Author: Editor IndiaResists

By Priyanka Dass Saharia,

The occasion was apt. 8^Th March 2014 – International Women’s Day. Jantar Mantar has always been that space symbolising democracy that is soon fading from the day to day lives of every Indian. Constitutional documentation has never been able to preserve the notion from slowly eroding in the nation. A Women Network had collaborated with the Chin Refugees to organise a protest and a meeting for discussions and proliferation of the recent happenings of the community.

Burmese refugees are divided primarily various groups on the basis of their ethnicities and religion. This event saw the Chin community deliberating on issue ranging from workplace abuse to food security rights. To begin with, there has always been a ghetto culture for refugees in the capital, where they are cramped in extremely crowded, inconvenient setups with minimal amenities of food, shelter and protection. There are over 8000 refugees, with half of the population being women, being the worst hit.

“We are helpless when we face sexual abuse of any kind. We go to the police with the complaint, but more often they would side with the locals. Our culture, for wearing western clothes makes them think we might have called the abuse on us” says Celina (name changed) a voracious participant in the congregation.  This points to a sub domain of vulnerable targets, the women of the community who by the virtue of their sex end up facing a subculture of discrimination apart from the marginalisation faced by the community due to their refugee and ethnic statuses.

Manoha (name changed), who has been communicating with several officials of the UNHCR for justice at the face of atrocities faced by the community in East Delhi pockets states, “ Our government has failed to take the responsibility for what has forced us to leave the country. Our livelihoods were destroyed due to the militancy and we came here. The UNHCR is helpless for the lack of cooperation by our government and India, not being a permanent signatory to Refugees laws in the UN can’t be legally blamed for not providing adequate rehabilitation. We are victims from all sides.”

Kim (name changed), another member of the community adds on, “I was travelling in the bus one day and two men followed me around. Maybe they wanted to rob me of my belongings or worse. I was scared. I went to the police, but they fled thereafter. Even if I would have gone for help, people rarely do come forward for us. We look different and that has been my biggest curse here. Delhi has given me respite from the violence back home, but has shown me a new face of trouble. It’s all a nightmare.”

More often, they don’t abuse assault of any kind for fear of social stigmatization. Malini (name changed) talks of a similar note, “I have a young son and I am trying so hard that he studies well. That is the only hope for us to get out of this situation. Jobs are so difficult and then you get underpaid and you can’t do a thing. There are no laws which safeguard our rights in this country and the UN really cannot push the government to do much. Therefore I keep mute about a lot of trouble we face so that our children can be comfortable in their schools. It’s very tough for him. He is ridiculed for looking different and that his mother is a maid.”

The community is demanding for help lines for women seeking asylums and effective partnerships with different Human Rights agencies across the world for aid. Rosaline (name changed) a correspondent worker comments, “We want the government to reassess their policies regarding the refugees. Language has been another problem in this regard. Many speak Mizo, which people around cannot understand and Hindi becomes very tough for us. The abject poverty and lack of employment opportunities make it worse”

Due to the pervasive gender based violence, the women are in constant state of anxiety and fear. They are aware of the vulnerability of their socio-political status for they don’t fit into any domain of assured security in the country. The lack of institutional legal support makes them the scapegoats in workplaces and in their personal ghettos. They are grossly exploited of their labour and their complaints are neither followed up or given any effective redress.

Signifiers of their physical dissension in the capital make them identifiable targets of implosive racial profiling and violence. Add to this, the financial hardships, and it boils down to them being an abysmally vulnerable section of humanity, where the label of political asylum seekers does nothing in the name of normative legal aid of altruism and global comradeship. These events are not isolated but emblematic of the challenges that refugee Diasporas face in India. Hate crimes and ethnic cleansings have not been something new, but the rotting picture of old times.

When one talks of local integration as an effective route to solving many related problems, it is not merely an abstracted concept that can be transplanted in the diversity that India is, with its numerous fissures in its social fabric. Social structures have inherent hierarchies and institutionalised stratification deriving legitimacy from old traditions and political bodyguards. These structures can’t be broken down in a day with any Eurocentric fast tracked solutions. As believed by many optimist policy makers, voluntary repatriation will never become a normalised approach to seeing things in this regard with a ‘wait-and-see’ attitude.

