Growing incidents of violence against women

Two disturbing news items appeared in the media last week. Both news items were about the violent treatment that women often face in India and Pakistan. The first horrific incident happened in Pakistan. A 25 year old lady Farzana Parveen was killed outside the Lahore High Court by her father and other relatives for marrying a person of her own choice. The lady was attacked with bricks and stones and was mercilessly killed, as police and some other people looked on, watching this gruesome incident. The lady’s parents had accused her husband of kidnapping their daughter, but the lady had testified before the police that she had married of her own accord, without any force. As she arrived at the court building for a hearing, police said about a dozen family members pulled her aside and began to attack her and her husband, who managed to escape.

On the very next day, another news item appeared, this time from India. In the State of Uttar Pradesh, two young Dalit sisters were found hanging from a tree, after being raped. This terrible incident happened at Bhagana in Badaun District of Uttar Pradesh. The rape and murder of these young Dalit girls was carried out by a few men belonging to the dominant Yadav caste. Incidentally the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, Akhilesh also belongs to the Yadav caste.It is already being alleged that the perpetrators enjoy political patronage.

Both these horrific incidents, from Pakistan and India, bring to the fore, the violence that women face in their day today life in these countries. In both the cases, one can make out that the criminals acted with completely impunity, not showing any respect or fear to the rule of law. In case of Pakistan, the fact that the incident happened in broad day light, outside the Lahore High court and not in some non descript village in the interiors of Pakistan, clearly shows that such criminals don’t care about the rule of law and are not deterred by te law enforcement agencies. It also shows how ineffective the law enforcement agencies like police and the judiciary have been in protecting the victims and delivering justice in quick time. By the sheer indifference that Pakistani civil society has largely shown to this horrible incident also clearly underlines the fact that at some level such criminal behaviour gets social approval. Most people don’t find such killings abominable since it is believed that such killings are carried out for the sake of upholding family ‘honor’.

The rape and killing of the two Dalit girls in a UP village, which was carried out with impunity, also shows how such criminals think that they can get away with any crime committed against Dalits, who have been at the receiving end of a highly inhuman caste system prevalent in India since centuries. In most crimes, the criminals often try to hide whatever details of the crime they can, but in this case, they hanged the two sisters from a tree, for public display. That criminals can act so brazenly is a testimony to the fact that political patronage and being a member of a higher caste gives many people a sense of entitlement that they don’t show even scant respect for a woman’s dignity and her life. 

Both these unfortunate incidents in Lahore and UP should bring the authorities out of their slumber and force them to take women’s safety on priority basis. The criminals in both cases should be apprehended fast and given appropriate punishments in quick time. Also members of the civil society in both the countries need to make active and conscious efforts to change the social perception in which women are treated as lowly commodity in these countries. It is a long drawn process, but one which can’t be bypassed if situation of women has improve in these countries. 

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