The Culture of Misogyny
On November 23 2014, an aggrieved family approached the Sunghadi police in Pilibhit (UP) with a complaint that their daughter had been kidnapped by some unidentified goons. But the police turned them away, refusing to lodge even an FIR in the case. Forty days after that, the family received an MMS from the criminals that showed the girl being gang-raped.
Family members of an 18-year-old Dalit girl who was raped by two men have fled their native village in Amreli district after being threatened with dire consequences by the accused’s kin.
Ola Cabs conveniently distanced itself from the driver who raped a woman in Bhopal. The explanation they gave is that at the time of the rape, the said driver was not logged on to the Ola platform. They terminated his contract and washed their hands off the issue.
The Kranti Chowk police in Aurangabad detained two young women in connection with a youth’s accidental death, forced them to strip and put chilli powder in their private parts. One of the two women, a 21-year-old engineering diploma holder, said that she and her friend were forced to take off their clothes by a woman officer on the directives of a male cop.
Judicial Intervention
A report submitted by the Supreme Court panel has not only recommended lowering the age of consent from 18 years to 16 years, but has also suggested that marital rape should be criminalised. Will anyone listen now?
A Tamil Nadu woman, who had resisted a Madras High Court suggestion to marry the man she accused of raping her when she was a minor, married the accused after an out of court settlement with him after her daughter born out of the rape after his conviction was set aside by another High Court judge and her case sent back to the lower court. She was just tired of all the court battles.
The Southern Districts Women’s Federation today moved the Madras High court bench here against a single judge’s order imposing a dress code for worshippers visiting temples in Tamil Nadu. A few weeks before, the Madurai bench of Madras High Court had ordered that police should ensure a dress code for people entering temples —dhoti and shirt or pyjama “with upper cloth” for men and saree or half-saree or churidar “with upper cloth” for women. Children could wear “any fully covered dress”.
Civil Society & Action
Guardians of children going to a school in Ooicha village in Kanpur Dehat district have decided against sending them to school following rape attempt on a Dalit girl.
In the district Panchayat Chief elections, in rural and semi-urban Uttar Pradesh. women won 19 out of 33 seats (60%) for which there would be no elections. These 33 candidates were declared winners unopposed as there was no other nomination against them. Earlier, 45% of village pradhan seats went to women.
Esha Gupta, from Bengaluru has set here eyes of breaking a world record – she intends to ride through 38,000 km in India on here Baja Avenger to set a Guinness World Record of the longest journey on a motorcycle in a single country by a female. Esha says that she wants to send the message that India is a safe country for women.
Sports
The Indian women’s cricket team will play three ODIs and three T20 Internationals in Australia from January 26 to February 7. Mithali Raj will lead the team for a limited overs tour of Australia and fast bowler Jhulan Goswami will be Mithali’s deputy.
The Indian women’s football team, which is rated higher than the men’s football team worldwide has extremely poor practice conditions and absolutely NO media coverage. In fact, they could only practise on the day of a match, after the match, and if the teams that had just finished playing weren’t using the ground for post-match recovery.
Misplaced Concerns
In a moment of extreme macho, the Delhi police commissioner BS Bassi said he would choose to “shoot or hang” the perpetrators of crime against women on the spot if the Constitution of India allowed. But then, we don’t want all that – we just want a better trained police force, faster justice and more state support for violence against women. Could you please dial down the machismo here?
The Karnataka governor, expressed his own sexist notions by making a comment to the effect that girls should give up on fancy clothes and lipstick because college is not a platform for a beauty contest!
Reported Rapes & Verdicts
Several cases of rape, attempts to rape and child sexual abuse were reported. Some verdicts and convictions also came about.
Featured Image Credit:A banner about the dress code for devotees put up at Sri Parthasarathy Swamy temple | www.thehindu.com