Ethnic, transnational problems are very complex and require a thorough understanding of cultures, ethnicities and contextualised ethnic conflicts and differences. They require a change in the approach of studying the issue before a change in policy. Third country resettlements as a durable condition needs to be chalked out in a socially sensitive, comprehensive manner, inclusive of the local problems that a nation faces with the entry of foreign refugees in terms of accommodation, food, facilities and employment.

Forced migration, be it proactive or reactive,  and  mass expulsion due to religious and political persecution, poses an unprepared challenge to the host country in terms of structural constraints and resulting precipitating events with the amounting predisposed factors of the cause and the challenges of rehabilitation. One need to be very careful to parallel study the implications of migration on the receiving societies for that is one ignition point of fuelling further dissatisfaction and discord with the new crowds converging into a common denominator of violence.

The case of “protracted refugees”, commonly known as the ware house refugees, in exile for 5 years of more in a developing country is quite different from that of those in developed, first world nations. These sections are confined to segregated compartments and need to be constantly assisted with humanitarian needs, which pose a whole new challenge to countries who are themselves struggling to make their own ends meet. The marginalisation of these communities in spaces of transit camps comes with its own share of deplorable security and living conditions. The lack of a social and economic integration with the local spaces and culture due to structural bottlenecks of a requisite legal provision, or social assimilation, may have detrimental effects of the economic and social security of these sections. One has to be mindful of the irregular networks that are born out of the deprivation and desperation of these communities and ways to channelize their anxieties into productive ventures.

Any humanitarian agendas should be inclusive of all the humanitarian agents’ and actors. Establishing interdisciplinary approaches and experiential learning to engage and advocate for these communities a step forward. Research and education off campus also aids in gaining an insightful perceptive into their lives which helps to strengthen their voices.

Priyanka Dass Saharia is a Final year Post Graduate student at the Delhi School of Economics. She can be contacted at  priyankadasssaharia5@gmail.com

New Delhi (Press Note/ 13^th June 14): People’s Union for Civil Liberties condemns the attempt, in the guise of  an Intelligence Bureau (IB) report submitted to the Prime Minister of India, to intimidate, slander,  throttle and terrorise the voice of various citizens’ groups, NGOs and individuals, who raise people’s issues relating to the violations of their fundamental human rights guaranteed by the Indian constitution, concerns over violations of rights relating to their life, livelihood and wellbeing and the life – threatening  impact of `destructive development’ programmes adopted all across India.  The groups – individuals, citizens groups, funded NGOs and non-funded mass movements –  questioning the displacement of large populations and destruction of  environment by mega projects and risk to human life and survival posed by nuclear reactors, mining of radio-active minerals like uranium, the indiscriminate use of dirty sources of energy like coal and other hydro carbons and GMO have been tarred in the so called intelligence report as being a threat the `national economic security’ of India.

The dark irony and convoluted logic underlying the aforesaid IB report is that the Government wants citizens to blindly place trust and belief in the development paradigm advocated, particularly corporate led industrial expansionism, rapid urbanisation and rampant consumerism; this is notwithstanding the reality that the poor, excluded and marginalised sections are already facing immense hardships, exploitation and threat to their lives and well being because of the same policies. In actuality,  the economic growth process has already resulted in increasing economic vulnerability, social marginalisation and insecurity of the common citizen threatened by the loss of their lives and livelihood, displacement from their habitats, their resultant pauperisation and the destruction of their environment.

The IB report also alleges that citizens opposing development projects are agents of western powers. This is based on a cruel and perverse logic!  A government which is inviting foreign corporate investment from rich western countries wants Indian citizens to ignore the fact that these same corporate powers, supported by their countries, are seeking to climb out their own crippling,  economic stagnation by investing through their corporate capital in all kinds of mega projects in India irrespective of their harmful consequences to Indians. The IB, and by extension the Government of India, is not just agreeable but supportive of looting and plundering of the nation’s wealth in common resources, but is ready and willing to use the might of state power to repress and suppress people’s voices when they oppose such destructive development projects.

It is dark irony that those who repatriate profits earned in India by looting and plundering the nation’s wealth are feted as `patriots’ and those citizens who assert India’s and Indians’ rights over our vast common resources and protest against destructive development are dubbed `anti-national-economic interest’. Its a short distance from such typecasting to being arrested as `anti-national’ and seditious.

