pc 23 dicembre - grande protesta delle donne indiane contro gli stupri ' vogliamo l'impiccagione degli stupratori'

 

Dopo la violenza di gruppo a New Delhi contro una studentessa 23enne, proteste di massa in tutto il paese, in una spontanea esplosione di indignazione e di rabbia. Decine di migliaia scesi in piazza ieri. 

Decine di migliaia di persone hanno manifestato ieri a New Delhi e in altre città indiane, in una spontanea esplosione di indignazione e di rabbia provocata dall'ennesimo caso di violenza sessuale. Un episodio particolarmente brutale: la vittima è una giovane donna, una studentessa 23enne ora ricoverata in ospedale, in pericolo di vita. Domenica sera era andata al cinema insieme a un amico, poi insieme erano saliti su un autobus privato per tornare a casa. Il bus si è rivelato una trappola: a bordo erano sei uomini, incluso l'autista, che hanno pestato il ragazzo con una sbarra di metallo, poi picchiato selvaggiamente e violentato la giovane, infine scaricato entrambi al lato di una superstrada.

Una violenza così brutale ha suscitato grande attenzione pubblica. Ieri centinaia di studentesse e di studenti hanno manifestato davanti a una delle maggiori università della capitale. Centinaia di giovani sono andati a protestare davanti alla residenza della chief minister (capo del governo locale) di New Delhi, la signora Sheila Dixit - e sono stati dispersi dalla polizia a colpi di idranti, cosa che ha suscitato aspre critiche dell'opposizione. Gruppi di studentesse hanno bloccato il traffico per protesta: «Voglio che tutti sentano il disagio che le donne provano ogni giorno in città», diceva una ragazza. Altri sono andati a protestare davanti alla questura centrale di polizia, altri ancora davanti al parlamento. Molti accusano le autorità di ignorare colpevolmente la violenza subita dalle donne a vari livelli - dalla violenza domestica alle molestie sui luoghi di lavoro, alle aggressioni e stupri. «Ci sgoliamo da sempre a chiedere maggiore sicurezza per le donne e le ragazze. Ma il governo, la polizia, i responsabili della sicurezza pubblica ignorano la violenza quotidiana che si esercita sulle donne», dice Ranjana Kumari, sociologa e capo del Center for Social research di New Delhi (al quotidiano britannico The Guardian). Anche Sonia Gandhi, presidente del Partito del Congresso (al governo), dopo aver visitato la vittima in ospedale, non ha solo promesso una rapida azione giudiziaria ma ha anche chiesto che la polizia sia addestrata ad affrontare i reati contro le donne. «E' una vergogna per tutti noi che questi episodi ricorrano con tanta regolarità», ha poi scritto alla capo del governo di New Delhi.
In questo caso per la verità le autorità hanno prontamente risposto - tale è stata l'ondata di rabbia pubblica. La polizia ha rintracciato e arrestato quattro degli aggressori, di cui almeno tre rei confessi, e sta cercando gli altri due. Intanto l'opposizione (di centrodestra) ha lanciato feroci accuse verso il governo che non sa garantire la sicurezza dei cittadini: al punto che ieri il ministro dell'interno federale, Sushil Kumar Shinde, è stato costretto a intervenire per la seconda volta in due giorni: ha annunciato che saranno rafforzate le pattuglie di polizia in città di notte, poi che saranno vietati i bus con vetri oscurati, come quello su cui erano saliti i due ragazzi domenica sera, e tutti i guidatori di autobus e i loro assistenti saranno controllati - quel il bus era abusivo, senza licenza, cosa in realtà frequente. L'ennesimo caso di stupro così a rafforza un allarme criminalità che rasenta la psicosi a New Delhi, e come spesso accade butta in legge e ordine: deputati dell'opposizione hanno urlato in parlamento che ci vuole la pena di morte per gli stupratori, mentre sui giornali si parla di castrazione forzata. New Delhi, 15 milioni di abitanti (e 572 casi di violenza sessuale denunciati l'anno scorso), è stata descritta da alcuni come «la capitale dello stupro», anche se i dati smentiscono.
In un amaro editoriale ieri il quotidiano The Hindu osserva che «l'orribile stupro di gruppo a Delhi è parte di un continuum di violenza che milioni di indiane affrontano ogni giorno, dalle molestie sessuali in luoghi pubblici agli abusi fisici nell'intimo delle nostre case ancor più che nelle strade». Spesso la violenza contro le donne non viene neppure denunciata, in parte perché lo stigma sociale che circonda la vittima è fortissimo. Ma anche perché potrebbe succedere come a una giovane donna che mesi fa subì violenza a Kolkata: la polizia la tempestò di domande sui dettagli più scabrosi. O a Noida, città satellite di New Delhi: il commissario di polizia poi commentò che la vittima se l'era cercata. Spesso, denunciano le organizzazioni di donne, la polizia rifiuta di ricevere denunce per violenza sessuale, e in particolare violenza domestica. In ogni caso i procedimenti giudiziari possono richiedere anni, e appena un quarto dei casi si conclude con una condanna. Del resto, se le aggressioni alle donne sono in aumento è perché queste sono entrate in massa nello spazio pubblico: ma si scontrano con una cultura radicata di supremazia maschile. «La violenza contro le donne ha sempre la tacita approvazione della società», diceva l'attrice e attivista sociale Shabana Azmi di recente a Mumbai, durante un incontro di gruppi anti-violenza.

