TERI Sexual Harassment Case Update: Another ex-employee of TERI has issued a statement of harassment by R.K.Pachauri. Her contract (as Pachauri’s secretary), which was for a period of 1 year, was abruptly terminated after a period of just 4 months.
The Maharashtra government assured the Bombay High Court it would implement a 60-year-old law and ensure women were not prevented from entering Hindu temples throughout the state. Earlier the court had said that entry to temples was a fundamental right of women and it was the state’s fundamental duty to protect it.
Close on the heels of the arrest of two Dantewada-based journalists comes news of the mob intimidation of social scientist Bela Bhatia in Bastar. The crowd marched through the hamlet, raising slogans of Bela Bhatia murdabaad (“Death to Bela Bhatia”), and distributed a pamphlet slandering her as a “Naxal stooge” and a “foreign stooge.”
University of Hyderabad: An independent fact-finding team says that the policemen who cracked at students from the campus last week, had threatened girl students with rape. The team, which met students, faculty members, police, and the Telangana home minister, also claimed that statements made targeting minority students, describing them as “terrorists” were also heard.
Pop Culture
Nando’s, a faste-food restaurant comes up with an advertisement that promotes rape culture by saying, “We don’t mind if you touch our buns, or our breasts, or thighs..” We wonder what the creative team was thinking.
Havells Fans comes up with an advertisement that tried to start an anti-reservation narrative. The ad basically had this storyline where father encourages his daughter to not apply in a reserved category claiming that it is some kind of a social change!
Reported Rapes & Rape Case Updates
A 17-year-old Dalit girl from Barmer district in Rajasthan was raped by her PT Teacher. She was sent to his room under the pretext of being his helper. However, the institute (Jain Adarsh Teacher Training Institute) that she was studying in, got a written apology from the student and the teacher saying that the act was consensual. On March 29th, the girl was found dead in the water tank of her hostel. According to her parents, the institute murdered her to downplay the incident. But, the institute claims that it is murder. Here is the entire story.
A minor Dalit girl set herself on fire after being raped in Ghaziabad. She is currently battling for life with 50% burns at a hospital here.
In Rapiur, an FIR was lodged under POCSO and Section 376 of IPC at Khamtari police station against contractor Krishnakant Bihari, but police is yet to arrest the accused, claiming that according to medical examination the girl was virgin and accused would be arrested only if girl “spells out his name”.
The one-stop help centre for survivors of sexual violence at Sion Hospital turned away a girl, aged over 3, who was bleeding from her private parts when it realised that no FIR had been filed in the case.
A 50-year-old man from Gaighat, Muzaffarpur was beaten to death for reprimanding an influential fellow villager for attempting to rape his 22-year-old married daughter.
Fed up with being shortchanged by police personnel over a rape complaint, the 27-year-old resident of Khopat in Thane, attempted suicide.
Several cases of rape and child sexual abuse were reported.
What We’re Reading
Zakia Soman, co-founder of the Bharatiya Mahila Muslim Andolan (BMMA), a rights-based mass movement led by Muslim women, talks about the recent comments by Justice B. Kemal Pasha, the patriarchal stranglehold on Islam and the need to codify Muslim personal law.
Here is an opinion that says female heroes are more important for boys than for girls.
