According to the official report of National Crime Records Bureau from 2016, minorities are over represented in Indian prisons which includes Dalits and Muslims in common. On annual basis NCRB releases report on Prison Statistics India (PSI), it elaborates that the lack of access to political influence and money power poses the trend. NCRB’s report on 2019 shows 10 rape cases are reporting daily against Dalit women in India among that Uttar Pradesh reports 25% of crimes against people from Scheduled caste community. Would you get surprised when the statistical data shows on every 12 minutes 45,852 crimes happened against SC community in 2019?

Years are passing by, and yet instances of sexual abuse, mob lynching, honor killings, caste murders are not declining. So, who can we blame when it comes to the assaults against marginalised minorities in the country; whether it is the law or its improper implementation by state and central governments?

It is absurd that even in the time of pandemic like Covid-19, casteist attacks are on the rise hike. And the Indian population sitting in the comfort of their homes claims that “Don’t mix up a crime with one’s caste. Caste has nothing to do with the existence of attacks against minorities in India. Ban reservation system in India.” The list of arguments put forward by privileged casteist people in India shows that they admire the illogical Manusmrithi than Indian Constitution which abolishes the practice of untouchability under Article 17.

From the current heinous scenario, it is evidently clear that caste has been liked with the act of brutal crimes. The idea of Brahmanical patriarchy which endorse the act of oppression in Indian context proved to be a greater threat to religious tolerance. Dalit scholars and activists are coming forward to mainstream to share their plights and issues in academical agraharas. India cannot forget Rohit Vemula, the Dalit research scholar from University of Hyderabad and Payal Tadvi a medical student from Maharashtra. The institutional murder of young minority talents poses a big challenge to the existence of democratic system in India. Recently Umar Khalid, former Democratic Students Union leader in JNU and a human rights activist has been allegedly charged with UAPA (Unlawful Activities Prevention Act) for speaking up for citizens right. In short, we can conclude that Freedom of speech and expression is under threat under this autocratic regime.

Hathras rape case highlights the failure of law and order system in Uttar Pradesh. Unfortunately, in India, the system gives more protection and Y plus category security to only high-profile celebrities in the nation. Can the readers of this article imagine Y plus category security protection to minorities in the country or women in the country?

“The violence of upper caste particularly the Thakurs in UP comes from a place of deep contempt and targeting a Dalit woman is a way of exerting power over the Dalit communities overall. Historically the bodies of marginalised women have been assumed to have free access by upper or dominant castes. However, the Bahujan community particularly the Dalit community has been fighting against and raises in more rage to voice that it won’t be tolerated. One can take the example of Chandra Shekar Azad of Bhim Army who fiercely battling against upper caste dominance” Pallavi Pratibha, an anti-caste activist from Jharkhand told Madhyamam. She shared her views with us before a day of Joint Action Committee of Ambedkarite student organisations has called for a country wide protest on October 10, to assert minority Dalit rights and protection in the country.

Dr. Bhim Rao Ambedkar, the man who shaped Indian constitution always been a staunch critic against the element of Hindutva, basically Brahmanism promotes hierarchical social structure. Brahmanical Hindutva codes adheres supremacist value to a brahmin. In Indian context if minorities protest for their rights the autocratic regime converts the act in to riots. Before the British colonists arrived, caste system had already divided Indians. The British had made use of the situation and utilised it maximum by exploiting the Indian middle class and lower-class population. Every invader who comes to India had an upper caste hand to control the common people.

