WOMEN – 2011 - Indian Social Institute

my husband. I had two young children with me when I was abandoned," she said in the article. In the
article, she came across as a rebel who tried to make the best of a bad deal. Talking about her life after
being widowed, Pathan said in the article that when she tried to make a living, most people tried to take
advantage of the fact that she was alone and without a man. 'I needed a job but wherever I went they
would stare at me in a vulgar way all because they knew I was a widow and without help," she said.
Pathan later worked as a maid, taking care of children. "The way the society behaves with a widow, do
they do the same to a widower," she asked in the article. She said that the society should encourage a
person to find the right path even if he/she has wavered off to the wrong one. "We need both family and
society's help to live a life of dignity," she said. But she says that often the family accepts a man or
woman with her mistakes but a society makes it a point never to forget them and keeps on taunting about
the same. This she feels permanently closes any window of opportunity for such people. Pathan, a widow
and mother of two, was sentenced to life imprisonment by a sessions court on Monday for murdering the
man who refused to marry her after currying sexual favours from her. If Pathan is to be believed, her
boyfriend Devang Joshi had promised to marry her and thus indulged in sex with her. But later he backed
down. The article also makes a mention of several other incidents in which she was at the receiving end
of an uncaring society. (DNA, 02/02/2011)
Kerala train rape victim dies
Twenty-three-year-old Kerala girl Soumya, who was brutally attacked and raped after being kicked out of
a running train, succumbed to her injuries at a hospital on Sunday after fighting for life for five long days.
Soumya was a native of Manjakkad, Shoranur in Palakkad district and the only bread-earner of her
family. The body of the girl would be taken to her native place on Monday after post-mortem and
cremation would take place at the public crematorium there. Shoranur would mourn Soumya’s death by
observing a hartal from 6.00 am to 1 pm on Monday. The girl had been in coma since she was admitted
to the intensive care unit on the night of February 1. An emergency operation planned on her had to be
postponed till Friday as her blood pressure remained low. There was a massive blood clot in the cranium
as a result of the heavy blows the rapist had inflicted on her with a rock. “Her condition had improved and
we were even thinking of shifting her to a better facility. But the condition deteriorated by (Sunday)
morning and the vital organs began failing one after the other,” said a doctor. The police arrested
Govindachamy (30), an infamous criminal hailing from Tamil Nadu, on Wednesday night for pushing her
out of a local train, attacking her with rocks and raping her before stealing her belongings. The girl was
attacked in the deserted ladies’ compartment of the Ernakulam-Shoranur Passenger train when she was
returning home from Kochi where she was working. She was to attend the function of her own marriage
engagement on Wednesday. Govindachamy kicked her out of the slow-moving train and jumped after
her. He struck her on the head several times with a boulder and then dragged her into a secluded spot to
rape her. The girl had told the police before falling unconscious that the rapist was a man without left
hand. (Pioneer, 07/02/2011)
Punjab's passport office to keep check on 'holiday marriages'
Thousands of women in Punjab have fallen prey to ''holiday marriages'', duped into marriage by nonresident
Indians visiting India and then dumped. The passport office in Jalandhar has formed a women's
grievance cell to deal with such complaints and take action against the accused husbands. "Around
15,000 girls from Punjab's Doaba region, consisting of Jalandhar, Hoshiarpur and Kapurthala districts,
were duped by their NRI husbands during the last few years. Jalandhar has maximum number of such
cases," Parneet Singh, passport officer of the Regional Passport Office (RPO), told IANS. "Therefore, to
provide support and justice to these destitute women, we have constituted a 'women's grievance cell'.
This cell would cater to the complaints from women and depending on the merits of the case, take action
under various sections of the Passport Act, 1967," Singh said. According to RPO officials, Section 10 (3)
of the Passport Act states that the passport issuing authority can impound the passport of such offenders
in public interest after issuing them a show-cause notice. The complainant woman has to produce the
marriage certificate, copy of the Fist Information Report (FIR) and documents detailing the husband's
name, date of birth and address. "We would first issue a show-cause notice to the guilty and then his
passport would be confiscated to stop him from going abroad. Then, he cannot leave the country until the
matter is resolved, either legally or through mutual consent. However, if he manages to flee, then we
would inform the Indian embassy abroad and he would be immediately deported to India," Singh said.
"We have also asked district marriage officers to furnish us the details of NRI grooms so that we can tell