{"id":75347,"date":"2021-01-04T18:21:14","date_gmt":"2021-01-04T12:51:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=75347"},"modified":"2021-01-08T16:30:39","modified_gmt":"2021-01-08T11:00:39","slug":"reasons-behind-sexual-violence-in-rural-india","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/reasons-behind-sexual-violence-in-rural-india\/","title":{"rendered":"Reasons behind Sexual violence in rural India"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span data-contrast=\"none\"><strong>Synopsis<\/strong><\/span><span data-contrast=\"none\">\u2013 Women of rural India are becoming victims of hierarchies of caste, class, and patriarchy. We need to form a suitable policy that will tackle gender-based sexual violence in rural India.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"none\"><strong>Background-<\/strong><\/span><span data-contrast=\"none\">\u00a0The\u00a0Bhanwari\u00a0Devi rape case in 1992 and the\u00a0Khairlanji\u00a0rape and massacre in 2006 to the\u00a0Hathras\u00a0case in 2020 shows that sexual violence against women is multi-dimentional\u00a0issue, root of which lies in the hierarchies of caste, class, and gender.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"none\"><strong>How the issues related to caste, class, and gender promotes sexual violence in rural India?<\/strong><\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"none\">Sexual Violence against women in rural -India is linked with caste, caste and patriarchy in the following ways:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span data-contrast=\"none\"><strong>Firstly, Ancient social structure<\/strong><\/span><span data-contrast=\"none\">\u2013 Since ancient times, many things have changed but what has remained constant is rural India\u2019s obsession with the caste order. The lower castes have served the upper castes while the upper castes work to keep the status quo. Violence becomes a tool of maintaining the status quo.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;134233279&quot;:true,&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span data-contrast=\"none\"><strong>Secondly, Tilted land reforms-<\/strong><\/span><span data-contrast=\"none\">In the political economy of post-Independence India, land is supreme. Land is class, power and\u00a0honour. Its exclusive ownership is the basis of maintaining the caste order. Hence large landowners who were of dominant castes were the beneficiary and the landless\u00a0labourers\u00a0were of lower castes.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;134233279&quot;:true,&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span data-contrast=\"none\"><strong>Third, Political rise of lower castes<\/strong><\/span><span data-contrast=\"none\">\u2013 The Bahujan -Dalit political mobilization challenged this ancient hierarchy and with this, oppressed castes found themselves represented in positions of power.\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;134233279&quot;:true,&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span data-contrast=\"none\"><strong>Fourth, Political pressure on police\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><span data-contrast=\"none\">\u2013 Police officials mostly\u00a0favour the dominant caste groups due to the pressure from the administration to not register sexual crimes under their jurisdiction, since these cases make them targets for transfers and dismissals.\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;134233279&quot;:true,&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"none\">In the societies riddled with caste structure and patriarchy,\u00a0women are considered as a symbol of\u00a0<\/span><span data-contrast=\"none\"><strong>family\u2019s, a community\u2019s, a caste\u2019s\u00a0<\/strong>honour<\/span><span data-contrast=\"none\">. In these societies, sexual violence against the women of opposition becomes\u00a0a tool of robbing them of their\u00a0honour, to maintain the status quo of land and caste.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"none\">During land disputes between two caste groups with a large differential of power and influence, women\u2019s bodies become collateral damage.\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"none\">In conflicts among caste groups who are relatively close together in the caste (and class) order, women are used as a tool to tactically use the Section 354 of the Indian Penal Code (outraging the modesty of a woman) to punish the other side.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"none\"><strong>What are the steps required to be taken?\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"none\">To address the multi-\u00a0dimensional\u00a0issues related to sexual violence against women, we need to take the following actions.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span data-contrast=\"none\"><strong>First-\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><span data-contrast=\"none\">Along with police reform, caste discrimination, patriarchy and reforms in land ownership, we need to implement the policies related to women empowerment in both letter and spirit.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span data-contrast=\"none\"><strong>Second-\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><span data-contrast=\"none\">We must take an intersectional approach that targets all of the issues.\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;134233279&quot;:true,&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span data-contrast=\"none\"><strong>Third-<\/strong><\/span><span data-contrast=\"none\">Land ownership reform\u00a0must tackle the irregularities of demarcation and the lack of proper records.\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;134233279&quot;:true,&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span data-contrast=\"none\"><strong>Fourth-<\/strong><\/span><span data-contrast=\"none\">Sound policy involving all stakeholders should also\u00a0tackle the illegal constructions on\u00a0abadi\u00a0land and\u00a0banjar\u00a0zameen.\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;134233279&quot;:true,&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span data-contrast=\"none\"><strong>Fifth-\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><span data-contrast=\"none\">The goal of annihilating caste cannot be achieved without mammoth efforts in\u00a0educational, professional, and social integration of lower castes into every field, be it healthcare, judiciary, education, entertainment, or sports.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3 class=\"entry-title\">\u00a0Read More :-<a href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/current-affairs\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Daily UPSC current affairs<\/a><\/h3>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"none\"><strong>Way Forward<\/strong><\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"none\">Along with the land and caste reforms, we must tackle the persistence of patriarchy in our society. \u201cWomen\u2019s\u00a0empowerment\u201d\u00a0 has\u00a0now become just a phrase for political and corporate\u00a0organisations. We must demand more representation of women in positions of power through reserved seats in MP, MLA, and MLC elections, or the judiciary and corporate boards.\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"none\">We need to work for quality sexual education and consent training for our youth, with the aim of preventing sexual assault and equalising and normalising healthy relations among members of different genders and sexes.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"none\">Lastly, we must bridge the gender divide in access to the transformative and emancipatory power of consumer technology.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Synopsis\u2013 Women of rural India are becoming victims of hierarchies of caste, class, and patriarchy. We need to form a suitable policy that will tackle gender-based sexual violence in rural India. Background-\u00a0The\u00a0Bhanwari\u00a0Devi rape case in 1992 and the\u00a0Khairlanji\u00a0rape and massacre in 2006 to the\u00a0Hathras\u00a0case in 2020 shows that sexual violence against women is multi-dimentional\u00a0issue, root&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/reasons-behind-sexual-violence-in-rural-india\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Reasons behind Sexual violence in rural India<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":75352,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,1351,1310,9],"tags":[1396],"class_list":["post-75347","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-daily-news","category-daily-news-updates","category-public","tag-soc_5","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Reasons-behind-Sexual-violence-in-rural-India.jpg?fit=1280%2C720&ssl=1","views":{"total":139,"cached_at":""},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75347","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75347"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75347\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75352"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}