The upper caste perpetrators see Dalits and women as same with a narrow-minded mentality. They promote the Brahmanical patriarchy and oppresses women in India. As responsible Indian citizens whenever a caste-based violence happen we should confess our culpability. The silence and rejection from you give rises to atrocities and attacks against minorities in India. In the movie called Pariyerum Perumal by Mari Selvaraj there is a dialogue “Chicken shit who got in through Quota”. Does this dialogue represent oppressor’s mentality? When it comes to Dalits, upper class privileged ones know only about ‘reservation and merit’. In reality reservation has reached only to least population of Indian domain. It is ironical in the sense when some of us criticize Indian reservation system and continuing apply for reservation quota in abroad countries. Still why can’t you accept Indian reservation? Indian academia is teaching about upper caste freedom fighters like Jhansi Rani, Mangal Pandey and all but refused to accept Jhalkari Bhai, Matandin Bhangi, Birsa Munda. At least to how much extent did we learn about Dr Ambedkar? So, it is clear that Indian academical agraharas resist Bahujan contributions.

NCRB reports officially says that crimes against women and Dalits in India are increasing. Their nature tends to be more heinous, public and brazen. The attacks are not only just about perpetrators and victims but the crimes sending a direct message to minorities in India that they are under threat. Can Government eradicate this fear? More shockingly, generations have come forward with casteist mentality and Islamophobic deep rooted insights in mind. Law and order system in India need to be well analysed. “The evident need for change in Law with respect to the pace of change in social crimes is necessary. Indian society doesn’t seem to have moved on from caste-based oppression and violence. We live in a country where tradition outcast laws and consent from women is ignored. It is far time that Indian Judicial system should have the transition from the reformative theory to preventive theory”. Advocate Raveen, from Kollam Judicial Court shared his insights with Madhyamam. The deep-rooted caste mentality from Indian families need to be checked. When will Indian children are capable of rejecting the thoughts injected by their parents when it is communal, casteist, homophobic, xenophobic and patriarchal? If the rejection is positive there marks the development of a new India. Until then vote bank politics and anarchism are going to rule Indian democratic space.

*The author is pursuing MA Mass communication and Journalism at Pondicherry University

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The post Minority Lives Matter appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Amid the intense chaos posed by the ubiquitous nature of Covid-19, India is still at the top in crimes against women. Whether it is domestic violence, sexual harassment, rape, abduction or anything related to crimes against women and girls the loopholes of security factors can be clearly dig up.

India is not completely coming out from the shock full experience of December 2013 Nirbhaya gang-rape in Delhi, the rape of a minor Bakarwal girl in Jammu. India’s conscience can’t say an easy adieu to 3-year-old girl child in Jharkhand, who was abducted from Tatanagar Railway station in August 2019. She was sleeping besides her mother. The culprits abducted, raped and most brutally beheaded the little one. After few days the headless body of child had found. Later the culprits themselves admitted the crime. Police could not find the head of 3-year-old girl. Readers can try to understand the depth value of each and every rape case that are happening in every period of time.

In this piece we explore the increasing crime against women in India in greater depth.

Death of a genius and her unfulfilled dreams

Recently, Sudiksha, a 20-year-old girl, who have received a scholarship worth USD 250,000 from Babson College in Massachusetts, United States was killed in a bike accident. She was riding a pillion on a motorcycle with her younger brother (though her family insists, her uncle was driving) and was on her way to her maternal uncle’s home in Bulandshahr. That’s when some men sexually harassed her and gave chase to the bike, leading to the accident. However, Uttar Pradesh Police have converted the case in to just an accident. Police officials says that the young woman and her younger brother were not wearing helmets. Thus, Police concluded that it was just a vehicular accident. However, the victim’s family claimed that she had faced ‘eve-teasing’ by two men who were travelling in another vehicle. Family’s statement is completely contradictory with UP police.

Who is responsible for the death?

Sudiksha was a high profile, promising and a meritorious student. There is a distance of 35 to 40kms from her home in Gautham Buddh Nagar’s Dadri Tehsil to her maternal uncle’s home. If they were not wearing helmets, and it was her minor brother who was riding the motorcycle, why did the traffic police did not stop them on their way? On the other hand, if Sudiksha had experienced sexual harassment, why can’t Women’s Commission and the police in the state take sufficient action against those who harassed her? Sudiksha’s uncle had himself disclosed that harassment or ‘eve teasing’ as it is popularly referred to in India, preceded the road accident. Family also pointed out that Police and higher authorities have not cooperated with them, and didn’t even provide ambulance after her post-mortem exam to ferry the corpse.

