Tag: rape victims

Loans, Debt, Land Sold: A Father’s Fight To Get Justice for Daughter Who Was Raped

From the registration of the FIR to conviction of the accused, it has been an arduous journey for the father of the Dalit teenager who was found dead in the water tank of a teachers’ training college in Rajasthan’s Bikaner.

Jaipur: For the father of the Dalit teenager who was found dead in the water tank of a teachers’ training college in northern Rajasthan’s Bikaner, it has been a long and taxing journey to justice. The quest for justice has also taken a huge financial toll on the family as it had to borrow money from a bank and a local moneylender and also sell off a part of ancestral land for the legal battle. But the man is happy that the fight has ended in conviction.

On Tuesday, the Bikaner court for Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POSCO) Act cases sentenced physical training instructor Vijendra Singh to life for raping and pushing the teenager to death by suicide, and awarded six years in prison each to college principal Pragya Prateek Shukla and hostel warden Priya Shukla after holding them guilty of abetment of suicide of a minor. The court convicted the three on Friday and heard the arguments for sentencing on Tuesday.

The body of the 17-year-old was found in the water tank of Adarsh Jain Teachers’ Training Institute for Women in Nokha town of Bikaner on March 29, 2016. Police pressed charges of kidnapping, rape and abetment of suicide of a child under various sections of the Indian Penal Code, the POCSO Act and the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.

The Wire is withholding the name of the girl and those of her family members, in accordance with the law.

From the registration of the FIR to conviction, it has been an arduous journey for the teenager’s father, a government school teacher – both physically and mentally. “I had to go to Bikaner several times. I couldn’t take public transport for the fear that the accused would harm me,” said the father. “I would hire a private cab and travel with some well-wishers. It would cost me Rs 15,000. I must have made around a hundred trips to Bikaner. You can do the math,” he added.

The teenager’s mother said the family is under a lot of debt. “We first took a loan from a bank. When that didn’t work, we sold our ancestral land. Even that wasn’t enough; we had to borrow more money and this time we went to the local moneylender, who charges a hefty interest,” she said.

The school teacher, the only earning member of the family, was already repaying the education loan he had taken for his daughter. “She was very bright and wanted to be a teacher like me,” he said.

The deceased teenager was a brilliant student and an amazing painter, having excelled in an art competition in Rajasthan when she was in Class XII. An artwork of hers was featured in a magazine published by the Rajasthan secretariat in 2006, when she was just seven years old. She travelled to Nokha, 450 km from Trimohi, a nondescript hamlet close to the India-Pakistan border at Gadra Road in Barmer district, for the Basic School Teaching Course (BSTC). She was in the second year of the course when her life was snuffed out.

The family received only Rs 90,000 by way of relief under a scheme for victims of rape. “According to rules, assistance of Rs 10 lakh should have been given,” said the victim’s father.

The family is also sore about activists hovering around them to take credit for justice to the teenager.

“After my daughter’s death, politicians and people of many human rights organisations and NGOs came to me, but after a few days, all of them disappeared. Everyone had assured me to call them whenever needed, but when I did, no one came to help. Now that the punishment has been decided, people have started coming again to take credit,” he said.

He names three people for being with him through this quest for justice. “Disha Wadekar of Pune, Riya Singh of Ghaziabad and Anurag Bhaskar of Lucknow stayed with me like a family. Disha and Anurag are lawyers. They gave legal inputs to the local lawyers due to which the verdict came in our favour. Riya is a research scholar. She gave me full support. Apart from this, Mularam Meghwal of Rawatsar [in Hanumangarh, Rajasthan] was a pillar of strength,” he said.

Though the lower court has found the three people guilty, the father reckons that the fight is not yet over. There may be appeals in higher courts but he has no complaints. “If needed, I will take more loans, but will not sleep in peace until the perpetrators are punished.”

Outrage and criticism of government

The death of the minor Dalit girl resulted in widespread outrage and criticism for the then Vasundhara Raje-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in the state. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi visited Trimohi to extend his condolences to the victim’s family. Rights activists and politicians pressured the police to book the accused under different sections of the POCSO Act.

After the outrage over the case, the state government recommended the investigation be given to the Central Bureau of Investigation. But the Central agency did not take it up even two months after the order from the state home department. Subsequently, the Bikaner police completed the investigation.

“The Bikaner police had then claimed that she had died by suicide by drowning, but no water was found in her lungs. It was suggested that she killed herself after being caught in a compromising position with the physical training instructor. But it emerged that the hostel warden Priya Shukla used to send her to the physical training instructor’s room for cleaning, and she had complained about it to her father several times,” local journalist Anurag Harsh told The Wire.

