Rise against sexual violence - HUMAN CHAIN AND VIGIL TODAY 10th May, 5PM @Marina Beach Road

[shreela manohar]

Sorry for cross posting!

HUMAN CHAIN AND VIGIL (TODAY 10th May, 5PM @Marina Beach Road Labour Statue)

‪#‎JusticeforJisha‬

‪#‎JusticeforDeltaMeghwal‬

‪#‎smashCaste_patriarchy‬ ‪#‎allOppressedGendersfight‬

The brutal rape and murder of the Dalit law student Jisha in Kerala cannot be just an isolated bestial aberration. An unraveling of society which has been accultured to deify nature and the nation in unknowable and unconquerable feminine forms, will show us how real women are denied personhood in everyday social life.

While dominant consumerist culture degrades womanhood and commodifies them in its patriarchal clutch, the emancipatory quests of women through advanced education and upward social mobility are also nipped against the anvil of tradition. The patriarchal chauvinistic society tirelessly controls and surveils women, restricting movement, imposing moralising dress codes and even stipulating mental potential. Women are still taunted as consummate trophies of caste pride and family honour, where every inter-caste marriage could either leave her a victim of caste-fanatical killings or make a living "example" out of her. The xenophobic hysteria accompanying such horrors in Delhi or now in Kerala, which tends to defend "our men" at home and in our own communities at the grave expense of "those other men", does not help address the actual problem of eradicating gender injustice. The urgent-sounding but well scripted calls for "death to the rapists" or castration for sexual offenders have hardly been the quickfix that they pose to be.

A free world for women is in a society which treats women equally and respects their dignity and autonomy. However, the very instruments which ought to safeguard the rights of women, including our judiciary, law enforcement, and legislature, regularly devolve to khap panchayat mode. The normative enthusiasm in investigating evidently false complaints filed by parents against couples in love, is curiously absent in matters of genuinely protecting basic human rights guaranteed to women. The primary and definitive measure to rid society of these awful crimes would hence be to uproot harmful structures and perceptions that disenfranchise women, rather than merely satiating the deep dark belly of a criminal justice system hungry for human personality.

The Justice Verma Committee has prescribed that sexual assault in any relationship of consent is punishable as a crime. This established principle stands grossly violated when the Union Women And Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi herself repeats that marital rape is associated with poverty and does not even apply to the Indian context, adding that such a legal recognition only dents the well kept secret that is the great Indian domestic system. Demonstrably, as long as uninformed notions that blame women’s clothing for "inviting" men to violate bodies prevail, and as long as gendered prohibitions over temple entry based on "menstrual impurity", remain adamant stains, frenzied slogans of “Bharat Mata ki jai” intended only for the 'good woman's' ears are worse than menacing.

From the discriminated women in educational institutions, to tribal, Dalit and minority women of Chattisgarh, Kashmir and the North-east, all who have been spared their lives, bodies and personhood are effectively rendered internal refugees fleeing the police State's own custodianship. At this hour we rage for Jisha, for Delta Meghwal, for Uma Maheshwari, Soni Sori and for the thousands of tribal, Dalit and toiling women, and we shall resist till the last anti-women bulwark and the oldest relics of caste-patriarchy have been dismantled. In our collective angst and unity let us seek to not just mend, but to reclaim, to transform and to make!

1. Conduct a speedy and transparent judicial investigation to end the cycle of impunity in Jisha's case
2. Invoke the Prevention of Atrocities (on SC/ST) Act to punish perpetrators of sexual violence and murderous assault on Dalit women (like Jisha) and on Dalit children
3. Take stringent action on Police officials who failed to act upon the series of complaints filed by Jisha and her mother. All such dereliction of duty in ensuring women's safety should be brought to book.
4. Set up dedicated fast track courts to hear all cases of sexual assault and gendered violence filed by women
5. End the perversion of All Women Police Stations into anti-women Khap Panchayats
6. Enact a special legislation to prevent caste-fanatical "honour killings" and to protect couples in inter-caste relationships. Implement immediately the Court directives issued by Justice Ramasubramanian (Madras High Court) and earlier by Justice Markandeya Katju, along with forming Neighbourhood Gender Sensitisation Councils with legal status
7. Abolish unconstitutional laws like AFSPA and CSPSA which shield military personnel who sexually assault women struggling for life, land, livelihood and self- determination in places like Kashmir, North-East and Chhattisgarh
8. Implement the recommendations of the UGC Saksham Report in educational institutions. Make sexual and gender equity education compulsory across disciplines
9. Constitute mandatory Internal Complaints Committees against Sexual Harassment in all public and private sites of employment and learning. Implement all the recommendations of Justice Verma Committee

Coordination

Leftist Women's Federation

 

"Heave! Heave like you're being paid for it!" - Joshamee Gibbs, Pirates of the Caribbean:Dead Man's Chest

[R Muthu Raj]

Subject _ thanks 
Respect sir successful gd evening
Received your kind heart messages
Warm welcome

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