Blog #10: A Village Rape Shatters a Family, and India's Traditional Silence, Desiree Lambert, 11/02/12, 3:31PM

A Village Rape Shatters a Family, and India’s Traditional Silence

In Dabra, India men one after another raped a 16 year old girl after dragging her into a darkened stone shelter at the edge of the fields. They reeked of pesticide and cheap whisky. The assault took place for nearly three hours. The men then threatened to kill her if she told anyone and the girl did nothing. The men were of a higher class which made it difficult to speak out because they dominated land and power in the village. However, as a trophy the men had video-taped the assault and the video circulated until it got to the hands of the girl’s father. On September 18^th, the father was so distraught that he committed suicide by drinking pesticide. This is when Dalits demanded justice in the rape case. Since the family had lost the father and their honor they don’t feel like they have anything else to loose and therefore they have decided to fight for justice. In India, raped women are seen as unfit for marriage and are often treated with callous disregard. With India’s changing gender dynamic, rape cases have increased by 25% due to women no longer keeping silent. According to demographic trends, India has a glut of young males, some unemployed, abusing alcohol or drugs and unnerved by the new visibility of women in society. This is seen as not only a threat but a challenge.

The initial response to the rape went from denial to denouncing the media to blaming the victim. One girl who was raped committed suicide by setting herself on fire. One columnist recently wrote in The Hindu that, “if you are a poor woman who is raped, you cannot even imagine life where there will be justice”. If you are a poor woman and a Dalit then your chances are even slimmer. One Khap member blamed the rapes on fast food and stated that it caused a hormonal imbalance and sexual urges in young women. Another Khap member suggested that they should lower the legal marriage age to solve the rape issue. They are diverting the attention from the crime and the criminals and root causes to working the blame-the-victim theory according to Jagmati Sangwan, president of the Haryana chapter of the All-India Democratic Women’s Association. Protests have been staged across the state due to anger bubbling up.

According to New York Times, the gang-rape of this particular 16-year-old girl occurred on Sept. 9 but remained a secret in the village until her father’s suicide. Dalits formed a committee to demand justice, and roughly 400 people demonstrated outside the district police headquarters, as well as at the hospital where the father’s body was being kept. Since this act, the police have arrested eight men, seven being Jats, who all confessed to the attack. However there are still discrepancies. The men are stating that they attacked her after catching her having a tryst with a married man. Because of this, the girl is being protected as much as she will allow. Because of society, she feels as though she will not be able to accomplish her father’s dreams of her becoming a doctor.

            This is a prime example of the violence that is happening globally as well as inequality of women. Even in America, women face the same issues but to a different extreme as the women in India. This affects families because it brings dishonor to the family and therefore people like her father commit suicide or the victim herself commits suicide. It also affects families in that after being raped the women are no longer able to really get married and have a family. Although circumstances are different in India then some of the world, violence is violence and it is affecting families all over. Bullying is becoming more of a global issue daily. Kids are being taunted for things not only at school but on social media and are taking their own lives over it because they feel as though they cannot escape from it. This is a prime example of what we discussed in class pertaining violence and how it is changing our society. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/28/world/asia/a-village-rape-shatters-a-family-and-indias-traditional-silence.html?pagewanted=all