Sudiksha had big dreams. She wanted to be a successful entrepreneur. How may of us can imagine the worth of the scholarship she has received? Can you predict the value of hard work she put in for getting the scholarship? Where did we fail? Can we normalise the death of Sudiksha as just a loss to her own family? What is the point when a nation can’t provide security to women? Sudiksha could have been an inspirational figure for lot of hardworking students coming from middle class and low-income families. But this unfortunate incident may haunt them. It is going to haunt badly every educated Indian for obvious reasons.

You will say UP is not a safe place for women to live in. Then let us look upon a brutal rape which has happened in the most literate state of India.

Can Kerala forget the injustice act it done to Walayar minor sisters?

It was on January 13, 2017, a minor girl in Palakkad district’s Walayar found hanging at her home. Later after 52 days, her 9-year-old younger sister also found hanging. The autopsy reports reveal that the girls had been sexually assaulted before their deaths. The accused persons are still roaming around.

Opposition parties and women’s movement made strong criticisms against police for biased investigation and the excessive political party interference in the subject. The alleged rapists were charged with POCSO act for rape and abetting suicide. Most shockingly the accused persons are going scot free now. The victims’ mother argued that they are going through immense pressure to withdraw the case. Now if you visit Kochi you can see a sit-in-protest by Walayar minor girls’ mother.

Several attempts are allegedly being made to sabotage the case. Protests on this rape case intensified recently. Why can’t Kerala police do an independent investigation without any political interference in the case? The systematic exclusion of marginalised from mainstream is clearly evident in the case. A mother is waiting to seek justice by using sit-in protest as a weapon to wake up the authority. Why does everything have political leaning in India? If Kerala can’t ensure justice to the minor girls there is no point in calling the state ‘Highly literate God’s own Country’. In a state where marginalized women are not safe enough to live with their standard of living, how would we consider the state as ‘Fully Literate’?

Palathayi girl betrayed by teacher?

The brutal incident, a 9-year-old minor survivor from Kerala’s Palathayi was allegedly raped by her teacher Padmarajan triggered the entire state. The accused Padmarajan is a local BJP leader. What is more disturbing is that now the investigation is happening against the minor girl in Kerala High Court. Investigating agency have said that the child has a tendency behaviour of telling lies!

In July the accused got bail. On the other side ‘Women India Movement’ claimed that Crime branch is with the rapist. Even though Rape is a non- bailable offence under Section 375 IPC, this alleged rapist is now playing the victim card. It is very unfortunate to grasp the fact ‘Accused turning as victim and Victim turning as accused’. If you feel amazed at a moment just remember that you are living in India where political party influence can use as a weapon to normalise rape. Applying corrupted politics over rape culture is like adding fuel to fire. Can you imagine the psychological trauma that minor girl is going through?

Other instances

In July, a 3-year-old girl was abducted, raped and found dead in UP’s Lakhimpur Kheri. The dead body was found in a sugarcane field. On August 14 and August 25 two more girls were found raped and dead in the same place. Reports says that by 20 days gap, three rape- murder case happened in the district. In one case the child was raped before being strangulated. Incident took place as a response of revenge between elders. In India, women and girls are being getting targeted as victims to solve their rivalry. India’s northern state Rajasthan has witnessed another brutal incident in April amid the prevalent chaos during lockdown. A 3-year-old found bleeding in Bharatpur district of state. The 20-year-old accused named Rohitansh Jatav is still roaming around outside even after the police has found him guilty.

In March another disgraceful incident took place when a 10-year-old minor girl was brutally raped and hurled to death from the terrace of a two storey building in Chennai. Recently a former minister, named Prajapathi in Uttar Pradesh got bail in a 2017 gang rape. He was in jail since 2017 and now got an interim two months bail from Allahabad court. A 40-year-old woman and her daughter filed a complaint against him for gang rape and making a bid to rape her teenage daughter.

