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Mob molestations bring outrage in India
Will women's rights advance in the world's largest democracy?
Despite India's booming economy, women have not seen their fortunes rise with the rest of the country's population. A recent report from world gender experts listed India as the most difficult to live in out of the world's 20 wealthiest nations. The United Nations has also called discrimination against women "systemic", from the family and the workplace to the state itself.
A recent viral video of a mob molestation brought gender inequity to the forefront. The outrage caused by the incident was not directed entirely at the attackers; one government official suggested that women should be careful about their dress for fear of sexual violence.
In this episode of The Stream, we speak to Sonia Faleiro (@soniafaleiro), author of "Beautiful Thing: Inside the Secret World of Bombay's Dance Bars", and Flavia Agnes, a lawyer at the Majlis Legal Centre.
A recent poll looking at G20 nations suggests India is the hardest country for women. Surveying 370 gender specialists in 63 countries, the poll examined seven criteria: workplace opportunities, access to resources, participation in politics, quality of health, freedom from violence, freedom from trafficking and slavery, and an overall category.
The poll cites the prevalence of female foeticide, domestic abuse, sexual assault, dowries, and child marriages as the impediments to progress that earned India its low ranking. This chart from the 2012 World Development Report on Gender Equality and Development compares the number of missing women in 1990 and 2008. Although India has improved in this category, it still ranks second.
According to India's National Crime Records Bureau, crimes against women have increased in recent years, "both in absolute numbers and as a percentage of all crimes". Some officials dispute the accuracy of these statistics, while others suggest the rise in reported crimes is a result of more sophisticated information gathering mechanisms. Of the actual cases reported, however, prosecution rates remain low.
Two recent sexual assaults, both captured by local television crews and heavily publicised across the country, have provoked greater scrutiny on the best way to promote women's safety in India.The video below is a newscast of an assault that took place in the city of Guwahati, Assam, that shows a large group of men molesting a young woman outside a pub.
Following the broadcast of the footage on Guwahati's local News Live 5, the station's editor-in-chief, Atanu Bhuyan, posted the tweets below. Bhuyan resigned shortly after publishing the controversial tweets, but remained steadfast in his support of the reporters at the scene of the crime, saying, "It is because of News Live that the police could arrest the accused".
In response to the molestation, Tarun Gogoi, the Chief Minister of Assam, and Alka Lamba, a representative from the National Commission for Women (NCW), India's official government body promoting the interests of women, both revealed the victim's identity to the press. Lamba was subsequently relieved of her responsibility on the NCW's fact-finding mission.
Mamtha Sharma, chairwoman of the NCW, spurred additional controversy after warning, "be careful about how you dress ... Aping the West blindly is eroding our culture and causing such crimes to happen". The comment elicited many responses on social media. The Chief Minister and NCW have each submitted suggestions on policies to prevent similar crimes in the future.
The footage below chronicles a similar incident that in Mangalore, Karnataka, where a group of men, allegedly linked to the conservative Hindu Jagaran Vedike (HJV) group, attacked 13 students at a birthday party.
While conducting an investigation of the Mangalore attack, C. Manjula, a Karnataka State Women's Commission chairperson, drew attention to the motivations of the boys hosting the birthday party, rather than the violence of attackers.
Instances of so-called moral policing like in Mangalore are prompting discussions on the root causes of the recent surge in violence against women. Netizens discussed this issue using the hashtags #VAW and #moralpolicing, while also tweeting pictures of the perpetrators.
Innovative initiatives are using technology to fight against the rising trend of violence against women. Maps 4 Aid is a crowdsourcing project that aggregates information on crimes against women and children via an interactive map.
Throughout the country, Indians have taken to the streets to protest violence against women. Photographed below is a protest in Bangalore raising awareness on the plight of women and transgendered communities.
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