Environmental degradation is a real concern and the poor of this country bear the brunt of its ill effects – rising temperatures, poor rains, lack of safe drinking water and exposure to pollution resulting in not only chronic illnesses among the living but also affecting the unborn. All that NGOs are doing is reminding the government of its commitments under the Rio Convention, Agenda 21 and other UN Declarations. The organizations and the individuals who oppose indiscriminate plundering and destruction of natural resources are only fulfilling their fundamental duties under Article 51 A of the constitution which mandates that “it shall be the duty of every citizen of India to protect and improve the natural environment including forests, lakes, rivers and wild life and to have compassion for living creatures”.

The bogey of “foreign funding” is raised more to smear individual and groups challenging unfair, unjust inequitable and unsustainable state and corporate projects.  The IB and the PMO know that all NGOs who receive funds from foreign sources are subjected to the strict provisions of the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, 2010 where clearances are given by the Home Department and subjected to periodic stringent audits by the central government agencies.

It is neither PUCL’s nor anybody’s case that the NGOs receiving foreign or for that matter, even domestic funding, should not be transparent and accountable for the funds they receive and subject to the laws of the land. Any, and all, organisations are duty bound to be held accountable under the law if they violate laws and regulations governing their funding. Instead of initiating prosecutions against organisations found to be breaking the law, hurling the kind of scurrilous insinuation resorted to by the government as made in the leaked intelligence report, is nothing but an attempt to  throttle dissent from the dominant discourse on development. Much more sinister is the aim to silence people from their fundamental right to express dissent through words, non violent action, mobilisation, and forming associations to further their views.

While slandering them as foreign agents is the weapon of choice to intimidate NGOs receiving foreign funds, it was difficult to use against citizens’ organisations not receiving any foreign or domestic institutional funding like the PUCL, which too has been targeted by the so called IB report. It is shocking that a criticism of the so called Gujarat model of development and its ill effect on the poor and the marginalised people, and the participation in a seminar on this topic,  by the Gujarat PUCL and some other organisations, including Gandhian and Sarvodaya ones is alleged by the Intelligence Bureau to be anti national.

We only hope that this intelligence report is not a precursor to a more sinister anti democratic and repressive crackdown by the new government on dissent and other human and democratic rights of the people to further a corporate led economic agenda.

We would like to remind the new Central government, as also all the states, what the Supreme Court of India pointed out in `S. Rangarajan vs P. Jagjivan Ram’ (1994):

 “When men differ in opinion, both sides ought equally to have the advantage of being heard by the public.” (Benjamin Franklin). If one is allowed to say that policy of the Government is good, another is with equal freedom entitled to say that it is bad. If one is allowed to support the governmental scheme, the other could as well say, that he will not support it. The different views are allowed to be expressed by proponents and opponent not because they are correct, or valid but because there is freedom in this country for expressing even differing views on any issue”.

We therefore call upon the new BJP-led government to respect people’s right to articulate their views, including their fundamental right to dissent and protest peaceably and in democratic manner.

Sd/-                                                                                                                              

Prof. Prabhakar Sinha     

National President, PUCL

Dr. V. Suresh

National General Secretary, PUCL 

Kavita Srivastava

National Secretary

On the 16^th April, 2014, Chhindwara Bhaskar (local supplement of the newspaper Dainik Bhaskar) reported the incident of kidnapping and rape of a mute and handicapped minor girl in Chhindwara. Various other local newspapers such as Patrika and Nai Duniya also covered the issue and that is how the issue came into light. However, even after one and half months of the incident, neither had there been any progress in the case, nor had any help reached the survivor. Finally it was decided that an intervention is needed in this case. The case raises many questions about the delay in action by the police and the administration, about the complexity of the issue involving a minor with multiple disabilities and lack of supporting environment for a rape survivor.

1. Team

The fact finding team consisted of the following members:

1)      Daya Bai- social and human rights activist

2)      Ms Aradhana Bhargav- senior lawyer and social activist based in Chhindwara

3)      Ms Kranti and Ms Jyoti- members of Jan Sahas, Dewas, an NGO fighting against atrocities against women

4)      Ms Kanika Sharma- social worker from TISS, Mumbai

2. The Incident

This incident involves atrocity against a 15 year old girl who is mute and has paralysis in one hand since birth. She belongs to an adivasi family, which migrated from a near-by village to Chhindwara 10 years ago and now both parents and two elder brothers work as daily wage labourers. The family lives in a rented kuchcha house in Koldhana area.

