*Trigger Warning*
One more life is gone to wake this nation up to the fact that not a single woman in this country is safe. And for some, one mere death of Dalit woman because her life and death have no value. It scares me when I imagine that I could be a victim in the next moment because in our great grand country what matters is someone’s sexual desires more than someone’s life.
According to the reports of crimes in India, 2019, a rape case is reported every 15 minutes in India. Our country recorded an average of 88 rape cases daily in 2019, a rise of over 7.3% from 2018. 32,033 rape cases were recorded in 2019; 11% of the rape cases recorded were of Dalit women. According to the National Crimes Records Bureau (NCRB) data, 2.66 lakh cases were reported between 2012 and 2019. The most distressing fact is that only 27% of the cases saw punishments.
Since the age of 15, every third woman in India has faced some form of domestic violence. 93% of rape cases were committed by the person known to the victim according to a 2017 report by the NCRB. In 2018, India was ranked as the most dangerous country in the world for women.
These are the number of cases which are reported. Can we estimate the figure of cases which don’t get reported because of fear of humiliation or threats given by the rapists and their families? Can we even imagine the number of marital rape cases in our country where they are not even considered as rapes except in law? Women’s consent — what’s that? No such thing exists in our Indian culture.
What happened in Hathras and Balrampur is gut-wrenching. But is that new? Let’s take a look at the series of events which occurred in Hathras:
On 14 September, 2020, a 19-year-old Dalit woman goes to work in the fields with her mother close to her home in the Hathras district of western Uttar Pradesh. The woman lived with her family in a small village of 200 homes. Out of those 200 homes, only four belong to Dalits; rest belong to upper caste, mostly Thakurs and Brahmins. The upper caste enjoys its domination over Dalits.
The domination is not new to the family. The woman’s grandfather was allegedly also tortured by upper caste people. His fingers were chopped off. The woman had too faced molestation many times earlier by upper-caste men. The family never imagined that this regular molestation would turn into the biggest tragedy of their lives.
As per the reports, the woman’s mother found her body in the part of the fields owned by the Thakur neighbour. The mother is quoted as saying, “My daughter was lying naked with her tongue protruding from her mouth. She was bleeding from her mouth, neck and there was blood near her eyes. I also noticed bleeding from her vagina. I quickly covered her with the pallu of my saree and started screaming.”
At the hospital, despite the extreme situation she was in, she wanted her rapists to be arrested and punished. She was brutally raped. Her spinal cord was broken. Her tongue was cut off. Then too, she clearly named her upper-caste neighbours and their friends as her rapists. Her condition started deteriorating afterwards. She was transferred to Safdarjung Medical Hospital in Delhi on 29 September where she died over 2 weeks after the assault.
To make it more horrible, after her death in Delhi, she was taken away and cremated by the police around 2:30–3:00 AM without the family’s approval and in their absence. Allegedly, the family was locked up in their homes by the police. The woman’s family was only protesting to perform the funeral as per their Hindu rituals. The family only wanted to see their daughter one last time. Was that a crime?
Meanwhile, on 1 October, the Additional Director General of Police, Prashant Kumar, gave a statement in which he said that “the cause of death was an injury to the spinal cord, no sperm was found and no rape occurred”. The oppression doesn’t end here. There is a high alert in the village right now. No one is allowed to enter or exit the village. Media is not being allowed to cover the case.
According to reports, the mobile phones of members of the family have been snatched away by the police. They are not even allowed to use washrooms. And while we are demanding justice for the woman, the family is openly being threatened by upper caste people, authorities and others.
Rapes not only happen because of the rapists. Some people promote the idea of rapes. It takes years of creating such a mentality where women are nothing more than “sexual objects”. Let’s read some disgusting statements made by the prominent public figures who mindlessly and shamelessly promote rapes:
“Women are not capable of being left free or independent.” – Yogi Adityanath, CM, Uttar Pradesh.
“Rapes happen because men and women interact freely.” – Mamata Banerjee, CM, West Bengal.
“The rate of crimes against women depend on how completely dressed they are and how regularly they visit temples. Rapes in the state of Chennai are comparatively less as their women are always clad and visit temples regularly.” – Babulal Gaur, BJP Leader from MP.
“Crimes against women happening in urban India are shameful. It is a dangerous trend. But such crimes won’t happen in ‘Bharat’ or the rural areas of the country. You go to villages and forests of the country and there will be no such incidents of gangrapes or sex crimes.” – Mohan Bhagwat, Chief of RSS.
“I condemn the Hathras gangrape and call for harsh punishment of the culprits. However, having said that, there is one aspect which needs to be considered. Sex is a natural urge in men. It is sometimes said that after food, the next requisite is sex.” – Markandey Katju, former Supreme Court Judge.
This is not the first rape case which has shocked India. It is not the first case which was reported, comes to the limelight and then is completely forgotten. I was not a little bit shocked and shaken when this case came out. It has become routine now.
How many women will have to go through the same pain or give their lives to prove that not a single woman in this country is safe? Leave everyone else, how the upper caste communities and even police are torturing the victim’s family as if it is in their hands to choose a caste to be born in.
How shameless is the police? What more evidence do they need to call it rape? According to reports, the woman named the rapists when she was alive. Was that not suffice? Why is the case being suppressed since the beginning? Why did it take too long to come out in the public domain? Will justice ever be given when the family is constantly being pressured to withdraw the case?
In our country, protests for justice begin when a victim either dies or is about to die. In our country, girls don’t even discuss the harassment they regularly face. We don’t protest against the person who rubs his private parts against our body daily in public transportation. We have accepted it as a part of our daily lives.
In our country, which sees lakhs of cases of rapes every year, we hold women responsible for rapes. In our country, Dalits are called untouchables, but the upper caste is allowed to rape the daughters, kill them and roam freely.
The Delhi case of 2012, Kathua, Unnao, Hyderabad are a few rape cases to name a few. The system has failed us time and again. The case is politicised every time. With every rape, the hope of every woman of this country in the system dies. With every rape, the faith of every woman of this country in the government fades.
With little hope left in my heart, I will wait for the Independence of women of this country. If, fortunately, I don’t become the next victim.