#India – When Doctors are also perpetrators of Crime #Vaw

Study shows sex selection practices in doctors’ families

Umesh Isalkar, TNN | May 28, 2013, 06.42 AM IST

NAGPUR: A study by a Nagpur-based institute has found the sex ratio skewed in doctors’ families, too. The child sex ratio in these families was 907 girls per 1,000 boys, lower than the national average of 914. It was indicative of a deep-rooted social malady that could pose a critical challenge in correcting the sex ratio in India, the study stated.

The skewed ratio in the doctors’ families was strongly indicative of underlying sex-selection practices even though the ratios offer only circumstantial evidence, rather than proof, the study stated. The study was published recently in the American Journal ‘Demography’ and titled ‘Skewed Sex Ratios in India: Physician Heal Thyself’.

The researchers investigated the sex ratio in 946 nuclear families with 1,624 children where either one or both parents were doctors who had studied at the Government Medical College and Hospital in Nagpur between 1980 and 1985. The medical college is a large tertiary care teaching hospital in Vidarbha region, admitting 200 students for the Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery ( MBBS) .

Other than being more skewed than the national average, the researchers observed that the conditional sex ratios consistently decreased with increasing number of previous female births. Third, the birth of a daughter in the family was associated with a 38 % reduced likelihood of a subsequent female birth.

“Our investigation has revealed startling concerns about the potential sex selection practices among doctors of Vidarbha region. We are aware of the limitations of this study as the sample size is not very big and hence may not faithfully represent the entire physician community in India. But it definitely warrants a closer look. It will also be interesting to see whether such practices pervade others in the medical profession, such as nurses and paramedical workers,” said principal investigator Archana Patel.

Patel also works as a professor and head of the department of paediatrics. She is a director of epidemiology unit at Indira Gandhi Government Medical College, Nagpur. The others who conducted the study with Patel are Neetu Badhoniya, Manju Mamtani and Hemant Kulkarni.

“The study was conducted for three reasons. The medical profession enjoys high esteem in India, and physicians are regarded as role models in society. Second, physicians have a crucial role in the implementation of the Pre Conception and Pre-Natal and Diagnostic Techniques (prevention of sex selection) Act to prevent the misuse of ultrasound and other techniques for prenatal sex determination, which has been implicated for selective abortion of girls. Third, little is known whether this preference for boys also exists among the families of Indian physicians. Hence, we investigated the pattern of sex ratios in the immediate families of physicians,” Patel said.

General surgeon Maya Tulpule, president of the city chapter of Indian Medical Association said, “I will discuss the matter with IMA managing committee members to see whether we can take up such a survey here in Pune.”

It was an important study which reflected the mindset of the society of which doctors are a part, said senior psychiatrist Devendra Shirole, former national vice president of IMA. “However, a multi-centric study with a larger sample size is needed. We will discuss this at IMA’s national meeting soon,” he added.

Previous studies have also claimed that this son preference varies little with education or income and that selective abortion of girls is common in educated and affluent households, presumably because they can afford ultrasound and abortion services more than uneducated or poorer households.

 

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#India- MP minister justifies number of rapes to total population #WTFnews

Suchandana Gupta, TNN | Apr 21, 2013,

Women activists of BJP remove police barricade outside UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi‘s residence during a protest against the rape of of the 5-year-old girl in New Delhi.

BHOPAL: At a time when the whole nation is outraged by the alleged rape of a 5-year-old girl child in New Delhi, a Madhya Pradesh minister went on record claiming the number of rapes as still less when compared to the total population.While Delhi‘s 5-year-old is under medical treatment in AIIMS, another little girl of her age from Madhya Pradesh is still fighting for her life in a hospital in Nagpur. The second child, also a victim of gang-rape, from Ghansor in Sheoni was flown out in a critical condition to Maharashtra for treatment. Her condition is critical.

