BY TOM CHACKO
A two year old and a five year old have been raped in separate attacks in the indian capital of Delhi in the latest incidents of sexual violence against girls and women in the capital.
Delhi Police deputy superintendent Pushpendra Kumar said that the two-year-old girl was playing outside her home when she was raped in a west Delhi suburb on Friday evening. The child was found lying unconscious and bleeding in a park three hours after she went missing during a power outage in the neighborhood. A man hunt for the perpetrators is ongoing as nobody has been caught yet.
Police are also today questioning three men whom they arrested for gang raping a five year-old on Friday evening in east Delhi after locals broke into the house and caught the perverts before handling them to police. Both victims were taken to hospital and are in a stable condition. The Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modhi has been blamed for the deteriorating state of security in the country, even though he presides over 84,000 policemen and whose country boasts te largest police force in the world.
Only eight days ago, a four year old was raped then slashed with a knife before being dumped by a railway station. A 25 year old has been arrested in connection with that attack. The wave of rapes in the capital signals an epidemic of sexual assaults against women in a city whose culture is known for violating the rights of women and treated them as subordinate citizens. In 2012, a woman was raped on a public bus in a crime that shocked the nation.
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FAILED
In 2014, there were 36,735 rape cases with 2,096 recorded in the notorious capital of Delhi. Minister Arvind Kejriwal today said that the Delhi Police have “completely failed” to provide safety to women in the city and once again demanded that its control be transferred from the Center to the state government. ”Repeated rape of women and minors is worrying”, he said. “If the PM wants to have Delhi Police under his control, he has to be answerable. I request the PM to take some time out and meet the LG and find out ways to deal with crime against women in Delhi,” he said. In Karnataka State, a senior BJP leader, KS Eshwarappa(a former deputy chief minister) indicated to a journalist from a local channel that the opposition in power would do nothing in the unfortunate event she was ever raped. He said the chief minister and home minister would only act if their daughters were raped.
COMMON
Rape is the fourth most common crime in India according to the National Crime Records Bureau Statistics, with 1 in 93 women raped everyday. In 2013, a total of 33,703 incidents of rape were recorded in the country. Delhi is one of the oldest inhabited cities in the world with a heritage of both Hindu and Islamic rule spanning over seven centuries. An important political center of India and capital of several empires historically, superstition is also rife in most parts of India. There are those who consult witch doctors in search of a cure to illness, reversal of bad luck, or remedy of ill fate.
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RITUALS
It is not uncommon for rape victims to be forced to undergo a purification ritual in which a tantric takes some barley seeds from a bag and asks her to confirm if they are even or odd numbered. If she gets them wrong, she is not readmitted into society. The recuperation process for rape victims can be unthinkable because of the wrongfully perceived view in many quarters that they have not only been contaminated by the rapist, but also demonized by it. The lives of these young rape victims may be irreparably damaged and will likely haunt them in their growing years as adults with skewed perspectives on the effects of this hideous crimes will almost certainly try to subject them to some form of exorcism in the future.
Many have been killed on the ritualistic belief that such harrowing offence holds the key to future success in their lives. In 2013, a mother and daughter in Jharkhad were pulled out of their home by villagers and taken to a nearby forest to have their throats slit. Witchcraft was the stated reason for the abhorrent crime. It will not be surprising if the spate of horrifying rapes of young children is connected to some warped ideology of superstition- the sort that continues to dog a country laden with legendary intellectuals and hardworking professionals. The wave of rape offences in the country needs to be effectively addressed as it is increasingly becoming the shame and stench of a country that deserves much better.
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