Time to hang our heads in shame. Once again.
Yesterday, two minor Dalit sisters were raped and killed. Their bodies were found hanging from a khair tree in a sugarcane field in their village in Lakhimpur Kheri, Uttar Pradesh. A heinous crime that is distressingly frequent in rural India. Meanwhile, the conviction rate under POSCO Act is only about 40 per cent. And, a significant chunk of the Nirbhaya funds remain unutilised by the state governments.
Nidhi Jamwal 15 Sep 2022 1:43 PM GMT
The word Nirbhaya (fearless) has been reduced to just a clever brand name for candle marches. In picture, the dead bodies of the Dalit girls who were raped and murdered in Lakhimpur Kheri. Photo by Dharmendra Rajpoot
Two young girls, sisters, were outside their home preparing fodder for the cattle, with their mother looking on when some men on motorbikes zoom in, lift the two girls up and speed off. The mother screams, tries to stop them and runs behind the bikes, but of course, she can't catch them.
The little girls are found hanging from a khair tree in a sugarcane field on the outskirts of the village. They have been raped and killed. Police arrest six accused.
This is no Bollywood thriller, but a real life rape and murder of Dalit (schedule caste) girls, that happened yesterday, September 14, at Lakhimpur Kheri's Tamoli Purwa village in Uttar Pradesh. (Police claim the girls willingly went with the young men)
What happened in Tamoli Purwa village isn't a one off rape-and-murder case of Dalit women in the country. It is a sickeningly familiar occurrence, and a very real fear for millions of girls and women in rural India.
Fields of fear
More than two-thirds of agricultural labourers are women, and almost 78 per cent of them have reportedly faced sexual assault. There are umpteen cases where women have been raped and killed when they stepped outdoors to bring fodder, weed fields, harvest the crops, or even defecate.
The word Nirbhaya (fearless) has been reduced to just a clever brand name for candle marches, or fund titles set up by the government to address women safety issues.
Also Read: Fields of fear: How safe are women farmers and agricultural labourers from gender violence?
Raping and murdering Dalit women, and then hanging their bodies from a tree is becoming both a power and caste statement against the already marginalised and oppressed Dalit and tribal women.
Earlier this month on September 2, a 14-year-old tribal girl was sexually attacked, killed and hung from a tree in Dumka, Jharkhand.
In January 2021, an 18-year-old Dalit girl was allegedly raped and killed and her body was found hanging from a tree in Mahoba district of Uttar Pradesh. The class 12th student had stepped out to buy vegetables for the family.
The following month, in February 2021, three teenage Dalit girls, all cousins, in Baburaha village of Unnao district (Uttar Pradesh) left their home to bring fodder for the cattle. Hours later the girls were found unconscious in a mustard field.
In September 2020, a 19-year-old Dalit woman was gang-raped in Hathras, Uttar Pradesh. She died and was cremated in the dead of the night.
The same year, in January 2020, a Dalit woman's body was found hanging from a tree in Aravalli district in Gujarat. Three persons were arrested on rape and murder charges.
More than two-thirds of agricultural labourers are women, and almost 78 per cent of them have reportedly faced sexual assault.
And, remember the 2014 Badaun case where two teenage girls of the Dalit Maurya community were found hanging from a mango tree in Uttar Pradesh's Katra village. Bollywood movie Article 15 (Ayushmann Khurrana starrer) is loosely based on Badaun gang-rape and murder case.
These are but a handful of heinous crimes against Dalit women that show up on a quick Google search.
Rising crime against women
The official data of the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) under the Ministry of Home Affairs presents a slightly clearer picture, though this data is also just a tip of the iceberg. A large chunk of cases of atrocities against girls and women remain unreported.
According to NCRB's Crime in India 2021 report, 428,278 cases of crimes against women were registered during 2021, showing an increase of 15.3 per cent over 2020.
The NCRB report's latest data shows that India registered 31,677 cases of rape in 2021 – an average 86 daily – while nearly 49 cases of crimes against women were lodged every single hour.
The rate of crime (per lakh population) for rape was highest in Rajasthan (16.4) followed by Chandigarh (13.3), Delhi (12.9), Haryana (12.3) and Arunachal Pradesh (11.1). The all-India average rate stood at 4.8.
In 2021, the maximum cases of crimes against women were lodged in Uttar Pradesh (56,083) followed by Rajasthan (40,738), Maharashtra (39,526), West Bengal (35,884) and Odisha 31,352, the NCRB data showed.