But an insensitive minister of state for urban administration and development, Manohar Utwal, on Saturday said, “Evaluating the population of the Madhya Pradesh, the number of rapes is not that high.” Madhya Pradesh continues to be the rape capital of the country with the National Crimes Record Bureau (NCRB) revealing the largest number of the heinous offence being reported in the state. In 2011-12, NCRB records showed a total 3,406 rapes in the state.

Speaking to reporters in Jaora town in Ratlam district, the minister justified, “In a state where total the population exceeds 7.5 crore, only 4,500 rapes have been reported this year.” He further defended that rape statistics is high in Madhya Pradesh because the police diligently records every complaint.

Manohar Utwal’s inconsiderate comment comes less than a week after an MP cabinet minister Vijay Shah was sacked for making sexist remarks against chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan‘s wife while addressing a students’ gathering in the tribal dominated Jhabua district. With such reckless anti-women observations coming from state ministers, the Congress opposition in Madhya Pradesh isfurious.

Congress’ leader of opposition Ajay Singh on Sunday said, “By the way the state ministers are speaking, it is clear that the BJP government has no respect for women and have no intention or desire to protect them. To compare the population of the state to the number of rapes and justify the crime just brings out the BJP’s anti-woman mentality.”

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Mamta Sharma , NCW Chief is worried about dwindling child sex ratio , because MEN will be without BRIDES #WTFnews

2 crore men may soon be without brides: NCW chief

Ramu Bhagwat, TNN | Apr 18, 2013,

NAGPUR: Marriageable men in India would soon face difficulty finding brides. Female infanticide in the country has led to skewed gender ratio, National Commission for Women (NCW) chairperson Mamta Sharma said here on Wednesday. “What is more alarming is that gender discrimination is more in urban centres that are supposed to have higher literacy rate than in less literate rural areas,” said Sharma.

“The situation is worse in north Indian States like Haryana, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. In South India, the ratio is better but in those states the incidence of domestic violence is high,” NCW chief said. “In near future, NCW is apprehensive that the country will have around two crore bachelors who will face difficulty in finding a suitable match if the trend of female infanticide continued,” Sharma said quoting data with NCW.

The male-female ratio would drop to such a level that it would be difficult to bridge the gap, Sharma said. NCW was intensifying its awareness campaign to stop female infanticide and killing of female fetuses which was rampant in some parts, particularly north. “The practice continues in most state across the country. Even in Maharashtra, it was rampant in district like Beed,” she added.

Asked if recent stringent law against rape would make any difference, Sharma voiced her reservations saying: “A new set of laws would hardly make a difference. Strong laws were already there. What matters more is implementation. There is need for sensitizing the police force as well as judiciary for faster trials and better conviction rates. Victims, mostly from economically poor background, suffer as the police fail to press correct charges and a weak case does not stand in courts,” Sharma remarked.

The NCW chief noted that after the recent awareness campaigns by social organizations have been effective. “But there is a long way to go and there is need for change of mindset to give women the respect they deserve,” Sharma noted. NCW would soon sign an MoU with Western Railway for creating awareness among railway staff on suburban trains in Mumbai on how to treat female passengers and commuters while travelling and also how to protect and help them in distress.

Sharma, who was here for the inaugural function of “Padharo Rajasthan” festival, said NCW was also initiating steps to curb trafficking from Pakistan, Nepal, China and Bangladesh borders. She said NCW would hold meeting with heads of security forces manning borders to discuss measures to check trafficking.

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Far from Delhi- 4 year old Rape victim , battling for Life #Vaw

Four-year-old Seoni rape victim airlifted to Nagpur

Manjari Mishra, TNN | Apr 21, 2013,

JABALPUR: With her sexually brutalized four-year-old granddaughter Rani (name changed) battling death for 48 hours in ICU on Saturday afternoon, after having been raped on April 17 night by a 35-year-old in Ghansaur village ofSeoni district, 180 km from Jabalpur, Himma Baifervently asked God to grant her just one wish – send down a helicopter to fly the child off to Dilli.And even as her family, especially Rani’s mother Ramkumari did not share such optimism, Himma Bai’s wish came true.

