Harvard to the rescue of Indian Feminists ! # womenrights #Vaw #mustshare

FEBRUARY 16, 2013

Some good news for embattled and weary Indian feminists. All those endless submissions to the Verma Committee prepared and submitted, all those critiques of the Ordinance written and disseminated, all those street protests, all those meetings with students and the public, all those delegations to government officials, ministers…not to mention decades of efforts to amend the rape laws.

It’s been a long hard haul, so it’s a great relief that the Harvard Law School has stepped in to take this burden off our shoulders.

A post on the Delhi gang rape on the Harvard College Women’s Centre website has announced that a Policy Task Force titled “Beyond Gender Equality” has been convened to offer recommendations to India and other South Asian countries in the wake of the New Delhi gang rape and murder. Diane Rosenfeld, Director of the Gender Violence Clinic at Harvard Law School and Professor Jacqueline Bhabha, will head this group.

Their principal task this semester is to produce a working paper that advises on the implementation of the recommendations from the Verma Committee. The committee in a bold move, points out the need to reassess the military powers that are allowed to operate with impunity in conflict zones. Part of our discussion will focus on real reparations and support for survivors of sexual violence, in a manner that allows them to function as integrated members of their communities.

It’s so good to know that there are Harvard Professors to make all the “bold moves” that Indian feminists have never made.

Attack the impunity of security forces? Now that’s a bold move indeed – would any of us shy Indian women be so bold as all that? I wonder where the Verma Committee got that crazy idea from?

Posts on Kafila on the Justice Verma Committee and the Ordinance

The Verma Committee: Alchemizing anger to hope

Water Cannons, Tear Gas, Ordinance – How the State Responds to Protests Against Rape and the Justice Verma Committee

Why the Govt’s Ordnance is Fraud & Mockery of the Justice Verma Committe Recommendations

The Official Emergency Continues – The Ordinance on Sexual Assault

“The impunity of every citadel is intact” – the taming of the Verma Committee Report, and some troubling doubts

Why the law on sexual offences must be changed

The Criminal Law Ordinance 2013 on Sexual Assault – Cut, Paste and Shock!

Also check out the reports on Feminists India