aisa

Resist Sexual Violence, Dalit Atrocities, and Patriarchal Khaps in Haryana

11.10.12

Haryana has witnessed a spate of rapes and gang-rapes, many of them targeting women from Dalit and backward communities. There have been 15 such instances in the past one month. What has been the response of Haryanas rulers and other influential forces? Phool Chand Mulana, Chief of Haryanas ruling party, the Congress: declared that the rapes are a conspiracy against the Government. Haryana DGP R S Dalal: said parents need to keep an eye on the activities of their children. Khap panchayat leaders said: Girls should be married before they attain puberty, so that they have their husbands for their sexual needs, and they dont need to go elsewhere. This way rapes will not occur. Om Prakash Chautala, former Haryana CM, echoed the khap sentiment, saying that child marriage could prevent rape. Sonia Gandhi visited Saccha Khera in Jind, where a Dalit gang-rape victim committed suicide. But it is significant that in this particular case, the accused are also from the same Valmiki community. Sonia Gandhi stayed carefully away from Hisar, where a Dalit schoolgirl was gang-raped by those from the dominant caste who also circulated an MMS of the rape. The rape survivors father committed suicide. Sonia Gandhis clean chit to the Haryana Government, however, is shameful. The rapes in Haryana need to be seen in a context where dominant caste and patriarchal forces feel a sense of impunity, thanks to the Haryana Governments refusal to take any action in a series of instances of honour crimes by khap panchayats and atrocities against dalits. Police have colluded in several killings of same-gotra or inter-caste couples. In Bhagana in Hisar district, 70 dalit families have been battling a social boycott for months now, after they protested against the attempts by the dominant community to grab the village common land allotted to Dalits. The police has taken no action against the perpetrators of such land grab and atrocities. The same story has been seen earlier in the assaults on Dalits in Mirchhpur and Gohana. Openly casteist and patriarchal forces like the Khap Panchayats get a huge morale booster when political leaders from the ruling Congress (such as the CMs son Deepinder Hooda and businessman-MP Naveen Jindal) as well as opposition leaders like Chautala speak out in support of their reactionary diktats and views on womens rights. What is most worrying that the rapes will be used as a pretext to further curb the rights of women in Haryana. Girls will be kept away from school and movements of women will be further policed all in the name of their safety. After all, that is what the DGP means when he tells parents to keep an eye on their children. As we have already seen, the khap panchayats are trying to use the rapes as a pretext to push for lowering of the age of marriage and allowing child marriage! Their proposal is preposterous. Rape, as the womens movement has always asserted, is a display of patriarchal power and aggression; in many cases it is used as a weapon to display the power and dominance by the dominant castes and by the police/army. The statements of the khap leaders suggest that they blame womens own sexual desires for rape! Such grotesque patriarchal pronouncements must be strongly condemned and resisted. To curb rape, the Haryana Government must first ensure that its police stands by the complainants. One police officer has told the Hindustan Times, Many times, the girl agrees to go with her male friend, but others join in, suggesting that such cases are not genuine! The police needs to be told that rape is rape, irrespective of whether the rapist was a friend of the victim or not. The police must act against perpetrators of rapes and atrocities against dalits. And the police must act to protect selfchoice couples from honour crimes and khap panchayat diktats. A team of AISA and AIPWA activists will visit some of the places in Haryana where rapes have been reported, as part of a fact-finding initiative, on 12-13 October.
Akbar, President, AISA, JNU Sandeep Saurav, Gen. Secy, AISA,JNU