Too Many Bystanders to India’s Culture of Rape | Boston Globe
"I had one strike against me the moment I was born an Indian girl. Now, as a young adult living in the United States, I question how the devaluation of females in India can still persist, and why so many males in the growing country refuse to act against it."
Last month, the male-dominated Indian government once again attempted to silence discussion of women’s issues by banning “India’s Daughter,” a stirring documentary that revisits the savage 2012 gang rape of a 23-year-old Delhi woman. The government action came weeks after President Obama delivered a moving speech in New Delhi on India’s Independence Day, urging the country to embrace gender equality.
The documentary, produced by British filmmaker Leslee Udwin, tells the story of what began as an ordinary Sunday night and ended in horror. After going to watch a movie together, software engineer Avanindra Pandey, 28, and medical student Jyoti Singh, 23, boarded a private bus to go home. Five minutes later, the bus lights went out and the doors locked. The sickening crime that followed resulted in Singh’s death, a critically-injured Pandey, and — eventually — five death sentences for the assailants.
The incident attracted worldwide attention, but what happened is not all that uncommon in India, where — according to the latest government statistics — a woman is raped every 20 minutes. In an effort to understand the thinking of Singh’s murderers, Udwin spoke with one of them, Mukesh Singh. “A decent girl won’t roam around at nine o’clock at night,” Singh said. “A girl is far more responsible for rape than a boy. Boy and girl are not equal.”
Clips of Singh’s comments leaked before the film premiered on March 8 — International Women’s Day — leading to the ban. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Venkaiah Naidu called the film “an international conspiracy to defame India.” Since then, there has been much debate about the documentary and the government’s attempt to keep it from being seen. Thankfully, many people have called on the government to better protect women.
Some Indian men insist on blaming women for bringing rape upon themselves. That is despicable, but I do not believe these slanders are the primary reason why attitudes and behaviors toward women are not changing fast enough. The problem may be India’s bystanders. These people do not necessarily witness rape and fail to act — although that happens — but they have long been standing on the sidelines of the national discussion. By doing so, they help the culture of rape continue.
Just a few weeks after the 2012 Delhi case, a 17-year-old Indian girl who was gang-raped committed suicide, apparently because police would not file an official report on the attack. A year later, a 16-year-old girl was gang-raped, set on fire, and two months later died of her injuries. During those two months, the police did not file a crime report. More recently, The Indian Express reported that a 6-year-old girl was sexually assaulted with an iron rod by a security guard.
Often, women who suffer violence stay silent because they have no faith in India’s justice system. And even when they do raise their voices, the government deals with them on a case-by-case basis rather than as an issue that is endemic to the nation.
The country can boast an accelerating economy that is lifting many people out of poverty, but it is not nearly enough. By treating half of its population so poorly, India can only operate to half of its potential. Hundreds of millions of bystanders to relentless mistreatment are slowly killing off what matters most in a civilized society.
Indian government once again attempted to silence discussion of women’s issues by banning “India’s Daughter,” a stirring documentary that revisits the savage 2012 gang rape of a 23-year-old Delhi woman.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Venkaiah Naidu called the film “an international conspiracy to defame India.”
Just a few weeks after the 2012 Delhi Rape Case, a 17-year-old Indian girl who was gang-raped committed suicide, apparently because police would not file an official report on the attack. A year later, a 16-year-old girl was gang-raped, set on fire, and two months later died of her injuries. During those two months, the police did not file a crime report. More recently, The Indian Express reported that a 6-year-old girl was sexually assaulted with an iron rod by a security guard.
Often, women who suffer violence stay silent because they have no faith in India’s justice system. Boston Globe
Link to Source: http://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2015/04/10/too-many-bystanders-india-culture-rape/cYLaa0CiwauM1y4dkKKwGO/story.html
The National Campaign Against Torture (NCAT) in its “India: Annual Report on Torture 2019” released on the occasion of the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture stated that a total of 1,731 persons died in custody during 2019 i.e. deaths of about five persons daily. These included 1,606 deaths in judicial custody and 125 deaths in police custody.
Torture is perpetrated to extract confession or bribes and torture methods used in 2019 included hammering iron nails in the body (Bihar), applying roller on legs and burning (Jammu & Kashmir), ‘falanga’ wherein the soles of the feet are beaten (Kerala), stretching legs apart in opposite side (Kerala), hitting in private parts (Haryana), electric shock (Punjab and Uttar Pradesh), pouring petrol in private parts (Uttar Pradesh), applying chilly power in private parts (Kerala) beating while being hand-cuffed (Kerala), pricking needle into body (3-Year-old minor in Tamil Nadu), branding with hot iron rod (3-Year-old minor in Tamil Nadu), beating after stripping (Haryana and Assam), urinating in mouth (Uttar Pradesh), inserting hard blunt object into anus (Bihar), beating after hanging upside down with hands and legs tied (Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh), forcing to perform oral sex (Gujarat), pressing finger nails with pliers (Assam), beating with iron rods after victim is suspended between two tables with both hands and legs tied (Madhya Pradesh), forced to do Murga pose or stress position (Haryana), and kicking in belly of pregnant woman (Assam).
Indian police officers in the town of Nagina chased a group of Muslim teenagers into an empty house. They grabbed them and took them to a makeshift jail. And then, the boys and community leaders said, the officers tortured them.
Four of the boys, who ranged in age from 13 to 17, said that police officers used wooden canes to beat them and threatened to kill them.
Indian Police officers over the course of 30 hours terrorized them.
According to two of the boys, the officers laughed during beatings, saying, “You will die in this prison.”
More accounts are emerging of abuse meted out by police officers.
Almost all the violence has been directed toward Muslim residents. More people — at least 19 — have been killed!
Witnesses said that police officers opened fire on demonstrators with live ammunition, broke into houses and stole money, and threatened to rape women.
Police officers were encouraged by their superiors to kill protesters.
The Indian police have become a lynch mob! Inidan police officers having been given the green light by senior officials to use harsh measures against Muslims.
A 20-year-old Dalit man was allegedly burnt alive over his relationship with a woman from another caste, the killing causing his mother to die of shock.
The victim was beaten up, kept hostage in a house and set ablaze.
Locals rushed to the spot on hearing his cries and took him to a local hospital. He was referred to a Lucknow hospital but succumbed to injuries on the way.
India : Hyderabad : Andhra Pradesh Telangana2018-09-20
A father attacked his 20-year-old daughter and her newlywed husband in the heart of the city on Wednesday, chopping off her left forearm and slashing her jaw. The incident comes days after a Dalit youth was mercilessly murdered in front his pregnant wife in Nalgonda district.
Police said the father was upset over the inter-caste marriage — the woman an OBC (Other Backward Class), her husband, B Sandeep (22), a Dalit. Sandeep and Madhavi Chary, in a relationship for five years, secretly got married on September 12, despite stiff opposition from her father.
Madhavi was left with a 12-inch gash on her neck and jawline and her left forearm barely hung by the skin. She was in a 10-hour surgery at the time of going to print. Sandeep, in another hospital, received 10 stitches to close the deep wound at the angle of his mouth; the attending doctors said he was in deep shock.
