SOUTH ASIA - House Foreign Affairs Committee Democrats

2245and branded her with hot iron rods. Five persons were arrested in connection withthe assaults.According to NCRB statistics, in 1998 there were 15,031 reported rapes, 16,381abductions of women, 6,917 dowry deaths, 41,318 reported cases of torture ofwomen, 31,046 cases of molestation, and 8,123 cases of sexual harassment. TheNCRB recorded 131,338 crimes against women in 1998, compared with 121,265 in1997. In 1997, 678 cases of gang rape were recorded. Gang rapes often are committedas punishment for alleged adultery or as a means of coercion or revenge inrural property disputes and feuds. On February 1, the Committee on the Eliminationof Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) of the U.N. Commission onHuman Rights (UNCHR) expressed concern that ‘‘there is a high incidence of gender-basedviolence against women, which takes even more extreme forms becauseof customary practices such as dowry, sati (the burning alive of widows on theirhusbands’ funeral pyre) and the Devadasi system (the practice of dedicating ormarrying young, prepubescent girls to a Hindu deity or temple as servants of God.Devadasis, who generally are Dalits, may not marry. They are taken from their familiesand are required to provide sexual services to priests and high caste Hindus.Reportedly, many eventually are sold to urban brothels’’ (see Sections 6.c. and 6.f.).The committee further stated that ‘‘discrimination against women who belong toparticular castes or ethnic or religious groups also is manifest in extreme forms ofphysical and sexual violence and harassment.’’Higher female mortality at all age levels, including female infanticide and sex selectivetermination of pregnancies, accounts for an increase in the ratio of males tofemales to 107.9 males per 100 females in 1991, from 104.7 males per 100 femalesin 1981, and from 102.9 males per 100 females at the turn of the century. In somedistricts of Tamil Nadu, female infanticide occurs despite government and NGO programsintended to counter the practice. In July the district collector of Dharmapuri,Tamil Nadu, formed a team to investigate the murder of a girl in Pararrapatti village.The team exhumed the buried body and arrested the girl’s father and anotheraccomplice. In August the maimed body of a newborn girl was found under a bridgein Tirunelveli, Tamil Nadu. Police believe that the child’s mother abandoned her inthe public place hoping that someone would take her in. On February 1, CEDAWexpressed concern that ‘‘India has not yet established a comprehensive and compulsorysystem of registration of births and marriages. The Committee notes that inabilityto prove those important events by documentation prevents effective implementationof laws that protect girls from sexual exploitation and trafficking, childlabor and forced or early marriage.’’Numerous laws exist to protect women’s rights, including the Equal RemunerationAct, the Prevention of Immoral Traffic Act, the Sati (Widow Burning) PreventionAct, and the Dowry Prohibition Act. However, the Government often is unableto enforce these laws, especially in rural areas in which traditions are deeply rooted.According to press reports, the rate of acquittal in dowry death cases is high, andbecause of court backlogs it takes 6 to 7 years on average to rule on such cases.On February 1, CEDAW noted that ‘‘there is an urgent need to introduce comprehensive[legislative] reform to promote equality and the human rights of women.’’Prostitution is widespread, with an estimated 2.3 million prostitutes in the country,some 575,000 of whom are children. Many indigenous tribal women are forcedinto sexual exploitation (see Section 6.c.). In Assam’s Chars River islands, somewomen work as prostitutes in exchange for as little as $0.23 (10 rupees). In 1998prostitutes began to demand legal rights, licenses, and reemployment training, especiallyin Mumbai and New Delhi.In 1997 Karnataka’s government made sexual harassment a criminal offense.The country is a significant source, transit point, and destination for many thousandsof trafficked women (see Section 6.f.).Literacy rates for women are significantly lower than rates for men; the 2000U.N. Development Program (UNDP) Report for India found that 38 percent ofwomen were literate, compared with 66 percent of men.The law prohibits discrimination in the workplace, but enforcement is inadequate.In both rural and urban areas, women get lower wages than men for doing the samejob. Women experience economic discrimination in access to employment and credit.This acts as an impediment to women owning a business, and the promotion ofwomen to managerial positions within businesses often is slower than that of males.State governments have supported micro-credit programs for women that havebegun to have an impact in many rural districts.The personal status laws of the religious communities discriminate againstwomen. Under the Indian Divorce Act of 1869, a Christian woman may demand divorceonly in the case of spousal abuse and in the case of certain categories of adultery;for a Christian man, adultery alone is sufficient. In 1997 the Mumbai HighVerDate 11-MAY-2000 13:46 Sep 20, 2001 Jkt 071555 PO 00000 Frm 00089 Fmt 6601 Sfmt 6621 F:\WORK\COUNTRYR\S71555\71555.035 HINTREL1 PsN: HINTREL1