Facing flak, the government airlifted the girl to Nagpur for better treatment.

As the issue threatened to snowball into a major embarrassment for the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government, putting a big question mark over his much hyped image of the savior of girl child, state government decided to alirlift Rani from Jabalpur to Nagpur, 280 km away, by late night.

Meanwhile, the police have arrested accomplice Rakesh Chaudhary while main accused 35-year-old welder from Jhabua Power Plant, Firoz Khan, is still at large. Teams have been sent to Bihar his home state and Delhi to trace Khan, Sanjay Jha, inspector general of police (IG) Jabalpur, told TOI.

Last 48 hours since they found a profusely bleeding Rani abandoned in the village crematorium clearly showed on Ramkumari when TOI contacted her in the private nursing home in Jabalpur. Watching the team of doctors flitting in and out of the room on Saturday afternoon Ramkumari looked totally lost. Apart from lacerations, tears and bruises, the child, according to attending gynecologist Dr Pragya Dheeravani, had suffered hypoxia of brain induced by suffocation. Already on life support system her condition was fast deteriorating.

While the state government has announced an ex-gratia relief of Rs 2 lakh, the cost of treatment is being borne by Jhabua Power Plant where the accused is working.

The main accused was known to her brother Shyam and frequented her house. So the woman had found nothing unusual to see Khan chatting up with Rani on Thursday evening. Panic struck when the child failed to turn up till late evening even as her younger brother “gone to buy biscuits with Khan” arrived home.

The family launched a hunt and finally found an unconscious Rani lying in the cremation ground. With the man of the house Ghassi Yadav, a construction worker in Pune, away, it was Shyam who rushed her to the village dai and was told the girl was raped and must be taken immediately to Jabalpur medical college. They could reach Jabalpur medical college after two hours of road journey and Rani was brought to the emergency. But soon they had to move to a private hospital.

The young mother continued to look morose and troubled as she reluctantly accompanied the sinking Rani along with the medical team to the airport to board the chopper. Reason? She has two more girls back home in Ghansaur who need to be guarded.

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Water privatisation is not for India

NEW DELHI, March 20, 2013, The Hindu

Smriti Kak Ramachandran

Apex court specifies that air, water, sea and forests cannot be with private sector

A social republic like India cannot have water in private ownership and deny the citizens their right to quality water at affordable prices, said Justice Rajinder Sachar here on Tuesday, criticising the Delhi Government’s move to undertake three public-private partnership projects in the city.

Speaking at a conference on “Water Privatisation: Learning from India and International Experiences”, Justice Sachar said: “There is nothing above the Constitution. The Preamble says India is a secular, socialist, Republic…and handing over ownership of water to private companies is cheating the Constitution.”

He said the Government is obliged to adhere to the Supreme Court guidelines that have specified several times that air, water, sea and forests cannot be under private ownership. He disapproved of the Delhi Government’s move to rope in private companies for doing work that is the State’s responsibility.

Rebutting the Government claims that PPP will usher in changes in the water sector, Jammu Anand, an employee of the Nagpur Municipal Corporation Employees Union, cited the example of Nagpur where privatisation and the promise of 24×7 water supply has not shown any positive results.

“Before the privatisation exercise the Government claimed there was 50 per cent non-revenue water and 45 per cent leakages. They said the Government is in a financial crisis, not capable of arresting these faults and the municipality does not have the political will to do so. Today the leakages are still 30 per cent and no one knows why,” he said.

Mr. Anand said the Government shrewdly chose a place for the pilot project in Nagpur that did not have a major water problem.

