Rape

Rape

Prathiba Murthy, a BPO employee in Bangalore was raped and murdered by a taxi driver.

The principal of a government school in north Delhi raped a Class 10 student of the school. The principal, who was also the girl's private tutor, took the girl to three cronies of his.

The four eminently respectable men - a school principal, a vice-principal and two businessmen - gang raped the 16-year old girl during the night. The next morning they sent her back to her parents.

Banwari Devi, a dalit and working as saathin in government programme of Rajasthan was gang raped by a dominant caste in front of her husband. She was preventing child marriages amongst Gujjars. The perpetrators thought she must be “taught a lesson….”

For every twenty six minutes a rape is committed in India and out of which 30% are against minors.

Rape/sexual assault is one of the ugliest and most brutal expression of masculine violence against women. Rape is a violent crime, an Invasion and a frightening experience. Rape affects all women, no matter what their age, caste or economic status.

Rape is not sex but violence on women/girls

Rape/Sexual abuse makes women feel humiliated and degraded

The rape or the threat of rape always makes women feel unsafe and forced to remain alert all the time

All women are potential victims of sexual assault. By being aware, a woman can reduce the likelihood of becoming a rape victim

This does not mean all rapes can be prevented. If at all a rape is committed, the victim and people around her should address the trauma by remembering that

Psycho-social trauma of a rape victim :

The victim faces degradation and social unacceptability. “It is a deathless shame or living with death”

It does not only victimise her, but it also leaves a lifelong stigma on the character and dignity of a woman, causing her and her relatives, pain and agony.

In the case of an unmarried woman, the stigma acts as a hurdle for a married life and she is looked as an outcaste. For no fault of hers she has to endure all the pain, shame and misery.

The married woman loses the love of her husband and her restoration in the family is jeopardized. The family members never show a positive approach to her. Even children lose the trust and security they reposed in her.

For fear of blame, rape victims often remain reticent and withdrawn. Many a time, they attempt to commit suicide out of grief and self-contempt.