News round-up March 4, 2008

The Negatives:

1. Tanu Sehgal says that it is National Shame that women have to live in a constant state of fear. She writes:

For women and girls, anything can happen anytime, including in broad daylight. No wonder, they don't travel in buses and autos late in the night in cities like Delhi, branded as the 'Rape Capital' by the capital's English dailies. The police routinely advise women not to walk through lonely stretches. Shamefully, northeast girls were recently given police guidelines about codes of dress and behaviour - as if they are the criminals on the brazenly 'anti-woman' public places of Delhi.
Despite the massive campaign since the last decade, 138 dowry deaths were reported in Delhi in 2007. According to data compiled by the National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB), a woman in India commits suicide every four hours over dowry disputes. It is likely that most of the crimes committed against women are not even reported and happen behind closed doors, such as domestic violence, emotional and physical assaults by husbands, partners and other men in the family. Dowry demands, 'illicit' relationships, erratic lifestyles and alcohol abuse are some major factors behind domestic violence directed against women.

2. Sex trade in Delhi (a heart wrenching read):

Girls are trafficked mainly from east and south India –Assam, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, and Karnataka and are sold to buyers. Five per cent of the trafficked women are from Bangladesh and Nepal.

Women initially show resistance to enter the business but they are subjected to brutal violence, beaten up, burnt and tortured. Sexual abuse is the easiest tool to aid buyers into forcing the helpless women. They are raped and exploited in the most violent manner.

Living conditions are pathetic and they have to live in dirty and dingy rooms. They entertain seven to ten clients per day. Each sitting is of an average of two or maybe five minutes. For two minutes, the worker earns Rs 120. Out of this, she gets barely Rs 5-10 for herself. Rs 70 goes to the brothel owner and the rest is taken by the controller who might give the girl a tip, if she likes.

3. Brilliant! Let's rape our guests when they are in our country. Who needs tourism revenue?
Mother accuses Indian police of covering up girl's rape and murder

4. Outside home, Indian woman unsafe; inside home, she needs luck
A report on research conducted by Yogendra Yadav and Sanjay Kumar.

5. A couple of opinions:
Women in the papers
Delhi behaving badly: Why women feel unsafe in India's capital city


I think I should do the positives first because now I feel exhausted after having read all the articles posted above (and more). On to the positives (thankfully):

1. Rally against female foeticide in Delhi:

Ranjana Kumari, director of CSR, said that only a collective effort by people could combat the social evil of female foeticide.

“Only a collective force of citizen partnership can help combat female foeticide in the society. The shameful practice of sex selective abortions can only be checked when the whole community takes the responsibility of protecting the girl child and not just a handful of people working towards the empowerment of women,” Kumari said.

2. Punjab: State Level Seminar on "Female Foeticide and Intoxicants on March 8:

G. K Rai District and Session Judge Ludhiana has directed the concerned officers to make excellent arrangements to conduct a State Level Seminar on "Female Foeticide and prevalence of Intoxicants" being organized by Punjab State Legal Services Authority in coordination with Bar Association Khanna and NGOs on 8th March at Grain Market Khanna.

3. A few examples of a select-few women who are doing good for themselves:
Woman power: Weaker sex has finally come out in the open
More power to them. May their success provide hope to the remaining millions who struggle to come to terms with their identity all their life.