The allegations that she was made to clean the room, if true, represent the harsh reality of caste-based discrimination faced by students from Dalit communities.

“The Bikaner police filed the chargesheet claiming that she was not murdered but forced to die by suicide. The trial started in 2017 and took four years till conviction. It got delayed because the Rajasthan high court temporarily stayed the trial. Finally, when the witness deposition began, courts closed during 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The final arguments began on September 2 and ended on September 27,” added Harsh.

In April 2021, the Rajasthan government renamed Trimohi as ‘Delta Nagar’, in honour of the girl. The notification for the creation of the new revenue villages was issued by the Rajasthan revenue department. The new revenue village was formed from the existing revenue village Trimohi, which has a population of 200 voters in 94 households, mostly from Scheduled Caste (SC) communities.

If you know someone – friend or family member – at risk of suicide, please reach out to them. The Suicide Prevention India Foundation maintains a list of telephone numbers (www.spif.in/seek-help/) they can call to speak in confidence. You could also refer them to the nearest hospital.

Citing Indian Judgments, Lahore HC Says ‘Two Finger Tests’ Are Unconstitutional

The so-called ‘virginity tests’ conducted on survivors of rape or sexual assault are a ‘blatant violation of the dignity of a woman’, the court said.

New Delhi: The Lahore high court has held that the so-called ‘virginity tests’ such as the ‘two-finger test’ and the hymen test carried out on victims of rape and sexual assault are unconstitutional, according to a report in LiveLaw.

Justice Ayesha A. Malik held that such tests were discriminatory and against the right to life and right to dignity enshrined in the constitution of Pakistan.

“The virginity test by its very nature is invasive and an infringement on the privacy of a woman to her body. It is a blatant violation of the dignity of a woman. The conclusion drawn from these tests about a woman’s sexual history and character is a direct attack on her dignity and leads to adverse effects on the social and cultural standing of a victim,” the court held.

The court also referred to a judgment by the Indian Supreme Court in Rajesh & another v State of Haryana where the apex court had held that the ‘two-finger test’ and its interpretation violates the right of rape survivors to privacy, physical and mental integrity and dignity. It held that there was consensus that ‘virginity tests’ like the ‘two finger test’ and hymen test could not indicate definitively that there was any sexual violence.

Additionally, the Lahore high court also referred to judgments by the Allahabad and Gujarat high courts. “These courts have all held that there is no scientific or medical basis to carry out virginity testing in the form of two finger test or to rely on the status of the hymen whether it is torn or intact as it has no relevance to the investigation into the incident of rape or sexual abuse,” the judge said while disposing of writ petitions challenging the use and conduct of virginity tests.

Also read: Despite Resistance, Fear of Social Boycott Is Keeping ‘Virginity Tests’ Alive

The court also said that such tests were unscientific, had no medical basis and also offended the personal dignity of the female victim. “It is a humiliating practice, which is used to cast suspicion on the victim, as opposed to focusing on the accused and the incident of sexual violence. This in effect amounts to gender based discrimination as it is neither a medical condition which requires treatment nor does it provide any clinical benefit to the victim,” the court observed.

“The issue is whether the accused committed rape on the victim in the time and circumstances complained of. If the victim, is found to not be a virgin, it cannot and does not suggest that she was not raped or sexually abused. What it does is place the victim on trial in place of the accused and shifts the focus on her virginity status. In this regard, the victim’s sexual behaviour is totally irrelevant as even the most promiscuous victim does not deserve to be raped, nor should the incident of sexual violence be decided on the basis of a virginity test,” the judgment by the Lahore high court read.

Furthermore, it directed the federal and provincial governments to take steps to ensure that virginity tests are not carried out in medico-legal examinations of victims of rape and sexual abuse.

After the Supreme Court of India found the test to be violative of fundamental rights, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare in 2014 issued guidelines for medico-legal care for survivors of sexual violence. They sought to eliminate practices such as the “two-finger test”. However, a report in 2017 by Human Rights Watch found that doctors continue to conduct the “invasive, humiliating, and inhumane finger test to make degrading characterisations”.

The Lahore high court, apart from asking the government to mandate such tests as ‘illegal’, also said the government must make a ‘concerted effort’ to ensure that the practice does not continue.