According to the mother of the survivor, at around 5 pm on the 13^thof April, 2014, the girl had gone to the old Nagpur Naka (the near-by market) with 10 Rs to buy a packet of biscuits. She went missing after that. While searching for her, the family was informed that she was last spotted at a temple, which is around 500 meters from their house, and within 50 meters from the old Nagpur naka.

On 14^thApril at around 9 pm, the girl came back home on her own. She was in a distraught state, her clothes were different and she was continuously crying. She then communicated to her mother that a man in a motorbike (red in colour) had taken her to a house where four men, including him, “did wrong to her”. It was her mother who realized that she was raped.

3. Findings on the actions taken so far

FIR

Late in the night of 14^th, the family went to the police station to lodge the FIR. The procedures took time and the FIR was registered at around 4 am on 15^th April 2014. Sections 363 and 376 of IPC were applied.

The FIR was lodged by the mother, who is not literate and therefore, the nature of the complaint was oral. It is important to note that in the FIR, in four places it has been pointed out that the girl is “mand-buddhi” (mentally “slow” or developmentally disabled). However, in our interactions with the girl, we found out that she understands and remembers everything and tells the same points about the incident each time. Therefore, we feel that this over-stressing on her being “mand-buddhi” and being “unable to tell much specifically” about the incident, has been done to weaken the case.

Problematic medical examination process

On the 15^thof April, the girl underwent a medical examination. The report of the examination has not been given to the family and neither was it available to us. However, a news report published in ChhindwaraBhaskar, dated 18^th April 2014 (see annexure 2), reported that in the medical report, the examiner has stated that girl is “sabhogkiaadi (habituated to sex)”.Furthermore, the SP told the Times of India journalist, on 4^th June 2014, that in the medical report, it has been stated that there is ‘old tear in the hymen’. It is ethically, legally and scientifically wrong to state in the medical report of an examination of hymenal tears or habitiuation to sex. Additionally, the hymen can tear because of a variety of factors, including heavy work or exercise. A hymenal tear does not establish whether a girl has had sex or not. Therefore, going by these two points, we strongly suspect that not just in the report but also in the process of medical examination, medical protocols and guidelines have been flouted.

Delays in recording statements

The statements of the girl were recorded on 28^thApril, two weeks after the FIR was registered. This caused a loss of crucial time and halted any possible progress in the case. However, in the meantime, it has been reported that the police tried to question the girl in the city Kotwali. The SP himself said that he met the girl in the Thana where she was “unable to tell anything”. The girl should have never been called, let alone questioned, in the police station as the law clearly states that minors and women must not be called to the police station for any enquiries.

Finally, when the experts came from Jabalpur, the statements were taken in front of the Magistrate. This happened in a closed room, where even the mother of the girl was not allowed. What happened behind the closed doors remains unclear to us but according to another news report on 29^th April (see annexure 3), “the girl was unable to tell anything about the accused even in the court and therefore, no progress could be made in the case.”

4. Points from the case diary

On 9th June, in the meeting with the Town Inspector (TI) who is currently the investigating officer, the case diary was shown to the team. Following points from the case diary confirm the aforementioned problems with actions taken by the police

1)        In the medical report, it has been clearly stated that “two finger test” was performed on the girl. This test has been banned in India.

2)      In the medical report, it has been written that the girl is habituated to sex.

3)      There is also a certificate from the district medical board which states that the girl has 60% mental retardation. The mother is unaware of any such test being conduct on the daughter.

4)      In the statements recorded in front of the magistrate and the experts on 28th April, the experts wrote that the girl said there was only one man who raped her. This again is a contradiction to the fact that the girl has clearly stated to us that she was raped by four men.

5)      The police says that the rikshaw puller, Bablu Dole, in whose house the girl was raped and seen in the morning, has admitted that he dropped the girl on the evening of 14th in his rikshaw and therefore, he is the accused. However, the girl has clearly stated to us that she never sat on any rikshaw in the period of her kidnapping. She has also confirmed that Bablu, who is older than the other four accused, did not rape her.

5. In-action by Police and administration

• No substantial progress in the case in more than one and half months
• No compensation and rehabilitation efforts for the rape survivor
• Mistreatment by the police, calling the girl “mad” and telling her mother to send her to mental asylum
• Blaming the victim and her family for being non-cooperative

6. Interactions with survivor and her mother

The team interacted with girl twice on different days and she communicated the exact same things through her expressions, which were further communicated to us through her mother who was present both times.

