By M L Satyan
Bengaluru, Sept 17, 2022: The country witnessed a vehicle-ramming attack and mob lynching incident at Lakhimpur Kheri during farmers’ protest against the three farm laws passed by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led Union Government.
It happened on October 3, 2021, at Banbirpur village near Tikunia in Lakhimpur Kheri district, Uttar Pradesh, resulting in deaths of eight people and injuries to ten others. Four protesting farmers and a journalist were run over by the car. Two BJP members and Ajay Mishra Teni’s driver were lynched by protestors in the subsequent violence.
After a year, Lakhimpur Kheri is in the hot news again. The autopsy report of the two teenage Dalit sisters of Lakhimpur Kheri has confirmed that they were raped and strangulated to death. The post-mortem report confirms of rape. It also shows the cause of death as strangulated. The report confirms that the teenage sisters were strangulated to death by the accused before they were hanged from a tree.
The mother of the victims has alleged that post-mortem was done without the family’s consent. “We went to police but they did not listen to us and our complaints. They took the bodies for post-mortem without our consent. I did not even get to see them,” the mother said.
The police, as usual, tried to divert the story saying that the girls had a love affair with the boys and so they went with the boys freely. The SP Sanjiv Suman said that the accused were friends with the deceased girls. The victims – aged 14 and 17 years – were lured to farms and raped by two boys. After the girls forced the accused to marry them, the boys, with the help of their friends, strangulated, killed them and hanged the bodies on a tree. The SP even used strong words in order to convince the girls’ parents. According to the police it was a story of “love jihad”.
The father of the two victims denied the police statements that the girls went with the accused with their free will. He said that one of the accused visited their house and abducted both his daughters from their house. “They lifted my daughters from our house. I want justice. I want the culprits to be hanged,” the father said.
Though Rajasthan followed Uttar Pradesh in overall crime against women, it continues to record the highest number of rape cases in India. As per the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) report, in comparison to 2020, an increase of 19.34 per cent has been recorded in the number of rape cases this year. The number of rape cases in the state rose from 3,305 in 2017 to 4,335 in 2018, 5,997 in 2019 and 5,310 in 2020, the data showed.
In 2021 a total of 31,677 rape cases were registered as compared to 28,046 cases in 2020. Rajasthan (6337) was followed by Madhya Pradesh (2947) while Delhi recorded 1250 cases among the UTs, as per NCRB. Cases of crime against women rose to 4,28,278 in 2021 showing an increase of 15.3% from 3,71,503 cases in 2020.
In addition, more crimes against women (kidnappings 3,948, cruelty by husbands 4,674, and girlchild rapes 833) were registered in the nation’s capital in 2021 than in any other city with a population of over two million. According to the statistics, in 2021, more than two young women were sexually assaulted every day in Delhi.
After analysis of the state-wise rape cases for the last 10 years, India Today’s Data Intelligence Unit (DIU) found the 10 states – from UP to Rajasthan and Kerala to Madhya Pradesh – have reported more than two-thirds of the total cases in 2019. These states have gradually turned from bad to worse for women over this 10-year period, irrespective of the ruling political parties.
Of the total reported rape cases in India, four out of five rape victims are from these 10 states – Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Kerala, Assam, Haryana, Jharkhand, Odisha and Delhi – the latest available data of NCRB shows. The rest 26 states have reported almost the same numbers as they did in 2009.
On an average, the rape vulnerability of women in India has increased almost four folds over the last 10 years. In 2009, while nearly three women were raped every day in these states, this number went up to 11 to 15 for these 10 states in 2021.
Data shows after the Nirbhaya case, the government came up with the stricter laws, but it seems that these laws did not act as a deterrent for most of the perpetrators. The weak implementation of the law has resulted in a higher number of rape cases in some of the states. The rape and the subsequent burning of the dead body at Hathras (UP) case really shook the nation once again after Nirbhaya case in Delhi.
Everyday the print and electronic media keep reporting rape cases (from young babies to aged women) that occur in different parts of the country. No state seems to be an exception. Alarmingly, Kerala, the God’s own country, is witnessing rape cases very frequently.
The list of culprits contains father, brother, uncle, relative, friend, office colleague, teacher, classmate, priest, swami/guru, auto driver, school bus driver, government official, politician and even police. Rapes occur anywhere and everywhere. So, where is the security for young girls and women in India? “Beti Bachao-Beti Padhao” has become a forgotten and a meaningless slogan today.
On the one side, we take pride in comparing the nation to a mother and say “Bharat Mata Ki Jai”. But on the other side, the vulnerable women live in fear throughout their life. This is the irony in our country. The safety and security of every woman in India lies with the responsible parents, family members, citizens, teachers, religious leaders, politicians and police. Only when we ensure the safety and security of women, the slogan “Bharat Mata Ki Jai” will become meaningful.
One of the ways to ensure women’s and girls’ safety is to get them enrolled in self-defence courses in small groups/clusters. The Women’s and Youth Commissions of each parish MUST invest in self-defence courses. This will increase alertness and give our women huge confidence.