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India government announces new measures targeting violence against women
ABC Radio Australia - June 5, 2014
The girls, aged 14 and 16, were found hanging from a tree by their own scarves after they were gang-raped in Uttar Pradesh state.
They were cousins from a low caste, attacked in a field late last Tuesday night when they went to relieve themselves because they did not have a toilet in their home.
Five people have been arrested over the attack, with three of the men accused of rape while two police officers face charges of conniving with criminals and neglecting their duties.
Using a field as a toilet is a normal part of a villager's routine in India, where nearly half the population lack basic sanitation.
In response, prime minister Narendra Modi has reportedly pledged to build 200,000 toilets in 5000 villages by 2019, and provide sanitation and sewerage facilities to over 36 million households. During the election campaign, the Hindu hardliner promised to build 'toilets first, temples later'.
The recently appointed minister for women and child welfare, Maneka Gandhi, announced the government will set up 'rape crisis cells' in Uttar Pradesh. "This was number one on my priority the day I arrived to establish functioning rape crisis centres," Ms Gandhi said.
She says the cells will be up and running by December and will provide many of the services a rape survivor needs. "These centres will be serviced by policemen, lawyers, doctors," she said.
It is not clear how many centres the government will set up, where they will be or how women will access them.
A government website states that a helpline email address for women in danger will also soon be functional, an option that would not be viable for most women in rural areas. The village where the two girls were gang-raped is a five-hour drive from the state capital, and seven hours from Delhi.
Following the gang-rape of a student on a bus in Delhi in 2012, authorities in the capital have set up a police helpline for women and established teams of police to deal with rape complaints. However, the measures have not reduced the number of rapes being reported.
'Pleas for help' ignored
The latest case has also raised issues of caste discrimination in India. Sohan Lal, the father of the 14-year-old girl, says he appealed to the local police for assistance with finding his daughter and niece, but they refused to help when they found out the family was from a lower caste.
"We have gone to the police station and woke up the policeman on duty there, then the constable, Survesh, who was there at that time started asking me about my caste," he said.
"We told him and he started abusing me." He is from the Shakya caste which is legally described in India as being "backwards".
One of the men accused of the gang rapes is from the powerful Yadav caste. It also is considered a "backwards" caste, but it has links to the state's ruling party.
Mr Lal says since the ruling Samajwadi Party came to power in Uttar Pradesh two years ago, led by chief minister Akilesh Yadav, members of the Yadav caste in his community have been given special treatment by police. "Earlier it was not like this. It has increased because of the people who are ruling right now," he said.
When chief minister Akhilesh Yadav was asked about the rape by a female journalist, he brushed it aside saying "it is not as though you face any danger".
His father and the leader of the party, Mulayam Singh Yadav, has been widely criticized for saying earlier this year that he opposed the death penalty for rapists, because "boys make mistakes".
Pressure is mounting on the federal government to intervene on matters of law and order as constituents in Uttar Pradesh are increasingly losing faith in the Samajwadi Party.
Many of the village people in Katra Sadatganj have complained that police often ignore their reports about crimes committed by members of the Yadav caste.
Mother of five, Sunita, says she went to the police when her seven-year-old son went missing. "When we went to the police they wouldn't listen to us, then they came to us with 3,000 rupees saying we should go and find our son ourselves," she said.
She says the next day she found her son's mutilated body in a pit, but the police still refused to register the case.
Sohan Lal says the government needs to make sure all citizens are treated equally and break down regional power structures if it wants to solve any of the problems in his village.
"This has happened today with my girls so it can take place with any other girl too," he said. "I only have one request to make to Modi is that he needs to consider us as citizen of this country then he should take control of these goons and should do something so that the honor of our daughters can be saved".
However, Atul Saxena, the village's superintendent, has denied that incidents where police side with criminals are commonplace. "This is an isolated case where the policemen are involved in such a serious crime," he said.
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