In Jharkhand violence against women are rampantly prevalent still there are more serious crimes against women prevails which is different from other states.
Sexual Harassment: -
Sexual harassment ranges from teasing and molestation to violent sexual
abuse. Women continued to be victim of sexual abuse in Jharkhand total
number reported was just 2nd to Assam. It is a subject on
which women across all class and age groups can be readily mobilized. In
many areas powerful and upper caste groups often target poor Dalit
women. Sexual abuse and other forms of violence are often used to
inflict political lessons and to crush dissent. Criminal law does not
use the term sexual harassment but speaks instead of outraging the
modesty of a woman.
Rape: - It is
the most violent, abrupt and physically painful instance of male
aggression. At the physical level, it represents an invasion of person;
at the psychological, it results often in deep trauma, shame and guilt.
Marital rape is excluded from the definition except when it is committed
on a girl below 12 years of age. In addition, although the law
prohibits evidence on the antecedents of the accused, it applies a
different yardstick for women when such antecedents are often brought
into prove cases against the woman. Rape is punishable under law with
minimum years of seven years but the courts have the power to reduce
sentences which they usually do. 753 cases are recorded in 2005. In
April- November 2011, 592 cases are recorded as per the Jharkhand
police.
Dowry & Dowry Deaths
:- Dowry deaths as being one where a woman dies of burns or other
injuries within seven years of her marriage and there is evidence of
cruelty and harassment by the husband or any relative of her husband , “
for or in connection with any demand for dowry “Harassment in itself
can be cause for considerable agony , anguish and trauma for married
women whereas the Cruelty may cause a women to commit suicide or ‘cause
grave injuries or danger of life , limb or health’ , whether mental or
physical of the women and harassment related to property demands.
However, Dowry is not prevalent in tribal but in other class of society,
it is predominant problem. This is only the reason why girls are not
desired and there is the craving for the boy child. Having price of Rs.
50,000- Rs.2,00,000 (even in poor’s) is given to the groom as Tilak. If
not given marriage doesn’t take place. Jharkhand stands 17th
among states for crime against women to 257 dowry cases were recorded in
2005. Only in the month July 2011, 34 dowry death case has taken place
as per the Jharkhand police Data.
Witchcraft/ Witch hunting:
– Women in Jharkhand continued to be targeted as “witches”. Many of the
alleged witches were meted out inhuman and degrading treatment. In the
tribal belt of Jharkhand the incidence of witchcraft is very common. In a
majority of the cases, it is found the real motive of the killers was
to grab property or to settle personal scores with the victim family. In
order to garner support for their nefarious activities, villager’s
particularly influential people brand female member of a particular
family as a witch so that they could get the support of their
co-villagers in hounding out or killing the victims’ family. The
villagers believe that the women branded as witch are responsible for
the illness, death, and drought and desire that is overwhelming the
lives of the communities’ women. In April- November 2011 total 32 cases
are recorded as per the Jharkhand police.
Caste & Class Conflicts:-
In Jharkhand caste politics play a very important role in any violence.
In this state not only the number of castes and sub castes is very
large, but the politicization of each caste or caste group has left
specific imprint on the political process of the State. In fact, the
politics has been characterized by a fourfold division – forward –
castes, backward-castes, harijan and tribals. Narrowness of caste
feeling has contributed a lot to the occurrence of violence in the
society. The feeling of casticism and the awareness among the low and
the middle classes has mainly led to caste-conflict and tensions. The
class conflicts depends on the process of production and the economic
infra-structure. The society has been clearly divided into two classes.
The haves and the have nots. The awareness amongst the have nots has
been broken the old relational norms and they are ready to get their
economic positions and other rights in society by hook or crook. In fact
it has opened a new vista in the field of violence and it is the women
who are the ultimate victims.
Communal Violence:
– Communal violence is more visible in urban areas as compared to caste
violence taking place in rural areas, though with its acceleration in
recent years, it may spread to rural areas also. Earlier it was
generally thought that riots takes place between the Hindu and the
Muslim communities. But the recent development of attacks on minorities
may take the serious shape of violence.
Domestic Violence:
– The term domestic violence is wide and encompasses in its scope the
types of violence resorted to within the home. The overwhelming majority
of victims of domestic violence are woman. Domestic violence not only
includes conduct which amount to cruelty on a woman by her husband or
any of his relative but also includes any act which is unbecoming of the
dignity of the woman. The woman are brutally beaten or abused by her
husband or in-laws.
Trafficking of women: -
Trafficking in women and children is one of the worst and most brazen
and abuses of human rights. Trafficking is the legal or illegal moment
of women and children by force or through other forms of coercion for
the purpose of exploitation and for the consideration of economic and
other benefits. Migration, especially illegal migration though distinct
and separate is integrally connected to trafficking. Trafficking is a
modern forms of slavery which forces a Jharkhand’s (Jharkhand is a
source point of trafficking) women for the purpose of the prostitutions
and domestic works in metro cities.
There are some cases of women sexual
violence intervened by HRLN, such as Moushmi rape case in which A
student of Air Hostess Academy, Mousumi 17 aged had allegedly sustained
fatal injuries on the first day of her hospitality training at Hotel
Sonnet’s laundry section in the morning of May 9, 2009. Her scarf had
reportedly got trapped in the roller press, injuring her neck but the
fact is not so. The Supreme Court ordered to CBI for enquiry again the case but the CBI didn’t get the exact fact.
In my early days of starting of my career in the field of legal advocacy i intervened in some cases which i would like to share as on the 20th of October 2009,
The BBC carried a news item entitled ‘Village Witches Beaten in India’,
detailing how five women from Deonagar District in Jharkhand state were
paraded naked, beaten and forced to eat human excrement by villagers
after being branded as witches. Six days later, on the 26th of October 2009, the Hindustan Times carried another news article entitled ‘The Lost Case of Witches’,
reporting that another resident of Jharkhand state was branded as a
witch because of her refusal to have sexual relations with some
influential people in her village. In the same month, on the 16th
of October 2009, a woman named ‘Shama Parveen’, a resident of Dhanbad
District in Jharkhand sought legal assistance after she had been branded
as a witch, thrown out of her village, and beaten within an inch of her
life. In light of these alarming incidents, a team of lawyers and
social activists researched and investigated the issue of witch hunting
in the state of Jharkhand. This article is the product of those
investigations.
Another big problem of our society is
violation against child which is increasing as inflation of particular
product. Child Labour is such kind of issue which is increasing at an
alarming rate. The people especially industrialist, businessman and
shopkeeper etc appoints the children as an employee and forced them to
work with a very less wage. Many children around the world face a
similar scenario when they are forced to work and provide by their
family instead of sending them to school. As the Government of India
made a law which provide a free and compulsory education to all the
children of the age of Six to Fourteen year in such manner as all the
State and various policy taken out for the poor children such as Government
Schools, Colleges, many NGOs, Anganwadi in which even food, clothes are
provided to poor children free of cost and Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan etc.
But then also people didn’t ever put their eye on law and always try to
avoid the law and appoints the children’s as an employee. This issue of
child labor demonstrates that ideals such as the innocent and carefree
life that children in most industrialized nations are able to enjoy do
not ever enter in the poorer section of the world. Children work under
abhorrent conditions; those that work in looms become “disabled with eye
damage, lung disease and stunted growth as they grow older. As we had
seen many rag pickers in the slum street mostly of them are children,
these all are mostly because of poverty as well as forced from their
family.