“Change can only be brought about when the people responsible for the change understand and acknowledge the reasons for changing old practices which no longer find any justification. Merely documenting change and not implementing change does not mean that the Federation or the Provincial Government have acted in accordance with the Constitution, the law and international obligations. Hence a concerted effort must be made so as to ensure that virginity tests are stopped in totality,” the judgment read.

‘Are We Heading Towards A Society of Lawlessness?’: Ex-CJI Lodha

Justice Chandrachud also said, “We must ask ourselves whether close to a century of democratic rule has reduced the political, social and economic exclusion faced by many of our citizens.”

New Delhi: Citing the rape and murder of a 27-year-old veterinarian in Hyderabad and the killing of the accused in police encounter, former Chief Justice of India R.M. Lodha on Tuesday said the country is struggling to protect human rights of citizens and such crimes reflect the “deep malice” that has crept in the society.

“Are we heading towards a society of lawlessness,” Justice (retd) Lodha said, while lamenting that criminals are not afraid of committing heinous crimes such as rape and murder and “sadder” is the killing of the four accused in the police ‘encounter’.

Supreme Court judge Justice D.Y. Chandrachud said that the Unnao rape survivor lying burnt and the dead bodies of four accused in the Hyderabad gangrape and murder case were the two “most telling pictorial representation of the two facets of India”.

Both of them were speaking at an event to mark Human Rights Day organised by International Institute of Human Rights here.

Also read: Revenge is Not Justice Says CJI Bobde, Amid Cheers for Hyderabad Encounter

“While we are celebrating Human Rights Day, the fact of the matter is that we are struggling in protection of human rights. The case in point is the Hyderabad rape and murder of a 27-year-old veterinarian and the killing of the accused in police encounter,” Justice (retd) Lodha said.

“That the crime of rape and murder are happening everyday in one part of the country or other reflect the deep malice that has crept in the society. The criminals are not afraid of committing such heinous crimes. Sadder is the killing of the four accused in the police encounter. Are we heading towards a society of lawlessness?” the former CJI said.

Referring to a statement by a Telangana minister that re-construction of crime scene in the Hyderabad gangrape and murder case was on instructions from above, he said it raises a big question as to whether we are “junking the due process and justice”.

He said that demand of such treatment by people to Unnao rape and murder case accused shows that the atmosphere of “mob mentality” is prevailing in society and people are going back to 17th century where it was “an eye for eye, tooth for tooth, nail for nail”.

Justice Chandrachud said, “We must ask ourselves whether close to a century of democratic rule has reduced the political, social and economic exclusion faced by many of our citizens.”

“I think the most telling pictorial representation that we have seen last week is the representation of the two facets of India, the Unnao rape survivor lying burnt in the field and the four men lying dead in a field shot by the police”.

“Public deliberation will always be especially threatening to those who achieve power in its absence….

“It is just a reminder that we will not wait to be shocked by a terrifying take of human rights abuse but rather scrutinise the actions of those in power everyday to ensure that such abuses never occur in the first place. And that would be my long term answer to those visual images,” Justice Chandrachud said, while delivering lecture on the topic ‘Adding Nuance to Human Rights Discourse’.

Justice (retd) Lodha did not mince words as he spoke of the state of women safety in the country and said that 92% of Nirbhaya fun created in 2013, which was meant to be utilised for improvement of safety of women, has remained unspent by state governments.

“The fact of the matter is that there is no effective working of schemes such as cyber crime against women and children and emergency response support system. These projects largely remain on paper. It is no surprise that crimes against women and children remain unabated. Blame game should stop,” he said.

Also read: Encounter Killings Will Not Make Women Safer From Sexual Violence

It is time to completely strive for improving the systems and strengthening the institutions. The situation is grim as women and children are placed in insecure environment, Lodha said.

He said the prosecution was lax, adjournments in criminal cases are “given at the drop of hat” and the criminal justice system could not be expected to improve when the government spends just “0.08% of GDP on judiciary”.

“Poor budgeting has led to capacity constraints in the judicial system. Judicial vacancies are not filled in time. At any given point of time 30 to 40% vacancies in subordinate judiciary are always remaining,” he said.

Police and prison reforms should be high priority matter for the government. There is a complete lack of infrastructure for scientific investigation, Justice (retd) Lodha said.

He pointed out that there are only seven scientific forensic laboratories in the country due to which in large number of cases the forensic investigation of crime is not competed expeditiously due to non-availability of forensic experts.

“The insufficient number of forensic laboratories in the country results in an enormous backlog of forensic work and delayed investigation,” Justice (retd) Lodha said.