 

India:la polizia carica le manifestazioni di protesta

Posted on December 22, 2012 by reed

[In the capital of India, which the government has claimed is "the world's largest democracy," a brutal rape of a young woman has brought thousands of outraged protestors into the streets.  Rape is a common terror that women face in Delhi and throughout India.  What brought these massive protests to the streets, this time?  As the following articles point out, "Police figures show that, in Delhi, a rape is reported on average every 18 hours and some form of sexual attack every 14 hours....Indian novelist Arundhati Roy said rape is seen as a 'matter of feudal entitlement' in many parts of the country, and the reason this case had come to light is because the woman victim belongs to the affluent middle class".....She said attitudes towards women need to change in India, because a change in the law only will protect middle class women, but 'the violence against other women who are not entitled will continue'." -- Frontlines ed.]

[Tear gas and water cannon were used against protesters marching on the presidential palace]

Indian police have used tear gas and water cannons to keep back thousands of protesters marching in Delhi over the gang rape of a young woman.

Violence broke out as the protesters, mainly college students, tried to break through police barricades to march on the presidential palace.
There has been outrage in India over the attack on a bus last Sunday that has left the 23-year-old woman in a critical condition in hospital.
Six people have been arrested.
The government has tried to halt the rising anger over the attack by announcing a series of measures intended to make Delhi safer for women.
They include more police night patrols, checks on bus drivers and their assistants and the banning of buses with tinted windows or curtains.
But the protesters say the government’s pledge to seek life sentences for the attackers is not enough – many are calling for the death penalty.
Some carried placards reading “Hang the Rapists” and “Save women. Save India” as they marched on Saturday.
Junior home minister RPN Singh appealed for calm after the clashes broke out. “This is not a way to protest,” he told India’s CNN-IBN television. “Trying to storm buildings and breaking barricades is not a way to start a dialogue.”
The woman and her friend had been to watch a film when they boarded the bus in the Munirka area intending to travel to Dwarka in south-west Delhi.
Police said she was raped for nearly an hour, both she and her companion were beaten with iron rods and thrown out of the moving bus into a Delhi street.
Doctors said on Saturday that the woman remained in a critical but stable condition, but had been removed from a ventilator.
“She is doing much better than yesterday,” said BD Athani, superintendent of Safdarjung Hospital.
The attack has prompted a week of candle-lit vigils and demonstrations amid some soul-searching about the safety of women in Delhi and other parts of the country.
Police figures show that, in Delhi, a rape is reported on average every 18 hours and some form of sexual attack every 14 hours.
Indian novelist Arundhati Roy said rape is seen as a “matter of feudal entitlement” in many parts of the country, and the reason this case had come to light is because the woman victim belongs to the affluent middle class.
She said attitudes towards women need to change in India, because a change in the law only will protect middle class women, but “the violence against other women who are not entitled will continue”.
————————————————————
By Harmeet Shah Singh, Mallika Kapur and Laura Smith-Spark, CNN

Saturday. December 22, 2012

Students chant anti-police slogans during a protest against the Indian government’s reaction to recent rape incidents in India, on Saturday, December 22, in New Delhi, India. The demonstration was prompted by wide public outrage over what police said was the gang-rape and beating of a 23-year-old woman on a moving bus in the capital last Sunday.

