WOMEN – 2011 - Indian Social Institute

Bhavnagar district. The family lives in an isolated house in a small orchard on the outskirts of the village
where they own two bighas of land. "The three sisters consumed pesticide at around 11 pm on Friday
when they were alone at home. By the time their father arrived, it was too late. He informed other family
members and an emergency ambulance was summoned but Rekhaba and Dakshaba had died and
Krushnaben died at a hospital in Bhavnagar. All the three sisters were HIV positive,'' said investigating
officer J R Zala of Vartej police station. The police say that the mother and brother of the deceased had
died of Aids four years ago. Preliminary investigation suggests that the family members were stigmatized
due to their disease. Sources said that whenever the sisters ventured out occasionally, they were treated
as 'untouchables'. "We will investigate whether stigmatization forced them to take this extreme step,'' said
Zala. (TOI, 06/06/2011)
Jharkhand woman killed, cut up, roasted, eaten by murderers
A woman, accused of practising black magic, was killed and her body cut up, roasted and eaten by her
murderers in Jharkhand's Gumla district, police said Tuesday. The woman, a widow identified as Aitwari
Devi, 45, was killed at Nawgai village of Gumla district, around 140 Km from Ranchi, early Monday, the
police said. After she was killed, her body was cut into pieces by the assailants who later made a meal of
it after roasting it. The incident came to the notice of the police Monday evening when Aitwari's son,
Avadh Nayak, 16, informed them. According to police, the woman was charged with practising black
magic by her assailants. (Deccan Herald, 07/06/2011)
Three held in Delhi for gangrape
Delhi police today arrested three men in the case of gang rape against one Radha (name changed) aged
25. On July 5, the victim who is a resident of Delhi Cantonment had gone to the nearby market. While on
her way back she was forced into a car by five men. These five men forcibly took the woman in a Santro
to the slums of Raghubir Nagar, where she was gang-raped, reports on Monday said. The victim, who
managed to escape, reached home the next day. She had registered a complaint in the Delhi
Cantonment police station. The victim had identified one of the five men as Rajkumar who lived in her
neighbourhood. Following interrogation of Rajkumar the police has been able to get through to Rakesh
Pehlwana and Rakesh who were also involved in the rape. Rakesh is also a petty criminal. The other two
men have been identified by the police but they are still at large. (Pioneer, 08/06/2011)
‘Slut Walk’ in Delhi June 25
Skimpily dressed women will take to the streets of New Delhi later this month for India’s first “Slut Walk”, a
global phenomenon to protest sexual violence. The capital is India’s most dangerous city for women
where leering and harassment are a daily menace and a woman is raped every 18 hours or molested
every 14 hours, according to the latest police figures. A government-backed UN survey last year said
about 85 per cent of Delhi’s women are perpetually scared of being sexually harassed. “The purpose of a
slut walk is to bring to the attention of society that the problem is not what we do, but what is done to us,”
Umang Sabarwal, a Delhi University student and the organiser of the June 25 protest, wrote on her
Facebook page. Slut Walk was first held in Toronto this year after a police officer caused outrage by
stating that “women should avoid dressing like sluts in order not to be victimised” during a speech to
university students. The protest soon spread to over 60 cities where women joined in huge numbers to
challenge the mindset that victims of sexual assault should be blamed for the crime against them on the
grounds that they were “asking for it”. Mr Sabarwal said although the concept had originated in the West,
it held a lot of relevance in a city like New Delhi. “The woman is always blamed for bringing on the rape.
‘What was she doing alone at night? Why was she wearing a skirt? Why did she not have a male
companion with her? Why was she driving alone? “We cast aspersions on the character of the woman,
and her morals. It has to be her fault, doesn’t it? The men are not at fault.” The event has already
generated interest in the Indian media and on social networking websites where some have called it a
“walk for liberation” and others deriding it for being silly and provocative. Dimpy Verma, who works for in
the insurance division of a multi-national bank in the city, said she was excited about taking part in the
walk along with her mother. “I will wear the skimpiest of my skirts,” said the 27-year-old. “I want to cock a
snook at all the male chauvinists out there who think of women as sexual objects and nothing else.” (AA,
09/06/2011)
Woman forced to dip hands in boiling oil to prove innocence