Justice Chandrachud gave reference of Aarey tree felling incident and said that deliberative democracy and courts together can lead to the protection of human rights.

“As a resident of Mumbai, I know just how dangerous and often impossible it can be to get from one end of the city to another during rush hours.

Also read: Hyderabad Encounter: SC to Consider Hearing PIL for Probe Into Killing of Four Accused

“The need for a safe and affordable public transport system is undoubtedly urgent.

“Yet at the same time an approach that ignores the environmental impact of development is unconscionable in a world where we see the dangerous effects of climate change,” he said.

In dissolving such competing rights, “we can see how deliberative democracy and the courts together can lead to the protection of human rights”, he said.

A Syndrome of Aspirational Hatred Is Pervading India

When we are ruled by thieves, killers and rapists, who enjoy immunity, it is no surprise that many begin to believe that hate can take you nowhere but up.

I have been triggered into writing this short essay by three events. One is reading Mukul Kesavan’s recent piece in the Telegraph saying that the terrifying thing about contemporary India is not the everyday violence against women, Dalits and other minorities or dissenters, but the formalising and rationalising of these actions into the highest levels of the law of the land.

The other trigger is the news of the burning of the victim in the Unnao rape-murder case on her way to court in Lucknow on Thursday, December 5, by a group of men who included some of the accused rapists.

The third trigger, the most worrisome, is the Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB), which the Lok Sabha passed on Monday and the Rajya Sabha too is likely to formally approve soon. This last development is procedural and formal, but it is yet another big step towards closing the gap between the fascism of law and the fascism of the streets in India.

The CAB is a brilliant way to target Muslims by failing to name them as potential citizens of India who are oppressed by neighbouring regions, primarily on the grounds of their religious identity. By not including Muslims in this amendment, they have another door to justice closed to them. What is worse, the CAB is the loudest dog whistle by a ruling party since Indian independence, intended to declare Muslims as open game for any form of degradation and destruction. The Unnao victim’s story, as well as the growing number of cases of everyday brutality with impunity, require us to make the link between everyday hatred and the dismantling of the constitution.

Also read: India’s Growing Impatience With Democracy

In the wake of the death of the Unnao rape victim, if India was anything close to a decent democracy, both Adityanath and Narendra Modi would have promptly resigned, along with their cabinets and all their political appointees, and there would be a national debate about elections, governance and change. But India is neither decent nor a democracy. What has India become?

The few remaining leaders in the world who can claim to have any commitment to human decency (Emmanuel Macron, Justin Trudeau, Angela Merkel, for example), should be calling for a change of regime, and the International Criminal Court should issue a major call for investigation and punishment. The UN should bar India’s representatives from any participation in UN deliberations until they are held accountable for the new bar that India has set for in internal violence.

But none of these things is likely to happen, because India is regarded as too democratic to fail. If global institutions and other nations condemn India, what will do they do about Israel, Brazil, the Philippines, China, Turkey and many other statocracies? India has long benefited from this default view of its vibrant democracy, and it continues to do so.

I have remarked before that India is not only following a global swing to the authoritarian right, it is an innovator. The innovation which is now being tried out in India is the successful closing of the gap between procedural fascism and substantive fascism. Procedural fascism is exemplified by the scrapping of Article 370 of the constitution in Kashmir, the National Register of Citizens process in Assam, the CAB and the recent Supreme Court ruling on Ayodhya.

Protest against the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill. Photo: Reuters

In each case, the executive, the judiciary and the legislature have made fascism far more respectable than it ever was in India, at the highest formal levels. At the same time, the spate of rapes, murders, burnings, lynching, and other humiliations of women, Dalits, Muslims and children throughout India have raised substantive fascism to an unimaginable public level.

What is the source of the new compact between procedural (formal) fascism and substantive fascism, or to put it more simply, between the highest authorities in the land and the killers and lynch mobs that produce everyday brutality in India’ cities, villages and neighbourhoods? One answer is impunity. If anyone in India today says or does anything which follows the BJP line on citizenship, security, patriotism, patriarchalism, or journalism or the BJP line on cows, statues, space travel, or women’s place in society, they can rape, maim or lynch selected others anywhere at anytime. Impunity means the right to brutalise others with the near guarantee of no legal consequence.

