Mumbai — Ten days after the brutal rape of a nun in West Bengal, Cardinal Oswald Gracias, Archbishop of Mumbai, said he was ashamed such a thing could occur in India.
“The incident has left me sad, angry and ashamed. What triggers such incidents in our society? When boys and girls are treated as equals at home, we will attack the root of the problem,” Gracias said at an event organized by ex-students of Fort Convent school on Saturday evening, which called upon Mumbaikars to pledge their support to gender equality, reported The Times of India.
“I don’t want to link it to other attacks on Christians across the country. But I would be blind if I ignored attacks on Christians elsewhere in India–Delhi, Jalpaiguri, Panvel. I call on the government to act strongly, swiftly and clearly and to speak strongly, swiftly and clearly,” he added.
The event did not focus solely on Christians or the nun, but opted for a nuanced examination of sexual assault, with the screening of National award-winning documentary ‘Daughters of Mother India’ on rape in India.
Lawyer and women’s rights activist Flavia Agnes spoke of a more rampant yet hidden form of sexual abuse, highlighting several instances where fathers had raped daughters.
In one, the daughter said her family supported her until she complained to police, after which she found herself on her own. Agnes and her team supported her.
Elsewhere in Mumbai, another event tackled the world of child sexual abuse. The Lawyers Collective Women’s Rights Initiative released Marathi translations of two of its books to help rape survivors negotiate the criminal justice system.
Lawyers, activists and judges shared their experiences in dealing with cases of sexual abuse, and how traumatic it was for a child to survive a police cross-examination.
Justice Roshan Dalvi shared her own experiences of sensitively handling an in-camera hearing involving a child survivor of sexual assault.