Also speaking at the conference organised by the Citizens’ Front for Water Democracy, Focus on the Global South, PEACE, Delhi Journalists’ Association, WS&SDEU and Water Workers’ Alliance, Himanshu Thakkar of the South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers & People said the move to have a Water Resources Regulatory Authority that will among other things serve to decide the tariffs needs to be opposed as well. PPPs are being encouraged, he said, adding the only state in India which has a water regulatory authority is Maharashtra, where it has been a failure.

“Post-Independence the biggest water scam is in Maharashtra where Rs.75,000 crore has been shown spent on irrigation in the past 10 years but in reality not one hectare has been irrigated,” he said.

S. A. Naqvi of the Citizens’ Front for Water Democracy said despite evidence of privatisation not being a success globally, India is keen on moving ahead with privatisation in almost all sectors from energy to water. “Privatisation is a failed model, yet India is pushing forwards towards it. The Government, it seems, is distancing itself from its responsibility.”

---

• “Nagpur model has not yielded encouraging results”
• “Government is distancing itself from its responsibility”

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Andhashraddha Nirmoolan Samiti (ANS), blames Asaram Bapu for ‘wasting’ water

Madhya Pradesh,Environment/Wildlife,Religion, Sun, 17 Mar 2013IANS

Nagpur, March 17 (IANS) A severe drought gripping many parts of Maharashtra did not deter spiritual leader Asaram Bapu from celebrating a pre-Holi function and wasting many litres of water here Sunday, said a social group.

Andhashraddha Nirmoolan Samiti (ANS) condemned Asaram Bapu’s alleged Goli play and staged a protest.

“A person who calls himself a saint, does he not have basic common sense? How can he waste water like this when millions are thirsting for even a drop?” said ANS state president Narendra Dabholkar.

Asaram Bapu was in Nagpur in the afternoon and met his followers at the Kasturchand Park grounds. He and his followers played a colourful, wet Holi with th help of water tankers brought from the Nagpur Municipal Corporation.

Though the amount of water used in the celebrations was not clear, residents told mediapersons that lakhs of litres was literally wasted.

ANS activists staged a black-flag demonstration, raised slogans outside the venue and urged the civic agency not to provide them with water.

Bombay HC- PIL demands speedy trial for Naxal/ Maoist suspects

TNN | Mar 14, 2013,

NAGPUR: A public interest litigation (PIL) has been filed on Wednesday before the Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court seeking judicial intervention and relief into the various aspects of Naxal undertrials. The petitioner, Soma Sen is a member of the Committee for Protection of Democratic Rights and associate professor of English Department at the Nagpur University. She is engaged in social work for more than two decades.

The PIL deals with the plight of the several farmers and other residents of Naxal-affected Gadchiroli who had been nabbed during various operations launched by the government forces in the district. Following their arrest, the petitioner has claimed that the trials are often delayed on numbers of pretexts including not providing escort guards to enable undertrials to remain present before the court.

The petitioner has also claimed that delayed trial of the victims has been aggravated by the violation of the fundamental rights of the prisoners and other laws pertaining to present them before the court. Sen has also prayed before the court to discourage videoconferencing facilities which do not allow the undertrials to have access to their lawyer

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#India- State Throttling the voice, banning the thought of innocent people #draconianlaws #prisoners

Jan 6, 2013, Deccan Herald 

 The rage of the ‘invisible masses,’ is a thread binding all democratic protests and people’s movements across the state. Be it in Konkan or Vidarbha or the deep dry jungles of Gadchiroli, the cries of ‘rights’ and ‘freedom’ has faded in majority of cases into the darkness of the shadows of the prison cells. Throttling the voice and banning the thought has turned these regions into police state, where in the name of law shackles are clamped on every dissenting voice.

In Konkan, since 2006, the undulating hills dotting Maharashtra coastline has been echoing and roiling with angry voices questioning the nuclear and open cast mining projects pock-marking the green ribbon stretching along the seashore.