Also read: The World’s Largest Democracy: Beyond Question

Others have used the word impunity to describe the worst of India’s current civic order and public life. But where does this culture of impunity come from? First, from the utter cynicism of the top leadership of the BJP and their minions in all official institutions, at all levels. The second source is the extraordinary corruption generated by the alliance between corporate interests and politicians, indeed an old story in India but now characterised by a level of official indifference which is unprecedented: the scale of disappeared debts in the Indian banking system is one symptom of the new corruption.

The third factor is the thorough criminalisation of the legislature, at all levels, with thugs, rapists and killers increasingly and proudly deliberating on how to shape the law of the land. The fourth force is social media, which allows for a new and sickening form of proliferation of pornography, in which poor men consume images of rape, murder and mayhem because it brings them “sukoon” (calm, peace), as one recent report shows us.

This last remarkable story, in which a poor proletarian male from North India says of the easy availability of documentary rape porn in Uttar Pradesh, that it brings men like himself some peace or calm, gives us a clue to the most terrifying source of the current links between formal and substantive fascism in India. It is what we may call the syndrome of aspirational hatred.

Normally, we associate the word aspiration with social and economic mobility, hope and legitimate social improvement for oneself or one’s kin. But the Indian ruling party and the state elite have installed fear, anger, scapegoating and exclusion as the highest principles of civic and political life.

Thus, aspiration itself has been redirected away from better jobs, more economic security and greater social respectability towards a darker form of the revolution of rising expectations, in which the new role models are Muslim-hunting cabinet members, corrupt and sexually predatory saint-politicians and encounter-wise policemen.

When poor and marginalised men, or jobless or badly employed youth, or slum-confined casual labourers are motivated, mobilised and seduced by leaders of this type, who also offer them dreams of national and ethnic purity, they follow these examples in their own worlds, and hunt, maim and kill those to whom they feel superior.

Since they are guaranteed impunity (except in exceptional circumstances), the normal restraints of prudence, sanity and humanity are easily shed, especially when there is so little to lose. Aspirational hatred is hatred as imitation of one’s betters, and in India’s case, today’s most powerful betters are the worst of the worst.

Also read: Under Modi Govt, a Two-Pronged Attack on India’s Democracy

Hence, the most important link between procedural fascism and substantive fascism in India today is the absence of decent examples of leadership and decent models for mobility.

When we are ruled by thieves, killers and rapists, who enjoy and distribute immunity generously, it is no surprise that many begin to believe that hate, anger and the degradation of those who are even weaker than yourself, can take you nowhere but up.

Arjun Appadurai teaches in New York and Berlin and has published widely on globalisation and South Asia. His forthcoming book (with Neta Alexander) is Failure (Polity Press, UK, 2019 Fall).

Hyderabad Encounter: SC to Consider Hearing PIL for Probe Into Killing of Four Accused

The PIL filed claimed that the alleged encounter was “fake” and FIR should be lodged against police officials who were involved in the incident.

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to consider granting hearing on Wednesday on one of the PILs seeking an SIT probe into the killing of four men, arrested on charge of gangrape and murder of a veterinarian in Telangana, by police in an alleged encounter.

A bench headed by Chief Justice S.A. Bobde took note of the submissions of lawyer G.S. Mani that the plea seeking independent investigation against the police officials concerned be listed for hearing urgently.

Another advocate M.L. Sharma has also filed a similar petition saying the SIT probe should be monitored by former apex court judges.

Also Read: The Lawlessness of Encounter Killings

The PIL filed by Mani and lawyer Pradeep Kumar Yadav claimed that the alleged encounter was “fake” and FIR should be lodged against police officials who were involved in the incident.

Telangana police had on Friday said that the accused were killed in an exchange of fire with police. The incident took place around 6.30 am when the accused were taken to the site of offence for the reconstruction of the scene of crime as part of the investigation, a senior police official had told PTI.

The four accused were shot dead on NH-44 near Hyderabad — the same highway where the charred body of 26-year-old veterinarian found.

‘No Place for Talibani Justice’: Former Delhi HC Judge on Hyderabad Encounter

Justice (retired) R.S. Sodhi said he was not convinced with the police’s version of the events and there should be an independent investigation into the encounter

New Delhi: Against the backdrop of the Hyderabad rape-murder incident and gunning down of the four accused in an alleged encounter, former Delhi high court judge R.S. Sodhi said on Sunday it is the duty of the police to protect the accused and there is no place for ‘Talibani justice’ in the country.

In an interview with PTI, Sodhi said the four accused in the Hyderabad veterinarian rape and murder case were sent to police custody and it was the duty of the policemen to protect them.