Aranmula Covid Patient Rape case

At a time when Kerala has garnered praise for controlling Covid cases carefully, a Covid positive woman was allegedly raped by an ambulance driver named Noufal on the way to hospital. While dropping the lady to the hospital he threatened her, and apologised by telling not to share the incident with any others. Most importantly, every ambulance driver requires clearance certificate to enter in the job. Noufal had not even obtained clearance system certificate from GVK Emergency Management and Research Institute (EMRI) Pathanamthitta. The accused was carrying two women in the ambulance at that night. A middle-aged lady was dropped in Aranmula and the 19-year-old was taken to Pandalam by him and on the way, she was brutally raped.

The woman herself reported the rape attempt to a health staff when she reached morning in the hospital. She also had submitted crucial audio evidence against the accused which resulted to be a turning point in the case. Later the accused driver was arrested and removed from service. Opposition parties in Kerala demanded immediate action against the rapist. Another political game occurred when K Surendran, the leader of BJP Kerala opposes Government for not taking legal action against the rapists in Kerala and blamed Kerala to be a state where women are in dangerous condition. Ironically this same leader did not utter a single word and kept silence when Palathayi rape case was happened. The addition of political color to sexual harassment against women in India is a crucial thing to be checked. 

‘Beti Bachao Beti Padhao’ – A Savior Initiative or a Soulless Promise

In January 2015, Government of India launched a productive scheme called ‘Beti Bachao and Beti Padhao’. The campaign aimed for the welfare of girl child in India. Reports says that the campaign helped in eradication of female foeticide to an extent. It aims to address the issue of child sex ratio. As for the campaign ‘a selfie with daughter’ hashtag was on trending during 2015 following worldwide attention to the trend. Government is taking care of ‘Save Girl Child’ and ‘Educate Girl Child’ campaigns. Thus, such an initiative is much needed in a patriarchal society like India. But the problematic question is that, does the implementation of BBBP work well in India’s rural and urban settings? We cannot say the implementation is proper.

What is the point of taking a selfie and posting it in social media if we can’t ensure proper security to a girl child in India? What is the possibility of ‘Women friendly environment’ if education is not protecting a girl from sexual assaults? Campaigns like BBBP is necessary but if we give the same awareness to men about the increasing number of rape and harassment cases against women that would be healthier.

In case of Sudiksha, India has lost a talented young student. Girls in India need effective security measures from the side of authority rather than a selfie contest campaign. Programs like BBBP should initiate schemes to overcome mental trauma that a rape survivor faces. Girl child protection schemes need to put a check on the tactical mixing up of politics in harassment cases.

Few days back, a news has become sensational when Kangana Ranaut, a leading Bollywood star got Y category security. The question is that like her, will all the women get the same respect and security in India? If not, privilege is becoming a factor now to decide a woman’s need of security. We should take into consideration the living situation of other women and underprivileged over here.  The mainstream political parties need to understand that if a crime against a woman takes place that is not their apt time to make use of vote bank politics. India cannot prevent assaults and crimes against women when politicising the issue always. What is the point of politicising here? The proper implementation of women safety programs may help India in reducing the rising number of assaults against women.

*The writer is pursuing MA Mass communication and Journalism at Pondicherry University

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The post India Unsafe: The escalating heinous crimes against women appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Recently a report by Wall Street Journal exposed how Facebook is allegedly going easy on hate speech by leaders and supporters of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), India’s ruling party at the center. This prompted the Indian National Congress (INC) to write to Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg pointing out the social media giant’s alleged bias driven purportedly by business interests in the country. Later a FIR was filed against Anki Das, Facebook’s Policy Chief in India.

Hate speech, malicious, vicious, fallacious, incendiary, derogatory; these problematic terms are not new to Indians as we are good at finding absolute freedom in social media virtual spaces. When it comes to religious freedom, we find social media as a platform to eagerly share our thoughts which may or may not hurt others’ spiritual view point.