Stringent punishment is based on the gravity of the offence with a maximum term of rigorous imprisonment for life and a fine has been prescribed in the act.
As far as crime against Scheduled Castes is concerned, a total of 50,900 cases were registered in 2021, showing an increase of 1.2 per cent over 2020 (50,291 cases). Crime rate registered showed an increase from 25.0 in 2020 to 25.3 in 2021.
Dalit women, doubly cursed
And if it is a woman from the Dalit community, then the chances of facing oppression and exploitation multiply manifold.
After the Hathras gangrape of the 19-year-old Dalit woman, a study was carried out to examine the links between sexual violence and castes in India. It used the National Family Health Survey 4 (NFHS-4, 2015–16) data and concluded that "there were links between sexual violence and castes. For secured and dignified life of women, caste-based sexual violence must be annihilated." This study was published in October 2021.
Another study, titled 'A research on sexual assault', conducted by NGO Swanchetan that works with victims of sexual assault, found that Dalit women who have suffered caste rapes were subjected to more humiliation than other women similarly assaulted.
Also Read: Unnao Case: What the fields hide: The crushed dreams of Dalit girls
Rape has its roots in systemic oppression and violence meted out to Dalit women. "Brutal sexual violence is used to dishonour, delegitimise and keep the Dalit community in place. Dalit women are at the bottom of the pile and their bodies are just used as battle grounds," Priyanka Samy, social activist and member of the National Federation of Dalit Women, a non-profit that is dedicated to promoting the rights of Dalit women, had told Gaon Connection while we were reporting on the Hathras case.
Where does the POSCO implementation stand?
In 2012, to deal with child sexual abuse cases, the Government of India passed a special gender-neutral law- the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012 which came into force with effect from November 14, 2012 along with the rules framed under the act.
The Act is a comprehensive law which provides for the protection of all children aged below 18 years irrespective of gender, from the offences of sexual assault, sexual harassment, and pornography. It aims to safeguard the interests of the child at every stage of the judicial process by incorporating child-friendly mechanisms for reporting, recording of evidence, investigation, and speedy trial of offences through designated Special Courts.
Stringent punishment is based on the gravity of the offence with a maximum term of rigorous imprisonment for life and a fine has been prescribed in the act.
In July this year, the government informed the Lok Sabha that as many as 47,221 cases were registered in the year 2020 under the POCSO with a conviction rate of 39.6 per cent.
Union minister for women and child development Smriti Irani provided state-wise data collated by the NCRB. In 2020, Uttar Pradesh topped the list with 6,898 registered cases, followed by Maharashtra (5,687) and Madhya Pradesh (5,648).
According to the data shared by the minister, Uttar Pradesh had a conviction rate of 70.7 per cent whereas the figures for Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh stood at 30.9 per cent and 37.2 per cent, respectively. On the other hand, Manipur was the only state/Union territory with a conviction rate of 100 per cent for three consecutive years.
Minister Irani also said that by the end of 2020, there were 170,000 cases pending trial, which was 57.4 per cent more than those in 2018 (108,129).
The Union minister said, "The department of justice is implementing a scheme for setting up of 1,023 fast track special courts (FTSCs) including 389 exclusive POCSO courts for expeditious trial and disposal of cases related to rape and the Pocso Act in furtherance to the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2018." In 2022, 892 FTSCs were active, whereas in 2021, 898 were functional.
Nirbhaya scheme fund not fully utilised
As per a July 2021 press statement by the Ministry of Child and Women Development, out of an allocation Rs 6212.85 crore till date, under the Nirbhaya Fund, a sum of Rs 4087.37 crore has been disbursed/ released by the concerned ministries/ departments and a sum of Rs 2871.42 crore has been reported to be utilised.
In Uttar Pradesh, where two minor Dalit girls were raped and killed yesterday in Lakhimpur Kheri, Rs 474.62 crore were released under the Nirbhaya funded projects. Of this, the state has utilised Rs 295.11 crore. This comes to 62 per cent utilisation, whereas almost 38 per cent funds lie unutilised.
Crimes against girls and women in India are rising, conviction rate under POCSO is about 40 per cent, and Nirbhaya funds meant for the safety of the women remain unutilised… It is clearly a cause for grave concern. And shame.
Views are personal.
