Of saints and sinners, 9-year-old’s act of courage, ‘verbal rape’ in Delhi pub
The 24 September edition of Note This — our weekly round-up of media reports and opinions on sexual assault
The subject of ‘sainthood’ has grabbed plenty of column space last week in the context of the case against Swami Chinmayanand, an Uttar Pradesh BJP leader who has been accused of rape by a young woman. Congress leader Digvijaya Singh has made controversial remarks about “saffron-clad rapists”, and the Akhil Bharatiya Akhara Parishad (ABAP), a top Hindu religious body, has said Chinmayanand will be “stripped of his sainthood”. However, as far as the criminal charges against him go, Chinmayanand has not been booked for rape so far.
Editor’s pick
‘News reports normalise sexual violence in rural India’, writes NewsTracker’s Shreya Gautam. Based on her analysis of the coverage of rape in Hindi daily in Jharkhand, she outlines how she believed “newspapers are losing an opportunity to effect change”.
Across India: news since last Tuesday
The twists and turns of the Swami Chinmayanand case are being closely followed by the national media. The BJP leader was arrested last Friday and has reportedly admitted to being “ashamed” of his actions (the term “naked massage” has found mention in numerous headlines) but has denied raping his accuser, a 23-year-old law student.
The woman and several news reports have described the charges against Chinmayanand as “diluted”. According to a Quint report, Chinmayanand has been booked under the “wrong” section of the Indian Penal Code, effectively “weakening” the case against him. Meanwhile, the complainant in the case, has been detained for questioning today by the Uttar Pradesh police in connection with extortion charges against her. A detailed story in the Print outlines why she is considered a “suspect” herself.
The Chinmayanand and Unnao cases have drawn renewed attention to the law and order situation in Uttar Pradesh, particularly the state’s poor record of crimes against women. While Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has said that women’s safety is a “priority” for his government, sections of the media have questioned his claims. An NDTV report notes, “ Yogi Adityanath’s comments appear inconsistent with the progress of rape cases in the headlines recently”.
‘Exemplary courage’
A nine-year-old girl in Mumbai has been praised by a court for her “exemplary courage” after she went against her mother’s wishes and testified against the man who sexually assaulted her. The accused, the partner of the survivor’s mother, has been sentenced to 10 years in prison by a POCSO ( Protection of Children from Sexual Offences) court.
Rape culture
In Azamgarh, Uttar Pradesh, a school principal is under investigation for allegedly barring a girl from attending classes after she was gang-raped on her way to school. Two suspects have been arrested.
In Bareilly, UP, a 19-year-old woman who had recently filed a rape complaint allegedly killed herself because she was distraught about being “taunted” by neighbours and by the police’s lack of action.
In New Delhi, a viral social media post has led to mainstream news coverage of an incident of sexual harassment at an upmarket bar. Three women have said that they were targeted by a group of men who subjected them to ‘verbal rape’ and obscene gestures. An FIR for molestation has been registered.
The greater picture
According to an in-depth report in the Scroll, women comprise only 7 percent of India’s police force, and this “hurts investigation into gender violence”. The story quotes a UN report that says, “[T]he presence of women police officers correlates positively with reporting of sexual assault”. It is believed that only 1 percent of sexual assaults are reported to the police in India.
A Hindustan Times editorial, ‘The battle against rape, the battle for dignity’ underscores how “sexual assault in India continues to be either swept under the carpet or under-reported”.
Read more
This roundup is curated from the RSS feeds of more than 30 English news publications from across India.
See the full list of rape and sexual violence cases reported this week and earlier on our web tool, NewsTracker Data. Use our search function or select one of our boards (such as #MeToo, #KeralaPriest, or #PoliticsofRape) to read reports on specific cases and/or themes.
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