New Delhi (CNN) — Police in India blasted protesters with water cannon and tear gas Saturday as clashes broke out at a rally in New Delhi against rape, leaving scores of people drenched and angry.
The demonstration was prompted by wide public outrage over what police said was the gang-rape and beating of a 23-year-old woman on a moving bus in the capital last Sunday.
Her injuries were so severe she spent days in intensive care in a city hospital, battling for her life. Police said Saturday that she had recovered enough to give a statement to a magistrate from her hospital bed the previous evening.
Dozens of police, some equipped with bamboo canes, flanked the water cannon as it blasted out on to the thousands of protesters assembled by New Delhi’s historic India Gate.

Demonstrators react from tear gas fired by police during a protest calling for better safety for women. New Delhi alone reported 572 rapes last year and more than 600 in 2012.

Some demonstrators attempted to break through the security barriers blocking access to the country’s government district, parliament building and presidential palace.
Others chanted, punched the air in defiance and waved banners as the police sought to disperse them from Raisina Hill, the seat of Indian power.
“Hang them till death,” read the placard of one protester seeking capital punishment for rape suspects.
“Stop this shame,” read another. A third said, “Give them the same physical torture.”
Shouts of “We want justice” also rose above the large and diverse crowd, symbolizing a widely felt anger over attacks against women. Banners proclaiming the same message were marked with a hangman’s noose.
One young woman protester, who said her leg was injured by a blow from a police baton, lamented what she called a failure of democracy in the country.

“Today, I have seen democracy dying,” she said.
New Delhi’s police spokesman Rajan Bhagat said up to 35 protesters and nearly 40 police personnel were injured.
Thirty barricades were damaged in the course of the protest, he said, and police fired 125 tear gas shells. A number of vehicles were also damaged, he said.
Saturday’s furious protest was just the latest held across the country in the past week, where official data show that rape cases have jumped almost 875% over the past 40 years — from 2,487 in 1971 to 24,206 in 2011.
New Delhi alone reported 572 rapes last year and more than 600 in 2012.
Bhavyaa Sharma, a 19-year-old student at a leading women’s college in the capital, told CNN how she fears for her safety when she leaves the campus. Sexual assaults on women in the city have horrified her and her female friends.
“I feel vulnerable here,” said Sharma, accompanied by her classmates. “I am very sure about it. Delhi is not safe for women.”
Six suspects, including the bus driver and a minor, have now been arrested in connection with Sunday’s rape.
As fury about the assault gathered pace, some Indian lawmakers even called for treating rape as a capital crime.
“We’ll work collectively to see we make a law which is deterrent and preventive,” said New Delhi’s chief minister, Sheila Dikshit.
India’s Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde told reporters Saturday that the government would work toward increasing punishment in “rarest of the rare” rape cases.
But pressed on whether the administration would agree to demands for death by hanging in such instances, he said: “We’ll have to see in what way it (the rape sentencing) can be enhanced.”
Shinde said the government was pushing for a speedy trial for the attack.
Authorities are also taking a number of steps to improve security for women in New Delhi, particularly on public transport, he said.
“(The) government shares the widespread concern and support that has been expressed throughout society for the girl who has so suffered. Government also respects the right of legitimate protest,” he said.
“At the same time, there is need to exercise calm at this juncture and for everyone to work together to improve the safety and security environment.”
In the meantime, the victim has been promised the best possible medical care, Shinde said.
A physician described the woman’s condition Saturday as better than a day earlier, but said there was still a risk of infection. She is receiving psychological as well as medical care, he said.

Police spray water and fire tear gas towards demonstrators.

Following the brutal assault, the country’s human rights body shot off notices to city police and federal authorities, demanding an explanation.
“The incident has raised the issue of declining public confidence in the law and order machinery in the city, especially in its capacity to ensure safety of women, as a number of such incidents have been reported in the national capital in the recent past,” the National Human Rights Commission said in a statement Tuesday.
Home Secretary R. K. Singh announced the suspension of five police officers in the wake of Sunday’s rape.
Meantime, some observers say anti-women acts in India stem from the country’s largely patriarchal social setup.
Indians’ preference for sons over daughters, for example, has manifested itself in a worrisome population imbalance. The 2011 census of the world’s second-most populous nation recorded an alarming drop in the percentage of girls among country’s preschoolers.
For every 1,000 boys up to 6 years old, the census counted 914 girls, a drop from 927 a decade ago. It’s illegal in India to abort a child because of its sex, but such abortions happen, often aided by illegal clinics.