Who Will Listen to Para’s Silent Screams?
I read about this shameful and horrifying rape in Tehelka’s recent issue and it filled me with rage and a deep sense of frustration…Rage at what happened and the indifference of police authorities and frustration that these kind of crimes are still being seen through the prism of caste.
Here is a shocking excerpt of what happened to Para Devi (from Tehelka):
“On June 23, Para, a Dalit daily wage labourer from Santoshpura, left home for work at 8am with her husband, Ranglal.
Feeling unwell during the day, she set out for the hospital; on the way, her neighbour Kalu Ram offered her a ride in his car. Two other men, Harsahai and Kajod, were in the same car and three others, Sohan Lal, Indraraj and Jagdish, were later picked up.
For the next three days, the six men drove Para from village to village, raping her in turn.
When she protested, they beat her; when she asked for water, they gave her country liquor mixed with Limca. She was made to urinate in the car and given no food.
On June 26, Para was dropped, wounded, torn, only half-conscious, at the Phagi bus stand with Rs 20 and a threat not to open her mouth or her family would be killed. When her husband tried to lodge an FIR, he was turned away…”
What happened to Para was not (just) a crime against a Dalit women – it was a crime against a helpless woman, it was a crime against humanity, it was a murder of values that we cherish…(sadly the story has been published under “Dalit Window” in Tehelka)
All the talk of women empowerment comes to naught in the face of such incidents…and no amount of condemnation will ever heal Para’s wounds…
What will help is a steely desire to bring the culprits to book – and make an example of them.
What I also find very disturbing is the “silence” of the mainstream media, the political parties and the NGOs on this issue.
But then why should anyone bother?
Para comes from a remote village in Rajasthan – which most of us would have never heard about…She is a poor, illiterate and unemployed.
To a glamour-obsessed media, she has zero value and offers no soundbites.
To the vote-obsessed political parties, she represents nothing – except the insignificant votes of 20 Bairwa families.
To the publicity-obsessed NGOs, she is not a good opportunity since the Women’s Commission seems to have got there first.
The Women’s Commission is probably the only one that comes out of this cesspool with some credit (in as much as it intervened to get the police to register an FIR).
But is it not ironic that in a state with a woman as Chief Minister, the women had to organise a “dharna” to be heard?
My head hangs in shame today.
UPDATE: I cross-posted this on DesiCritics on Sunday (14th Oct).
It has already attracted almost 80 comments there (and counting). Some are truly disgusting.
Image courtesy: The Hindu
I hope the courts hear the case fast and if found guilty, condemn the accused to the death penalty. There is no excuse for such atrocious acts and such people just do not have a place in society. One also has to commend the courage of the woman for speaking out about it and her family for supporting her through this tough time.
P.S.: I am surprised that this did not get any attention in the popular newspapers. I would have expected the liberal media to cover this story.
Dear All
I think the key issue here is not whether the press has covered this or not. The key issue is the failure of India’s law and order machinery. This incident was merely one more symptom of its failure.
A country should not need the press to raise each major crime in the media in order for the crime to be investigated. India needs good governance. I’d suggest those who are genuinely concerned for India think about doing something about this themselves by coming together to offer a political alternative and offer credible solutions to reform the governance machinery. Things that will really work; not cosmetic transfers and postings of officers.
The point being that there is only limited value in looking at each specific incident of corruption, rape, or murder in India. A bigger picture and systematic analysis should lead at least some concerned citizens to stop talking on blogs and to start doing something. (Not that there is no value in talking about these issues on blogs or in the media. I commend Tehalka and Shantanu for raising this very unfortunate issue).
Who wants to do something about it?
Regards
Sanjeev
If we describe the incident involving Para as “shameful and horrifying,” what words can correctly express the behaviour of the mother and stepfather in the case given below. The fact that this happened in Kerala which prides itself as the most literate State in the country is proof enough to show that literacy has nothing to do with civilized behaviour.
NDTV.com: Child left to rot in chains in Kerala
“In what can be described as the height of cruelty, a three year old was rescued on Friday after being found chained at a house in Kerala’s Idukki district.
The torture had been going on for many months with the boy being chained for 10 to 12 hours a day. A relative spotted the boy and subsequently alerted locals.
The child who has injury marks all over his body is now at a rescue centre.
”It was really shocking news to me personally and to this institution. We say often that we have achieved 100 per cent literacy. Situation like this is happening even in Kerala. I am worried. What is the condition in other states? I’m pained,” said Krishnan, General Secretary, Kerala State Council for Child Welfare.”
Does our legal system have any tools to sufficiently punish these fiends? Is there a way to make these so called mother and stepfather aware of the gravity of the crime they perpetrated against a budding child? Are the people of ‘God’s own country’ turning themselves into devils?
The following is the link to the above news item:
http://www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/story.aspx?id=NEWEN20070030067&ch=10/20/2007%208:55:00%20PM
Why call it a crime against a ‘Dalit’ woman? It was against a woman – just a woman – and is being perpetrated every now and then these days and against those of other communities as well. In this particular case it so happened that, it was she, who per chance, took the lift and got into their trap. To be a ‘Dalit’ is no prerequisite for it.
The real cause behind these cases is the atmosphere of sex craziness, drinks, woman’s lib, lasciviousness and libido that is being created and propagated as a sign of modernity and socio-cultural advancement. This has led to – and ushered in – an atmosphere of sensual enjoyments. They have become now the main, if not the only, source of recreation, entertainment and favourite pursuit of the moderns – their hobby.
Get westernised, become modernised, and the respect for women shall be gone. Then they would become articles of sheer use for you and instruments of recreation and enjoyment for the unscrupulous.
School and college have become its hotbeds, and now the commoners are picking up the infection from them and the movies. Much more is going to happen in the near future and is in the pipe line. These are only the trailers!
Indeed, whatever may happen, after all, haven’t we got to become advanced, modern and westernised? And for that, all the old and out of tune concepts of our morality, love, respect, a feeling of rendering help to them, shown regard and veneration and that they have to be protected, have to be cast off like an old, torn and worn-out rag.
Dr. Ranjeet Singh.
“Get westernised, become modernised, and the respect for women shall be gone.”
Riiiiight, Dr Singh, I’m sure modernization and westernizaation is to blame for a bunch of village goons abducting and raping a village woman who had left the company of her husband. Surely such a thing could never have happened in the tranquil idyllic gaon until westernization showed up. These goons must be incredibly westernized; I’ll bet they watch Friends and read Harry Potter too.
What a lot of bollocks! Any “respect” for women in these patriarchal traditional societies is almost purely conditional – conditional that she always be under male protection and control at all times.