The movement, despite running on peaceful strategy, has seen incidents of violence from the police side; in April 2011, police in order to quell a protesting mob, opened fire killing one person.

Last June, when villagers protested against Jaitapur nuclear power project, armed police clamped Section 144.

Vidarbha farmers’ fault?

The region everyday witnesses a funeral of a farmer committing suicide, deaths due to malnutrition and starvation in tribal areas.

The story is not new; in 2001, thousands of tribal women ‘Tendu’ workers were just hauled up in police vans and bundled off to prisons, charged with various draconian sections. Their fault: they were  demanding basic food security.

In December 2012, the government refused permission for staging any kind of demonstration to over a thousand widows of farmers, who took their lives to escape the sharp economic claws, under the pretext that it ‘is being spearheaded by Naxalites.’

Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti leader Kishore Tiwari says: “Raise your voice and you find yourself facing a non-bailable warrant. Since 2001 I have been charged with over 231 criminal cases…”

Gadchiroli’s eternal prisoners

It is the border tribal district and the news that filter out from this region focusses only on ‘violent clashes between the police and militant outfits’; the peaceful demonstrations of tribals asserting their democratic rights and ending up in prisons where sun rarely peeps in, never sees light.

On December 10, 2012, 50 tribal women languishing in Nagpur Central Prison for the past several years, under the charges of being “Naxal‘ sympathisers, went on a 11-day hunger strike demanding immediate opening up of the Gadchiroli Prison and an inquiry into ‘illegal re-arrests.’

Human rights lawyer Surendra Gadling said: “Using the 170-km stretch between Nagpur and Gadchiroli court as an excuse, the police deliberately delay the proceedings. What these women undertrials want is a speedy trial which is their Constitutional right.”

The hunger-strike once again brought to fore the brazen violation of human rights and Constitutional rights by the police and other para-military forces who clandestinely re-arrest political prisoners who have been acquitted or granted bail as soon as they emerge from the prison gate.

In 2007, human rights activist Arun Ferriera, was picked up along with one Arun Satya Reddy while he was distributing pamphlets to Dalits in Dikshabhoomi near Nagpur. In 2011, despite being cleared of all charges by a lower court, the police clandestinely whisked him from the exit door of the jail. In jail, he saw the re-arrest of tribal men and women in violation of laws and undertook a fast lasting 27 days, demanding an inquiry into ‘illegal re-arrests’.

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RSS: Rapist Suraksha Sangh / Rapist Security Society #Vaw #Culture

Dr. Mohan Madhukar Bhagawat is the sixth Sarsanghachalak of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

January 4, 2013

 

tags: Misogyny, Mohan Bhagwat, RSS, sexism, Sexual Abuse.

by Shuddhabrata Sengupta, kafila.org

 

The RSS supremo Mohan Bhagwat (or to call him out in the way he is referred to in the Sangh – Sarsanghchalak Param Pujya Shri Mohan-ji Bhagwat-ji) has now joined the pavilion of eminent Bharatiya moustachioed misogynists. In a breathtakingly revealing statement, he has told us that rapes happen in India, not in Bharat. What he means is that rape only occurs in urban areas where the influence of Paschatya Sanskriti (western culture) leads women astray into being raped by men unable to help or control themselves in the face of the assault of women, out and about, by day and night, defying Mohan Bhageat’s Sangh-mandated Lakshman Rekha.

When an upper-caste landlord in a village claims his ‘droit de seigneur’ (land-owner’s claim) with a Dalit woman, it is not rape, it is a yagya, a time honoured shastric ritual. When husbands persuade minor wives on their ‘suhaag raat’ with a few disciplinary measures that leave them with black eyes and sore limbs, it is not rape, it is the carrying out of an Upanishadic injunction. When swamijis, babajis, acharyas and prachaks have their way with ignorant and nabalik shishyas, it is not rape, it is the partaking of the naivedyam of a woman’s body. It is the realisation of a ‘pushp ki abhilasha’, even if the pushp gets pushed around a little bit in the process.Yo-Yo Honey Singh, that other eminent Yug-Purush echoed Shri Mohan Bhagwat when he asserted in his prayer, C***t Vol.1, that he would cure the waywardness of the Indian woman’s sex organs by strictly traditional, bharatiya and shastric methods.Yo Yo Mohan Bhagwat. Param Pujya Honey Singh. Sambhavami Yuge-Yuge.

