Dalit, minority and poor women are subjected to discrepancies on the
basis of the religion, caste, poverty by the patriarchal and caste based
society. Women being subjected to violence, rape and inhuman behaviour
are a matter of shame for any society however progressive the society
might be. But in India such attitude towards the dalit, minority and
poor women is not only common and is at extreme.
Even today the age old myth of a women becoming Dyan (witch) is
followed and women are killed under this belief. The law is unable to
act in such cases and, even does not lodge reports, forget action. If
women raise a voice against such practice not only the women but her
entire family and her advocates have to bear the brunt and is ostracized
by the entire society/village.
Atrocity upon women and children continues without even thinking what
circumstances they face and what mental torture they have to bear or
what kind of security they need. The society instead of helping the
victim of such violence keeps mum and thereby extends a quiet support to
the offenders. Similarly the ones who work for victim women, the human
rights defenders are also attacked so that they may retract their
support. By all means the women are forced to step back if she is
resisting the violence and torture.
Women who manage to reach police station to lodge complaint and not
behaved with properly and they are made to sit for hours together with
the family before anyone listens to them. And later on the women is
pressurized to take back her complaint. There have been many cases of
custodial rape with women and girls child who went to lodge report and
for protection with police. Women are blamed for any act of violence
with them. The worst is those women victims are made to sit with her
offender inside police station, which is another way of psychological
torturing her. Presence of the offender beside gives shocks to mind and
thoughts of that act often give pain to the victim, which is difficult
to even understand.
The women and her family are made to feel down but the offender is not
even once made to realize what offence he has done. Investigation in
cases are started late hence the criminals get enough time to remove
evidences and thereby the case becomes weak. Even the women officers are
no less than their male counterparts and behave the same way with women
victims as the male officers do. The support to women victim depends
upon how much she can pay as bribe to the investigating officer.
Usually justice comes delayed as ‘justice delay is justice denied’ under
the present judicial system. The judiciary itself has less number of
women judges. But the court’s utmost delayed process in cases of
atrocity with women is point to be noted. When justice is delayed often
women victim are forced to make out of the court settlement on the
conditions proposed by the offender itself. Delay in judgement given the
entire benefit to the criminals. In many cases it has been seen that
the lawyer appointed to fight the case for victim join hands with
offender and delays the perusal of the case.
In the courtrooms the attitude of the lawyers towards cases of women
rights is traditional based on patriarchy and they are themselves
unaware about the rules that protect a woman from violence and make the
case complicated.
Not even the national and state women commissions are taking steps that
can help women positively. Women commission itself is governed with
patriarchal mind set. The selection of women commission office bearers
is totally political and only those women who are close to the ruling
party are appointed here, which in unscientific and irrational. These
appointed members lack even the basic of women rights which is reflected
in the decisions they take. Of the cases brought before the women
commission very less are taken up by the commission.
As far as social security and development is concerned dalit, tribal and
minority women have little access and are subjected to dual atrocity
thereby. Those bodies that are responsible for women’s’ health services
are engaged in money making from these women only and ignore their
needs. At times women have lost their lives due to such an attitude.
So, in India, an ideal woman is supposed to be silent that nourishes the
system of patriarchy; men in the society take decisions and women
silently follow them. Society asks its women to be silent and obedient,
following all its norms and keeping up the same values as before.[i]
The global development projects initially made women invisible; being
heavily male biased, women’s productive role, often not directly linked
to the market or the formal economy, was ignored. Instead, their role as
reproductive individuals was made ultra-visible. Programmes to control
population growth, seen as a primary cause of poverty, began to spring
up, with women as targets. The socio-economic status of women declined
following their exclusion from agricultural development schemes.
Development not only ignored women but also had extremely detrimental
effects on women’s economic position. Women’s productivity began to
exist only in relation to its market value and how it could better be
exploited.
Indian women have been endowed with several responsibilities concerned
with the household and family circle. Nonetheless, now with the drift in
development and political policies, the onus of decision-making is also
laid on women. To provide enhanced representation to rural women in a
political world, specific provisions were incorporated in the
Constitution of India through the 73rd Amendment Act in 1992. A
significant provision of this Act is the reservation of one-third seats
for women in all positions in the local self-governance. The 73rd
amendment[ii] was a landmark for women’s empowerment.
Through this amendment, participation of women from all caste was
encouraged at the village level. Education is an imperative factor for
the empowerment of human beings. But education is given little or no
importance in rural villages. The situation of women is even worse as
least interest is shown towards their education. After all, education
develops insight and helps the representative carry out the day to-day
activities and making political decisions. Lack of or low literacy level
hinders women’s active participation in panchayat (Local
self-governance) activities.
It also makes women more dependent on men for paper work. In fact, most
women sarpanchs (village heads) are not allowed to work freely. They are
either forced to sign on papers prepared by influential lobbies or
become part of their husbands’ politics.
They are victims of politics by influential persons or the ploys of
panchayat secretaries, corrupt administration system and the tactics of
powerful locals in the villages. They are removed from office through
forced no-confidence motions. They have been threatened and humiliated.
At the village level, officials, whether junior or senior, are often
found to be anti-women even though it has been proven that these women
sarpanchs can make a difference if they are allowed to perform.
Lack of preparation on the part of rural women for political affairs is
also a factor for their low enthusiasm. The rural population, especially
women, is less equipped with the information on the rural governance
system. Lack of awareness about the systems and procedures regarding
functioning of governance are main cause for subdued leadership in
panchayats. Information helps elected representatives understand their
roles and responsibilities with regard to Panchayati Raj (local
self-governance). Women elected representatives who are more active and
aware perform brilliantly in their political offices whereas women who
are less aware do not perform that well and end up becoming dummy
elected candidates.
Increasingly, however, states are seen as responsible for protecting the
rights of women even in connection with offences committed within home.
The challenge is to end impunity for the perpetrators as one means of
preventing future abuse.
(Material for this article was taken from my book 'Justice Liberty
and Equality: Dalits in Independent India' and an article in Competition
Master)
Dr Lenin Raghuvanshi
