People's Democracy
(Weekly Organ of the Communist Party of India (Marxist)
No. 41
October 13, 2013
|
Vol. XXXVII
No. 41 October 13, 2013 |
AIDWA
TEAM VISITS MUZAFFAR NAGAR Rioting
in Name of Honour in ‘Honour’ ON October 5, a delegation of the All India
Democratic Women’s Association (AIDWA) visited some of
the camps set up for the
riot affected people in Muzaffar Nagar, Uttar Pradesh.
The delegation, which
comprised Sehba Farooqui (general secretary of the
AIDWA’s Delhi state unit),
Madhu Garg (president of its UP state unit), Seema Rana
(secretary of the
Lucknow unit), Asha Sharma (working president of Delhi
unit), Anjana Jha
(treasurer of the Delhi unit) and Maimoona Mollah (vice
president of Delhi
unit), met a large number of violence affected women in
the camps. The delegation first went to Jogiakhera, a
village in tehsil Budhana. Most of the affected people
here are from village
Fugana, one of the worst affected villages. Fugana
village in this tehsil has a
population of somewhere between 20 and 25 thousand.
Muslim population here is
about 3,500. The attack took place on September 8
morning. There are five
reported cases of rape (all gang rape) from this area –
all of Muslim women. The delegation then went to another
village, Loyi, where there is a camp housing about 3,700
people from many
villages --- Hisad, Lakh, Bahavdi, Kharad, Fugana,
Hasanpur, etc. About 80
percent of the people in this camp are from Fugana. The delegation also heard the background in
which the incidents took place. This confirmed many of
the details that have
already been reported in the media. The AIDWA report
mainly focusses on the riot’s
impact on women in the violence affected areas. ABOUT
THE DISTRICT
Muzaffar Nagar has often been in the news
for wrong reasons, primarily because of its dismal
record with regard to women's
status. Sex ratio is an abysmal 889 females per 1000
males. Child sex ratio is
even more pathetic: 863/1000. Female literacy is only
58.69 as against the
average literacy rate of 69.12 percent. Most of the
girls are not able to
pursue their studies beyond matriculation; only the
fortunate ones are able to
go to a college. Muzaffar Nagar is an area where women have
been targets of sexual harassment --- some reported but
most of these going unreported.
Girls of both communities suffer sexual harassment and
the perpetrators of the
crime are also from both communities. Nor is it that the
perpetrator and the
victim necessarily belong to different communities. But
this reality was
deliberately covered up in the recent build-up to the
violence. Muzaffar Nagar district also has the
dubious distinction of having the highest number of
‘honour’ killings in UP ---
an average of one to two killings a month. The khap panchayats have especially been
active in cases of ‘honour’
killing and women of both communities have been targets
of violence in
different ways. Some of the recently affected villages,
Fugana
for example which is the centre of communal killing and
rape, have witnessed
such honour killings in the past. It was in this very
village, where rapes of
Muslim women during this communal carnage occurred, that
had seen the stripping
and killing of a young Hindu girl by her community in
2006, a victim of ‘honour’
killing. The point here is that the deeply patriarchal
and anti-women concept
of so-called honour has made women of both communities
its victims. Today, young girls of both communities are
greatly affected – they fear even going to school or
college. It is a measure of the criminal and cynical
planning of communal forces that they deliberately chose
an issue of so-called
honour in an area known for ‘honour’ killings to incite
communal hatred and
organised a communal carnage in the name of bahu-beti
bachao (Save Our Daughters &
Daughters-in-Law), ostensibly to curb
sexual harassment in the area. One incident was given a
communal colour by the
BJP and RSS which are actively working in the area to
polarise people on
communal lines. The result was the worst incident of
communal violence the area
has ever seen, in which it was the Muslim minority
community which suffered the
worst violence and many Muslim women were sexually
assaulted. SEXUAL
ASSAULTS & MISSING
CHILDREN Regarding
the cases of sexual assault, there were five cases of
rape reported to the
delegation. In four cases, FIRs have been registered but
no statements have
been recorded under section 164 which is mandatory for
the filing of a
chargesheet. In two of these, cases no MLC was done. So
far not a single person
has been arrested, even though these are named reports. The
delegation was told that there have been many more cases
of sexual assault and
molestation but women and especially young girls who
were the victims are too
shocked to speak. The delegation met almost all the victims
who have registered cases of rape. All the names have been changed in the
following cases of sexual assault. 1) Saba
w/o Saleem: 2) Sameena: At around 10
am Rupesh, Ramvir and Bhim came,
raped her and burnt her house. The assaulters threw out
her two years old
daughter who was injured in the process. 3) Qudsia:
At around 2 pm, five boys, all her neighbours came ---
Sunil (s/o Sadhu),
Devender (s/o Harpal), and Ramesh (s/o Virma), Ramkumar
(s/o Patvari) and
Joginder (s/o Pradhan).
Ramesh tore her
clothes, while Sunil, Devinder and Ramkumar raped her. Qudsia tried
to run but they pulled her back.
When she resisted, they banged her head against the wall
which incapacitated
Qudsia. At around 4 p m, the force came, rescued her and
brought her to Loyi
village. 4) Farida
w/o Salman: Farida was making rotis
when they came at 2 p m. When she tried to run, they
pulled her back by her
plait. Farida then hid in the pen, but the attackers saw
it and almost
throttled her. They were five boys – Sachin, Vedpal,
Shani, Ajit and Yogesh.
Sachin and Vedpal broke her shalwar
strap and raped her. Before the others could come
forward, Farida ran towards
the jungle and came to the madrasa in village Loyi. 5) Salma
w/o Nasir from Fugana: Six people raped her. She is
currently recuperating in
the hospital. 6) Sabeena
from Fugana: Sabeena narrated the plight of her family.
