012 - 15:19
Murali Sir,
We as society get umpteen opportunities to wake up and correct the wrongs that have gone unchallenged. This horrific incident is one such opportunity and it is a golden opportunity to correct some wrongs. I sincerely hope we as society go beyond our solidarity marches, protests and candle light vigils.
My deepest sympathies are with the victim and her family. I empathy with all those victims whose plight were given media headlines and thousands of those whose stories have remained in the 4 walls of their homes.
Police, judiciary, politics are just manifestation of the society that we are. policeman, lawyer, judge, MLA/MP, are human beings that come from the same society that we all belong to. Unless we as society doesn't change our outlook towards other human beings be it a child or women, young or old, rich or poor, can expect anything substantial in this episode.
Our decaying human and moral values have driven so low, for hours the semi naked bodies of this victim and her friends we were lying on road and crowd remained onlookers. Nobody even had the decency to cover the bodies with pieces of clothes, until police arrived on the scene.
Is our behavior any different in our day to day lives? No. Just look at the horrific scenario with female infanticide? In a nutshell, neither we respect our girl child nor we respect the women.
There is still room for corrections to these degrading human and moral values. Let us protest, let us agitate inside and outside our homes.
Write to Chief Justice SC, PM, Opposition leaders, to every public office holder calling for reforms in police and judicial system.
Let us demand that, SC orders all High courts in states to constitute special courts and try all the rape/molestation cases that were filed in last 3 years. Let SC order that these should be concluded by Dec 31, 2013.
Let us demand that, Center and sate, go into turbo mode to see that police reforms as ordered by SC is taken up and By Dec 31, 2013 all state must comply. Otherwise, Center should dismiss the state gov and president rule is imposed.
That will be befitting response to this horrific episode. Anything less will be nothing but rhetoric - 'these incidents happens all the time'
Statistics that should make us numb!
kbsyed61 - 22 December, 2012 - 16:23
According to National Crime Records Bureau (under Union Ministry of Home Affairs), in 2011 alone, around 24,206 (Twenty four thousand two Hundred and six) casesof rape were reported compared to 2487 cases in 1953. That is a jump of 873 %.
What alarms is, out of 24, 206 cases, only 26% saw the success in conviction. That means 17,914 offenders were either let off or didn’t get the punishment that they deserve. If these figures don’t shake our souls and mind, nothing else will.
Source – NCRB, 2011 Report - http://ncrb.nic.in/CD-CII2011/cii-2011/figure%20at%20a%20glance.pdf
murali772 - 21 December, 2012 - 10:11
CASTRATION - perhaps the most effective measure to keep the male libido in check - that'll be the slogan I'd put on a placard if I get to attend the meeting.
Of course, that punishment has to be meted out only to rapists whose guilt has been established beyond all doubt. But, even the threat of such a punishment, I believe, will be enough of a deterrent.
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