Police did not think well before “making up the story” that the accused had to be killed because they tried to flee. “It is difficult to believe that 15 policemen present at the spot could not catch the four accused,” he claimed.

“I am not convinced with the police version of the events and there should be an independent investigation into the encounter,” Sodhi said.

Also Read: India’s Growing Impatience With Democracy

He said it was never proved that the accused were guilty. The retired judge claimed that the police investigated the matter, tried the accused and executed them.

If the police take the judicial process into its own hands, it can never be legitimate, Sodhi said.

“The Constitution does not consider it as justice done if an accused is shot dead before getting a chance to prove innocence. This Talibani form of justice may be acceptable in any other country, but it has no place in India,” he said.

If an accused dies in police custody, some investigative agency has to check whether the person was killed by the police or not, Sodhi said, adding that according to the guidelines of the Supreme Court, an independent inquiry must be conducted in such cases.

On the 2017 NCRB data showing low conviction rate in rape cases, Sodhi said if around 33% accused were convicted and 67% acquitted, it can also mean that most of the persons charged were found not guilty.

He said if the guilty person is set free due to laxity in the judicial system, “we should strengthen the system”. Gunning down those accused in rape cases is not the solution, the retired judge added.

(PTI)

Convicts Under POCSO Act Should be Deprived of Mercy Petition: President Kovind

The president’s remarks came at a time the country witnessed several cases of brutal attacks on women.

Mount Abu, Rajasthan: “Demonic attacks on women have shaken the conscience of the country,” President Ram Nath Kovind said on Friday and advocated that those convicted under the POCSO Act should be deprived of their right to a mercy petition.

“It is for the parliament to take a decision on the matter and make necessary constitutional amendments, but the thought of all of us is moving ahead in that direction,” he said while addressing an event in Rajasthan’s Abu Road on the issue of women safety.

The president said women safety is a very serious issue and a lot of work has been done on this but much remains to be done.

“Incidents of demonic assaults on daughters shake the conscience of the country. It is the duty of every parent, citizens, yours and mine to strengthen among boys the sense of respect towards women.

“In this context, several things are coming up. Such convicts have been given the right of mercy petition by the Constitution. I have said that there should be reconsideration on this…. In cases under POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences) Act, they be deprived of the right of mercy petition. They do not need any such right,” he said.

Also Read: Unnao Rape Victim, Set Ablaze By the Accused, Passes Away

The president’s remarks came at a time the country witnessed several cases of brutal attacks on women.

A rape survivor from Unnao in Uttar Pradesh was set alight by five men, including two of the accused, on Thursday when she was on her way to court. The woman passed away after battling for life at a hospital in Delhi with 90% burns.

A 25-year-old veterinarian was raped, killed and burnt in Hyderabad late last month. The charred body of the woman, working as an assistant veterinarian at a state-run hospital, was found under a culvert in Shadnagar, near Hyderabad, on the morning of November 28.

Speaking on women empowerment, the president said education is important for the empowerment of women.

“It is true that when you make a boy educated, it gives benefit to one family but when you make a girl educated, its benefit goes to two families. Another important fact is that the children of an educated woman do not remain uneducated,” he said.

Kovind said that financial empowerment of women was equally important and the Centre’s Jan Dhan Yojana has played an important role in that direction.

Remembering B.R. Ambedkar on his death anniversary, the president said that Ambedkar always gave priority to women empowerment.

He said that there has been an improvement in child sex ratio due to women development centric schemes and Haryana, Delhi, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan have been honoured for the improvement.

“I have been informed that an improvement of nearly 35 points is child sex ratio is there in Haryana, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh. This is an important social change. Birth of 1003 daughters per 1000 sons in Rajasthan’s Banswara district is a good thing, he said.

He said that women are also being empowered politically. “For the present Lok Sabha, 78 women MPs were elected, which is an achievement for our society. In rural India, more than 10 lakh women through Panchayti Raj Institutions are also playing their role effectively,” he said.

The president was speaking at the inaugural session of a two-day national convention on women empowerment for social transformation at Prajapita Brahma Kumaris Ishwariya Vishwa Vidyalaya at Abu Road in Sirohi district.

16-Year-Old Girl Gang-Raped in Chhattisgarh; Two Arrested

The incident took place on Sunday afternoon.

Bilaspur: A 16-year-old girl, who had taken her cattle for grazing in a forest, was allegedly raped by two men in Chhattisgarhs Bilaspur district, police said on Monday.

The incident took place on Sunday afternoon and the two accused, identified as Rai Singh Markam (28) and Manoj Kumar Wakre (20), were arrested on Monday, they said.