 

These gentlemen truly deserve Mardangi Maryada Medals (MMM) or Paurush Pratiraksha Puraskars (PPP). In these beleagured times, when Bharatiya masculinity has faced such severe stress and strain, it is only real self-serving (swaysmsevak) men like Mohan Bhagwat and Globally yet Traditionally Bharatiya International Villagers like Yo-Yo ji Honey ji Singh ji who can hold up its otherwise flaccid standard against the corrosive attack of urban femininity.

Hey Bharat-Purush, gird your loins, hoist your petards, tackle your gaandiv, gather your legions. Mohan Bhagwat has sounded the panchajanya. the battle is joined, you have able and eminent warlords. S.O.P. Shri Abhijit Mukherjee of the Congress Party will lead the charge against dented and painted enemies. Shri Narendra Modi and Shri Raman Singh (both BJP chief ministers in Gujatar and Chhattisgarh) will demonstrate how well rape either by righteous rioters or by counter-insurgent policemen can defend Hindu honour and national security. Comrade Anisur Rehman of the CPI (M) will defeat all his female adversaries designs by buying and selling them. Shri Naveen Jindal of the Congress Party will handle the war-chest and rally the troops of the brave Khap irregulars. Shri Shahshi Tharoor of the Congress Party will tweet the name of every woman fallen in the battle-field. Shri Botsa Satyanarayan of the Congress will secure the hours after midnight so that no wayward women are about. Yo-Yo Honey Singh will lead the yuddha-ghosh, the martial music band. Janaab Akbaruddin Owaisi of the Majlis-Ittehadul-Muslimeen will behead errant women writers. Baba Ramdev ji will straighten all queer women with yogic power. Shri Kailash Vijayvargiya (Cabinet Minister in BJP ruled Madhya Pradesh where he is – Minister of Industries & Employment, Information Technology, Commerce, Rural Industry, Science & Technology and a passionate leader who continuously strives for development while advocating that women will not find themselves raped only if they stay within the Lakshman Rekha of Bharatiya Sanskriti will map the battle-field. You need all the strength that you can get.

Many years ago, almost twenty years ago, I was a young and nervous assistant working on a documentary film on the RSS called ‘The Boys in the Branch’ (directed by Lalit Vachani, 1993). The film was shot in Nagpur, partly in a sort of ‘commune’ where some young men in their late teens, an elite crop from various RSS shakhas (branches), were being groomed for future leadership within the organization. We also shot extensively within the RSS headquarters, Hedgewar Bhavan, in Mahal, Nagpur. We interviewed Mohan Bhagwat, who gave a chillingly lyrical account of how a particular game-exercise helped a young swayam-sevak mentally prepare himself for the ultimate sacrifice by linking death to re-incarnation, through a series of calisthenic metaphors and manoeuvres, such that death itself could become a move in a game. During this time, I got to be friends, In a way, with some of the boys. Occasionally, I would spend a night with them in their ‘house’. They would cook, sing, play the flute, ask me about Delhi, about girls, about whether i had any Muslim friends, and what they were ‘really’ like. I never made a secret of what my politics was, or the fact that I had a ‘communist’ upbringing because of my family. But sort of grudgingly at first, and less grudgingly later, they gave me a sort of ‘enemy respect’. More importantly, because I was someone close to them in age, and a total outsider, they sort of trusted me with their secrets. I have never betrayed those confidences, even as I sometimes wondered what happened to some of those who spoke to me, mainly off camera, after the shoots were done.

