India Rape Crisis

               

      India has a long history of public and gang rape. This year there have been over one thousand cases of gang rape alone. The most recent attack was on July 30^th and a few weeks ago the Amnesty International club had a fundraiser for the two girls that were sentenced to public rape. Two sisters, ages fifteen and twenty-three, were sentenced to gang-rape because their brother eloped with a woman from another caste.  In India it is strictly forbidden to marry someone that is in a higher class than you. The sisters and the rest of their family are part of the Dalit caste, which one of the poorer classes. Their sentence also states that after they have been raped they must walk around their village naked with black face paint on. The inhumane nature of this punishment makes us wonder what type of government would sentence two young girls to such a cruel punishment. The sentence was not created by an official Indian court but by an unelected panel of men. These panels act as a court in several Indian villages even though legally they have no power.  The problem with these illegitimate courts is that in many cases women are treated unfairly and are sentenced to cruel and unusual punishments. Unfortunately India’s Supreme Court does not enforce the rule of law onto these panels and as a result they continue to mistreat many Indian women. Non-profit organizations have tried to stop cruel punishment but unfortunately they have not successfully ended the unfair treatment of women.

      In this story, we can see not only flagrant human rights violations of the woman sentenced to rape, but also the widespread violation of human rights in connection with India’s dalit social caste. Just by glancing at the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, it is apparent that India, which signed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, is not upholding its intentions to move towards universal human rights. The first human right that this case violates is Article 1 in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This article states that “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood”. The very status of women in rural Indian villages such as the one in the eastern Indian state of Jharkand is that they are considered “property” of their fathers or husbands. This violates the law that every human being is free and equal to any other, as property implies ownership, and ownership of a person does not equal freedom. Women in this village are viewed as property of their husbands or fathers. By raping these two sisters, the village views this not as a violation of their human rights, but as an attack on the honor of their husbands or fathers. The psychological state of the woman herself is completely ignored and viewed as irrelevant as she is held to be subhuman. Another article that this sentence violates is article 5 of the UDHR, which states that “No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment”. The public rape of any woman is cruel, inhuman, degrading and undeserved. The even more disgusting part of this situation is that this sentence is even being debated, so much so that it has reached the Supreme Court. Even though it should be a no-brainer that this is a violation of human rights, the problem lies in the disagreement of what it constitutes to mean being human. The two sisters and their brother are part of the dalit social caste, otherwise known as the Untouchables. The Untouchables are the members of the lowest case of the Hindu caste system. Any contact with the Untouchables supposedly defiles members of the upper castes. Dalits are constantly subjected to appalling human rights violations, including murder, rape, forced prostitution and other forms of slavery. Although the caste system is ostensibly outlawed in India, these crimes are committed with impunity by members of higher castes. This caste discrimination in and of itself blatantly violates human rights, and explains why the punishment of these two sisters is even a question. If the sisters are dalits, they are for all intensive purposes, according to the caste system, sub-human and therefore will not be given human rights. So long as the misogyny that is so deeply entrenched in this village and the inherent dismissal of human rights due to the caste system remains, there is little hope for universal human rights. The best that can be done is to call on the international community to condemn, and more importantly, stop such violations.
Discussion Questions:

      Does public humiliation inherently violate human rights? Why or why not

      What can the international community to stop these kinds of cruel punishment?