The survivor had taken her cattle for grazing to a forest near her house in the Gaurela police station area when the duo, riding a motorcycle, crossed the area, Additional Superintendent of Police (Pendra area) Pratibha Tiwari said.

On realising that the girl was alone in the forest, the two returned to the spot and allegedly took her along with them after threatening her, Tiwari said, quoting from the complaint lodged by the victim’s mother.

Also Read: Interview: Why Harsher Criminal Laws Won’t Make Sexual Violence Go Away

They also hit the girl with a stick before raping her, the police officer said, adding the accused fled the scene after committing the crime.

The girl reached home and narrated the ordeal to her mother who then contacted the police on Monday, she said.

The police filed a case and arrested Markam and Wakre, Tiwari said.

The victim was admitted at a local hospital for treatment and she identified the accused during an identification parade, she said.

The accused were booked under sections 376D (gang rape) and 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) of the IPC and provisions of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, Tiwari said.

Further investigation was underway, she added.

‘Death Penalty, Lynching, Castration’: Rajya Sabha MPs React to Hyderabad Rape-Murder

Chairman M. Venkaiah Naidu rejected adjournment motions on the gang-rape and murder of a young woman veterinarian in Hyderabad.

New Delhi: Death penalty for rapists, lynching of convicts in public and castration of those convicted were among demands made in Rajya Sabha on Monday as MPs expressed outrage over the Hyderabad rape and murder case and other such incidents in the country.

Chairman M. Venkaiah Naidu rejected adjournment motions on the gang-rape and murder of a young woman veterinarian in Hyderabad but allowed members to make brief mentions on the same and other such incidents elsewhere in the country.

Members cutting across party lines condemned the recent spurt in crime against women and demanded stringent laws that punishes the guilty within a fixed time-frame.

While Naidu described the Hyderabad incident as a disgrace to humanity, Leader of the Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad said the society will have to tackle this problem at its root.

The guilty should be given stringent punishment without any discrimination of religion or caste, Azad said.

Samajwadi Party’s Jaya Bachchan wanted security personnel in-charge of the area in Hyderabad where the crime took place be held accountable and questions be asked.

She said the rapists should be “brought out in public and lynched.”

DMK’s P. Wilson said courts should be empowered to surgically and chemically castrate convicted rapists before they are released from jails so as to check repeat offenders.

The cost of such procedure should be recovered from the accused by selling his assets, he said, adding list of sexual offenders should also be made public.

Mohammad Ali Khan of the Congress wanted timelines be set for trial of accused in fast track courts and the accused not be given an religious colour.

The accused in the Hyderabad incident belong to four separate religions and not one, he said.

Sanjay Singh of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) said stringent action in all cases of sexual assault on women should be taken after a trial in fast track court and punishment given within a timeframe.

Also Read: 2012 Nirbhaya Case: Delhi Govt ‘Strongly’ Recommends Rejection of Convict’s Mercy Plea

Amar Patnaik of the BJD demanded death for such heinous crimes.

While T.K. Rangarajan of CPM said laws be framed to tackle crime are not percolating down, Vaiko of the DMK wanted concrete action be taken to deal with such crimes.

Santanu Sen of the TMC wanted strong steps be taken for give out exemplary punishment to the guilty.

Raising the issue of delay in police action in the Hyderabad incident over jurisdiction dispute between police stations, Kanakamedala Ravindra Kumar (TDP) wanted capital punishment be given to the rapists in public.

While Manoj Kumar Jha (RJD) said deterrence is not enough, R K Sinha of the BJP said capital punishment is yet to be given to the guilty of the 2012 gang rape and murder of a young woman in Delhi due to appeals in the case.

Vijila Sathyananth (AIAMDK) demanded fast track courts to trial in rape cases as well as a complete ban on sale of drugs that was fuelling such incidents.

The charred body of the 25-year old woman, who worked as an assistant veterinarian at a state-run hospital, was found under a culvert in Shadnagar in Hyderabad on November 28, a day after she went missing.

Four men, all lorry workers, aged between 20 and 24, were arrested on November 29 on charges of raping and killing the woman and had been sent to judicial custody for 14 days on Saturday.

Good Character Testimonies Aren’t a Defence For Sexual Harassment

A person may respect one person’s personal boundaries, yet disregard another’s due to perceived power over the second person.

