The India rape case is exposing the extent of violence against women worldwide
On 7 January, around 1,000 people demonstrated outside India House in London against
the horrific rape and murder of a young woman in Delhi.
This
was part of a growing wave of
demonstrations against violence towards women sweeping not just the Indian
sub-continent, but the whole world.
“We
felt a great sense of outrage. We wanted
to express our solidarity with Indian women,” said Rahila Gupta, of Southall
Black Sisters, who organised the demonstration.
“Sexual
abuse is happening all over the world.
The difference in India is the frequency, the intensity, the rate, the
range, the culture that there is in India.
“And
also people get away with stuff in India.
There isn’t really any prosecution for Police and others who are treated
with impunity.
“At
least in the West the Police are accountable to some extent, but even here the
clear up rate for rape is only 6%,” she said.
Many
of the women on the demonstration believed that the sheer ferocity of the Delhi
attack had proved a tipping point.
“It
came to a point when women in India thought enough was enough. There was so much tolerance but that incident
is where it came to a boiling point,” said Jos Juvah, who is originally from
India but has lived in the UK for many years.
But
Gupta provides an economic explanation for the apparently sudden upsurge of
protest.
“There
is very rapid economic growth going on in India and it is providing
opportunities for young women to get educated and have jobs.
“Young
women need to be out and have the freedom of the city. They need to have the
safety of the city.
“Here
is an example of a woman who did all the ‘right’ things, [I use that term
ironically].
“She
was accompanied by a man, there was no suggestion that her clothes were to
blame, her behaviour was to blame nothing, and yet she suffered the most
horrific rape.
“A
newly awoken Delhi, particularly Delhi, as there is a lot of multinational
activity on the outskirts of Delhi, and there’s a sense of, ‘how do we ensure
that our daughters are going to be safe when they go out to work’.”
“We
know that a lot of rape goes on against domestic workers for example. I hope
this case will open the door to debate about other women who suffer domestic
violence,” she said.
And
it certainly seems to be doing that, for now at least.
A
report by the Small Arms
Survey
finds that Kenya’s capital Nairobi is in ‘profound’ crisis, with grotesque
levels of violence against women spiralling out of control, as poverty
increases in its fetid slums, which house more than a million people.
And according to figures recently
issued by Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe, ninety percent of South African
women have experienced emotional and physical abuse; seventy-one percent have
experienced sexual abuse; as many as five out of seven children are abused.
In
Peru, where an
estimated 35,000 pregnancies a year come about as a result of rape, women are
forced either to have an illegal abortion and face a possible three-month jail
term, or give birth to a rapists child.
A
coalition called Dejala
Decidir,
Let Her Decide, aim to collect the 60,000 signatures they need to petition
Congress to consider a Bill decriminalising abortion in the case of rape.
This
may not be easy, as signatories have to provide their government ID.
Some
may feel intimidated by this and many women, particularly in rural areas, most
affected by these issues, do not have ID’s.
Even if they get the signatures, a debate is not guaranteed the Catholic
Church still exerts great influence in Peru.
But
despite this, George Liendo, Director of PROMSEX,
says the time is ripe for a national dialogue.
“It’s not always easy to build a coalition in Peru, but there is
real energy for this campaign. People across the country want to put this on
the political agenda.”
In October 2012, the Uruguayan Congress voted to
decriminalise abortion in the
first twelve weeks of pregnancy.
And as Clare Abbot, who travelled down from Northampton to attend
Monday’s demonstration said: “Hopefully this demonstration will raise
awareness of women’s issues and hopefully have some impact.
“Hopefully
this will maintain momentum. That’s got to be a positive thing.”
