There’s no end to rape scourge in India
PROTESTS have again erupted across India over the gang rape and murder of two young women. Both were from the Dalit class, the lowest rung in India’s caste system.
The first was a 19-year-old girl who was raped by four men from the upper class, while she was working in the fields near her home in Hathras, outside New Delhi, Uttar Pradesh.
Her injuries were so severe that she died two weeks later in a New Delhi hospital.
What has angered protesters, even more, was that the teenager was cremated overnight by the hospital authorities, against the wishes of her family, before her last rites could be performed. Possibly a cover-up to wipe out crucial evidence?
On the same day, a 22-year-old Dalit woman was allegedly raped by two men in Balrumpur, again in Uttar Pradesh. She died from her injuries on the way to the hospital.
Rape is endemic in India. Despite the tightening of the laws and the imposition of the death penalty after the gang rape and murder of Delhi student Jyoti Singh, there is no end to the scourge of rape in this religious and conservative country.
Last year alone, more than 32 000 women were raped. Of course, the number could be much higher as many rapes go unreported in India.
This is because of the shame that it brings to the family and, more importantly, the futility of reporting it in a country where the conviction rate is low – much like our own country. But how could a nation that prays at every turn, treat its women so badly?
What is even more worrying is the rigid, hereditary caste system is widespread in India, despite it being abolished in 1950.
The Dalits are discriminated against – socially, politically and commercially in the world’s biggest democracy.
They are the “untouchables”. A man from an upper-class family will not marry a Dalit woman. But he could rape a Dalit woman.
Perhaps it’s seen as punishment for being born a Dalit.
T MARKANDAN Kloof