On August 11 amid a fresh Coronavirus spike a riot broke out in Karnataka’s IT hub of Bengaluru. Violence erupted following a derogatory post about Prophet Mohammed’s family on social media. The controversial Facebook post was made by P. Naveen, the nephew of Congress MLA of Pulakeshi Nagar, Akhanda Srinivas Murthy. This connection between the alleged offender and a political party helped add further fuel to the communal fire.

It can’t be undone as three people were killed and over 100 injured in the violence. Around 60 police personnel were also injured while trying to get the situation under control even as a mob pelted stones at a police station and the MLA’s residence.

Supporters of Naveen and his controversial post claim that the attack on Prophet Mohammed was in a response to a Muslim man named Adyar Basheer. His post that wrongfully depicted a Hindu goddess with Narendra Modi and later on Lord Krishna allegedly triggered emotions of Hindus who then went on to use social media as a counter attack weapon.

A day later, Alt News published an article that crosscheck the reality behind Basheer’s post and Naveen’s comment as response. Alt News claims that Basheer’s post was two years old, he made the post on June 16, 2018, and found out that Basheer got arrested at that time and later released.

From the circulating post in Basheer’s name, it is clear that the photo is cropped to hide the date and year of publishing the post in Facebook. So, it is an old Facebook post which was subsequently deleted.

Is Facebook allowing the spread of communal hate in India?

Hate posts on Facebook are not new. For example, the Facebook account of Naveen is full of Islamophobic content and even has hateful comments about other religions. Now we know that hate spreads when the content is shared by other users. So, the questions we need to ask are: why can’t Facebook remove all such content before it provokes communal hatred through sharing? Why can’t Facebook implement awareness programs on community standards? Can Facebook add measures to help users distinguish between free speech and hate speech?

Did Facebook fuel anti-Rohingya and anti-Muslim riots in Srilanka?

In February-March 2018 and later in May 2019, anti-Muslim violence broke out in Sri Lanka. Facebook was allegedly used to spread hate speech and even incite violence against Rohingya Muslims. Fake news and false claims were allegedly circulated through Facebook, including the rumour that Rohingyas planned to attack Buddhists. A malicious video titled “A Muslim restaurateur admitting of mixing sterilization pills in to the food of Sihala Buddhists” went viral and rioters used social media giant as a platform to mobilise more people to perpetuate violence. Though Facebook apologised for its role in anti- Muslim riots in Srilanka, it has still not been completely successful in taking down the virulent content that fueled the attacks.

Sacrosanct but bleak ‘Community Standards’

Facebook has its own community standards that protect public safety, human rights and technology. Facebook claims to offer a place for expression and thereby giving people a space to raise their voice. According to its Community Standards, Facebook considers the public interest value against the risk of harm. It specially mentions that expressions that threaten people are not permitted that if it will remove language that incites serious violence. If there is any physical harm or indirect threat to public safety, the social media giant claims it will remove the content and work with law enforcement. But management of the fine balance between free speech and hateful or inflammatory speech requires a greater understanding of India’s diversity, the religious sentiments of people of different faiths and the country’s questionable track record when it comes to communal violence.

Digital literacy and Facebook’s algorithm

Digital literacy is not just about a person’s ability in finding, composing and evaluating information in digital media platforms. Accuracy and trustworthiness are two main pillars of digital literacy. It is clear Facebook is being misused by vested interests for furthering nefarious communal and / or political agendas.

At the same time, Facebook’s algorithm sets the limit for users by drawing a ‘Lakshman Rekha’ in user’s privacy. The algorithm decides what posts users see. Does the algorithm then have the power to control and put a check on spreading hate? Why can’t the algorithm work to prevent the spread of misleading information and fake news? 

One cannot deny that Facebook wields a huge influence over society. Perhaps it’s time Facebook leveraged this power to bring harmony by helping cultivate an appreciation for diversity rather than empowering vested interests in spreading hate and violence.

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