If you have been following the news from Asia in the past
few days, you may have heard of the
latest act of violence against women that has horrified India: 2 teen age girls abducted, raped and then hanged in a village called Katra Sahdatganj of Badaun - a district about 220 km north-east of New Delhi. The girls were cousins and had gone out
to relieve themselves in the bush because their home didn’t have a toilet, when
they went missing.
The heart-wrenching story told by one of the girl’s father
reveals that the girls were abducted in 27th May (Tuesday) evening. The father
went to the police that night, pleaded with them to find his girls, but the
policemen on duty refused to either listen or act. In fact, one of them mocked
the man who is from a 'lower caste' and said ‘go and check, you may find your
girls hanging from a tree’. Next day, just as the policeman had said it, the
father – and the rest of the village – indeed saw the girls’ bodies hanging in
an orchard.
Since the news came in the light, protests and condemnations
have poured in from all quarters. A
number of political leaders have visited the girls’ family and expressed their
sympathy. The media has been camping in the village and has been reporting many
more cases of rape and abduction of women that have taken place in that area.
The latest words of condemnation have come from the United Nations which hassaid, ‘Violence against women is a human rights issue, not a women's issue’.
Now, besides the obvious lack of security for women and good
governance, the horrible rape and murder also point out another of India’s
ugliest truths: women are increasingly falling prey to sexual predators due to
lack of sanitation facilities.