Suppose you’re watching a piece of news, and you learn that someone, let’s call her Mary, has been accused of murdering her colleague Sally. There is compelling evidence that Mary is guilty. Several colleagues of Mary come forward to defend her innocence. They insist Mary is a kind person and has never attempted to murder anyone.

Does the fact that Mary has not murdered her colleague increase or decrease your confidence that Mary has murdered Sally? Probably neither. The fact that Mary has never attempted to murder any of her colleagues says nothing about whether she murdered Sally. It’s irrelevant.

Similarly, if someone is accused of stealing your watch, the fact that they did not steal your friend’s watch who is sitting right next to you, says nothing relevant about whether they stole yours.

As reasonable as these arguments may sound, their logic is often ignored when it comes to sexual allegations.

The issue of what people take to be good evidence is one that philosophers have debated for centuries. Philosopher David Hume said a “wise man proportions his belief to the evidence.” My research on irrational phenomena has led me to confront the relationship between evidence and biases of all kinds.

Philosopher Gilbert Harman argues in his book Change In View that people often refuse to revise our beliefs even in the face of strong counter-evidence. People rationalise to maintain their false but dear beliefs. Even when they don’t, research has shown that people’s threshold for accepting a belief increases when it comes to dealing with one that’s particularly uncomfortable. Worse, irrational behaviour is not exclusively a prerogative of the uninformed.

Also read How Do You Know That a Woman Won’t Falsely Accuse You of Rape?

Educated people are just as guilty of it, as recent research on anti-vaccination views show: researchers who interviewed more than 5,000 people in 24 countries found that people’s education has no significant relationship with anti-vaccination attitudes. The study also reports that attempts to debunk vaccine-related myths through evidence are ineffective or counterproductive.

The case of sexual allegations is another example of how often debates go off-track and become irrational.

A decent man?

In the wake of Christine Blasey Ford’s accusation of sexual assault towards Brett Kavanaugh, a letter signed by 65 women testified to his moral character and his good behaviour towards them.

More recently, after Lucy Flores and Amy Lappos brought Joe Biden’s inappropriate behaviour into the spotlight, Meghan McCain called Biden “one of the truly decent and compassionate men in all of American politics,” recalling the support she received from him after her father’s diagnosis of brain cancer.

Joe Biden is one of the truly decent and compassionate men in all of American politics. He has helped me through my fathers diagnosis, treatment and ultimate passing more than anyone of my fathers friends combined. I wish there was more empathy from our politicians not less.

The implication is that Kavanaugh, Biden, and Franken behaved appropriately with some women, then would this tell us something informative about whether the allegations from other women are true or not.

For their defenders, the implication is that Kavanaugh, Biden and Franken are good guys, and they are good guys precisely because they behaved properly with some women. Because they’re good guys and presumably only non-good guys sexually offend, this should decrease our confidence that they didn’t offend Ford, Flores, Lappos, and Tweeden specifically.

A question of character?

Perhaps the reason why people think that these positive testimonies are relevant is that the action of sexual misconduct is linked to the perpetrator’s character. This idea connects with Aristotle’s famous claim that character traits tends to manifest repeatedly.

If we follow this idea, it suggests that sexually harassing someone conveys the message that they are the kind of person who is a sexual harasser.

Because character traits tend to manifest repeatedly, we implicitly think that if someone harassed one person, they are likely to have also harassed others. So if it can be shown that not everyone they interacted with has been sexually harassed by them, then this may decrease confidence in the belief that they have harassed those women at that specific time.

But while it may be true that character traits tend to manifest repeatedly, repeatedly doesn’t mean always.

Also read Fantasies of Forced Sex Are Common But Do They Enable Rape Culture?

American journalist Megan Garber has called this situation “the familiarity fallacy.” She explains how easy it is to rationalise abuse when committed by those we know personally. Garber says knowing someone doesn’t constitute a legitimate defense from accusations: “an abuser will not abuse everybody.”

A person may respect one person’s personal boundaries, yet disregard another’s. This may be due to perceived power over the second person due to their personal vulnerability, or their social identity. Sexual harassment is not about sex but is about asserting dominance.

Factors such as a person’s racialised identity, their class, their ability, their age, the amount of power they are perceived to hold in a particular situation may all also render people more vulnerable to being sexually harassed or otherwise having their personal boundaries disrespected.

Predators may take advantage of situations where they think no witnesses, other than the victim, are present.

Good-character testimonies don’t shield someone from the possibility that they have sexually harassed someone else.

Martina Orlandi is PhD Candidate in Philosophy at McGill University 

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Featured image credit: Reuters

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