When the rioters came
they were shocked as they had no inkling of an impending
attack. She said that
she and both her daughters aged 16 and 22 were molested
and told to stay back,
but Sabeena’s family did not stop. The attackers burnt
the house; Sabeena and
family ran and reached Jogiakhera through the jungle
route. Saleema from Khera
Mastan said though they were not attacked, but they ran
out of fear. The rape survivors we met told the
delegation that they recognised and identified the
rapists, knew their names
and had courageously registered FIRs against them. Yet
none have been arrested,
mocking their trauma and pain. There have been many cases of parents
losing their grip on the children who were running with
them. The children have
since gone missing and so far there are no efforts by
the administration to
trace them: Mohammad
Altaf is a hawker; he sells cloth. While he was running
after the riots broke
out, he lost his grip on his five years old daughter who
fell down and is now
missing. Naeem’s
five month old child Rehana was in his arms, but fell
down while she was running.
The child is missing. PLIGHT
OF THE
VICTIMS The
victims are now scared to go home. The added trauma for
women is that their
assaulters were people from their own village. There is
thus a feeling of
terror and insecurity which is preventing them from
going back to their village
homes. Unable
to go back home, the families living in camps are now
homeless. Those who are
not in the camps and are living with other families as
in Jogiakhera, there is
added trauma of adjusting with other families while
waiting for rehabilitation. Considering
the fact that the riot affected people are in deep
trauma, there are no
counselling centres for them. The
victims, including pregnant women and victims of sexual
assault, are having to
go to Shamli district hospital for treatment. Living
in open tents for long has its own health hazards and
towards that the
administration has so far paid no attention. Most of
the camps have been set up and managed and taken care of
by concerned citizens.
UP government ought to step in and provide relief. The
insecurity continues. There is palpable tension in the
area and there seems to
be no effort from the administration towards easing of
tension. We got
a feedback from camp managers that they would require
tarpaulin to cover the
tents. The AIDWA has provided tarpaulin for about 65
such tents. The
attacks were pre-planned. The BJP and RSS captured the mahapanchayat,
made communal speeches, and orchestrated communal
conflagration. Most of the
attacks are reported to have started in the morning on
the same day --- September
8. The
people attacked are poor and backward caste Muslims ---
sheikh, badhai, lohaar,
dhobi, julaaha, nilgarh (rangrez), qureshi, teli, etc.
The ‘upper caste’
Muslims like Mula Jats, Rajputs and Tyagis were not the
main targets. The
victims were working in the fields or enterprises of the
attackers. This was
probably one way, as it were, of showing the workers
their place --- to keep
them subdued. Only in
one area, Joli, there were casualties from both
communities. In the rest of the
places, it was one-sided --- Muslims were attacked. The
administration was unresponsive. There was failure or
inordinate delay in
action, which caused both human and material casualties. It was also
reported to the delegation that
whoever among the police officers worked impartially to
uphold the rule of law,
was transferred. Though
some of the BJP leaders including their MLAs have been
arrested, many of the
rioters are still roaming free, adding to the fear
psychosis of the victims. Those
who killed Gaurav and his brother also have not been
arrested so far. URGENT
STEPS REQUIRED The
AIDWA delegation has demanded the following measures: 1) Expedite
all cases of rape, murder and arson. 2) Arrest
all those guilty of communal attacks and violence. 3) Take
urgent action in all the rape cases. Arrest all those
named by the victims.
Record victims’ statements under Section 164. 4) Arrest
the killers of Gaurav and his brother. 5) Send
a team of women counsellors from trained agencies and
representatives of
women’s organisations to the camps and affected areas to
meet the victims. They
can bring the victims out of the trauma they are in. The
counsellors would also
be able to instil confidence in the women to speak up
about the violence meted
out to them during the riots. 6) There
still is palpable tension in the area. To ease the
atmosphere the UP government
should initiate concrete confidence building measures
immediately. 7) People
are scared to go back to their homes. The government
must therefore help create
a conducive environment for people to return. 8) UP government
should step up relief measures and continue them until
the affected people are
rehabilitated. 9) UP government
must chalk out a rehabilitation plan for the victims of
the communal violence
and implement it immediately. Since most of those
attacked are poor Muslims,
there is an urgency to provide them the means of
livelihood. 10) The
UP government should reinstate those officers who were
abruptly transferred
because of their impartial approach. The AIDWA delegation plans to meet the
chief minister of UP in order to follow up on the relief
and rehabilitation of
the victims of violence and the progress in the cases of
sexual assault. Azra's
Case AZRA Khatoon is a nine years old girl from
Baori village in Shamli district adjoining Muzaffar
Nagar. Her family comprises
seven sisters and three brothers. Azra’s family was
among those attacked during
the September 8 riots in Muzaffar Nagar and adjoining
Shamli. Her seven years old
cousin sister, paternal grandmother, and uncle (father’s
brother) were killed
in the riot. Her mother and five years old sister were
injured after they were
shot at. They were being treated at Shamli government
hospital and later at
Muzaffar Nagar district hospital. Azra suffered a deep
cut on her stomach and
more grievous and damaging injury on her right hand
after she was slashed by a
sickle. Accompanied by her father and maternal
grandmother, she is currently being treated at the
Trauma Centre at the All
India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Luckily, there was no organ damage and her
wound on the stomach is healing. But doctors are worried
that she may not be
able to move her right hand (wrist onwards) ever
again. The AIIMS Trauma Centre has promised to
bear the cost of her treatment at the hospital. The
Uttar Pradesh government,
too, has come forward to help Azra’s family. Little Azra is currently in a lot of pain
and unable to speak much but has expressed the desire to
study further. The