One day, one of the boys asked to see me and the director, in our hotel room. He came late in the evening and talked for many hours. He spoke about being sexually abused by senior functionaries within the RSS for several years, inside the RSS headquarters, beginning around the time when he was eleven years old. I strongly felt that we should not record his testimony, because I was aware that even if we protected his identity in the film, there was no way by which his anonymity could be safeguarded, especially within the RSS headquarters. Basically, he would be ‘disappeared’ in a way that I don’t even want to think about. We talked long into the night. He left, and told me he felt better after having talked, without shame, to someone his own age who could listen without standing in judgment. He told me that he was leaving Nagpur. I never saw him again. I have no idea where he is, and I don’t really want to know. But I think of him sometimes, wonder how he is doing, whether he found the kind of love and affection and respect that he wanted. Whether he has any nightmares. I wish him well, and hope he is as far away from the enclaves of Bharat presided over by the RSS as it is possible for him to be. I do not remember his name. He is another unknown citizen.

The RSS wants to be to be an arbiter of public and private conduct to ‘Bharat’. It wants to be what the Vatican thinks it is within the domain of Roman Catholic orthodoxy. Both are citadels of misogyny and homophobia. Both conceal under their knickers and robes the darkest secrets of abuse and violence. The sexual abuse of minors is statutory rape in most jurisdictions. The yagya of statutory rape has a time honoured place in the dungeons within the citadels of Bharatiya and other kinds of purity. Perhaps it is time that this pretence at purity was shown up to be what it actually is.

Sambhavami Yuge Yuge.

 

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#India-Settle rape case with Rs 50000, UP panchayat tells victim #WTFnews #Vaw

IANS | Jan 4, 2013,

LUCKNOW: Rs 50,000 as compensation for being kidnapped, taken to Nagpur and raped in captivity for many days. That was what a panchayat in Uttar Pradesh has offered a 13-year-old who came to them with her tale of horror at the hands of a youth from the village.

The panchayat in Mauli village in Pratapgarh, about 170 km from here, pronounced its “judgment” late Thursday, police officials said Friday, even as RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat‘s comment that crimes such as rape take place in India and not so much in Bharat kicked up a massive controversy.

The girl has alleged that a youth sexually assaulted her in the village and then kidnapped her at gunpoint and took her to Nagpur in Maharashtra.

She said she was sexually abused for many days and detained against her will. After about a week, she managed to give the rapist a slip and return home December 27.

Faced with her horrific tale, the panchayat in Mauli felt there was “no point taking the matter further” and decided monetary compensation was the best way out, an official told IANS.

He added that the young rape victim had petitioned the superintendent of police after which an FIR was lodged against a village youth.

Having heard her ordeal, the family decided to approach the police. The local police station paid little heed to her complaint, however.

Her brother then approached the superintendent of police (SP) in Pratapgarh after which the complaint was lodged.

Sarvesh Kumar Mishra, the station officer of Kunda, told IANS that a case had been slapped on the accused and the girl had been sent for medical examination.

“We have done the needful and action would be taken as per law,” Mishra said, refusing to comment on the panchayat’s ruling.

Differences, it is learnt, have cropped up in the panchayat, with some members not in agreement with the Rs 50,000 diktat.

Conditioned to believe that rape was the worst fate to have befallen their daughter, elders in her family told the panchayat Jan 2 that they would be okay if the girl, after attaining adulthood, was married to the rape accused.

The panchayat, however, turned down the offer and tried to thrash out a solution between the two families.

It then came up with the formula of asking the accused’s family to compensate her by giving her Rs 50,000. It also asked the girl’s family to withdraw the police complaint.

What will happen to her complaint is still unclear.

But as the debate over crimes against women intensifies in the country following the gang-rape and death of a Delhi girl, it is hoped that this village girl from Uttar Pradesh will be given justice.

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