Following are the important points that came out in the interactions:

1)      The girl has a sharp memory. She remembers everything about the incident and when asked with patience and in a place and a manner she is comfortable with, she communicates everything.

2)      The girl was taken on a red motor-cycle by a man who wore two rings in his hands.

3)      He took her to Sukludhana area.

4)      She clearly tells that she was raped by 4 men, pointing 4 fingers each time.

5)      After the rape, she was given different clothes to wear in the morning. She was also told to take bath, which she did

6)      She was dropped to the Bus Stand, near the tomb of KamliWaale Baba, by another accused in the motor-cycle.

7)      She walked home from there, a distance of almost 4 kilometers, in a distraught condition.

7. Meeting with SP

Between the two interactions with the girl, the members of the team also met the Superintendent of Police, Mr. P. Sharma and briefed about the case on 4^th June, 2014. At first, he said that the girl was unable to tell anything but after we told him about our interaction with her, he made following assurances:

• Changing the Investigating officer
• Transferring the case to Women Cell
• Immediate arrest of the suspect, who is in fact the accused as per the girl
• Financial help/compensation to the girl as per the procedure

None of these assurances have been fulfilled in the last 5 days. There has been an arrest of Bablu Dole on 6th, however, he is not the accused and therefore, this is a fabrication of the case.

8. Visit to the location of crime

The team then went with the girl and her mother to the place where she had been taken after kidnapping on the evening of 13^th April 2014. The family had also taken the police to the location on 15^th April but despite that, the police could not find out much about the accused whereas the team, which visited the spot after more than one and half months of the incident, found important leads related to the four accused. Following are the main points from the visit to location:

1)      The girl was taken to the Sukludhana area of Chhindwara, which is within 100 meter of the Kundipura Police Station

2)      She was first kept in the house of one of the accused, where she also saw the mother of the accused, who she identified during the visit. The mother of the accused, a woman who called herself Sudama, after seeing the team and the girl, quickly came out of the house.

3)      She was then taken to a kucchha house, 30 meters from the house where she was kept earlier. This was the house of the uncle of the accused.

4)      It was in the kuccha house that she was raped.

5)      The kuchha house belongs to Bablu Dole who is a riksha-puller. He, however, was not one of the four accused.

6)      Three women who live next to the house identified the girl and said that they saw her sitting alone outside the house in the morning of 14^th April. One of them, realizing that something was wrong, asked the girl to go to the police station with her but the girl was too scared to do that. The women also saw her fetching water from the tap near the house and taking bath.

7)      One of the women informed that unlawful activities keep happening in this house but no one raises any voice.

8)      While we were investigating the location, suddenly the girl got very scared as she saw one of the accused peeping from the other house. Clearly, the girl indentifies all the accused. We had to stop the investigation there as she was visibly very scared and it was not safe to continue with the investigation

9. Identities of the accused

After investigation of the location and identification of the two houses, the team took local help in finding out the identities of the four accused. Different sources revealed following names/identities of the accused, based on the facts collected and provided by the team:

1)      Bhola Dole, son of Krishna Dole

2)      Rinku Dole, son of Rameshwar Dole

3)      Son of ASI/SI posted at the Kundipura police station

4)      Son of the Patel from Chand

The team also got following information:

• The four accused were going for the Hanuman rally on the 13^th when they saw the girl. They signaled her to come towards them and then kidnapped her.
• The red motor-cycle on which the girl was taken to Sukludhana is of the ASI/SI. He still rides it.
• The first two accused, Bhola Dole and Rinku Dole are nephews of Bablu Dole, in whose house the girl was raped.
• Demands: 1)      Immediately initiate the procedure for identification of accused by the survivor and arrest them.2)      Record the statements of the girl again in a sensitive manner. Ensure that she is comfortable while recording the statement or enquiring.

  3)      Prepare a map of the location of the crime and record the statements of people living near the two houses

  4)      Immediately file the charge-sheet against the four accused. It is a clear case of kidnapping and gang-rape of a minor.

  5)      Ensure fast track trail of the case, so criminals are punished and justice is done to the girl.

  Regarding efforts for reparation and rehabilitation for the survivor:

  1. Medical help to the survivor
  2. Immediate and rightful monetary compensation
  3. Future security of the survivor. Efforts must be taken for her education.

  For further details Contact:  Advocate Aradhna Bhargav- 09425146991, Kanika Sharma – 07588480386, Daya Bai, Ms Kranti and Ms Jyoti