Background
25th November is commemorated as the International Day for Elimination of Violence against women. This movement takes its base in the 1960 murder of the Mirabel sisters. This day is to raise awareness about the violence that women across the world face. One of the primary goals of UN’s sustainable development is to eliminate all forms of violence against all women and girls in the public and private spheres, including trafficking and sexual and other types of exploitation. The events are flagged of under the banner of “16 Days Activism.”
The 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence is an international campaign that takes place each year. It was originated by activists at the inaugural Women’s Global Leadership Institute in 1991 and continues to be coordinated each year by the Center for Women’s Global Leadership. It is used as an organizing strategy by individuals and organizations around the world to call for the prevention and elimination of violence against women and girls. António Guterres, the United Nations Secretary-General’s UNiTE by 2030 to End Violence against Women campaign (UNiTE Campaign), calls for global action to increase awareness, galvanise advocacy efforts and share knowledge and innovations.[1]
Important Statistics
Uttar Pradesh recorded the maximum number of crimes against women with 56,011 cases in 2017, while Madhya Pradesh registered the highest number of rape cases at 5562 cases. Delhi has the highest crime rate in the country with 1050 crimes committed per 1 lakh of the population as listed under IPC. Kerala has the second highest in the crime rate with 656 crimes committed per one lakh of its population. The number of crimes committed against women increased in 2017 by 6% compared to 2016 figures and 9% compared to 2015 figures. In 2001, the percentage of total population of Kerala to that of India was on 3.1%, but the reported cases of atrocities against women in the state was more that 5%.the Women’s Commission that was instituted in 1996 in the same year registered 2,092 cases of which 300 was related to dowry, 191 to dowry death, 128 rapes cases, 228 cases of harassment at workplace and 360 various other atrocities against women.
As per the report 3, 59, 849 cases of crime against women were reported in the country. Majority of cases under crime against women were registered under:
• Cruelty by Husband or Relatives – 27.9%
• Assault on Women with Intent to Outrage her Modesty-21.7%
• Kidnapping and Abduction of Women-20.5%
• Rape-7%.[2]
Orange the World: Generation Equality Stands Against Rape!
Rape is a huge issue that plagues the world today. While the names, times and contexts may differ, women and girls universally experience rape, sexual violence, and abuse, in times of both peace and war. The stigma associated with rape makes it hard for the survivors to speak out about their harrowing experiences. But the winds are slowly changing. With the campaigns such as #MeToo, #TimesUp, #Niunamenos, #NotOneMore, #BalanceTonPorc, and others, survivors are speaking out and this is slowing brewing up a storm that can no longer be ignored. The theme is an opportunity to call out and speak against this perverse rape culture that surrounds us.
It would quite easy to say both on paper as well as in news, ‘Let there not be another Nirbhaya or Soumya’, however won’t the actual picture be quite difficult to achieve?
And yes, we can point our fingers at everyone else, but the day we end that and recognise that, in fact we are the ones to be blamed for such an environment, that would be the day when change would begin. A change that could influence our thought process, cause changing our perspective at which we look, would make all the difference and so treating any form of rape as rarest of rare, would help to eliminate such a violent crime. Be it the Walayar judgement or the Ambalapuzha judgement, the fault is ours. We let that happen and now we must change the fault and mend the wrong done.
Every 10 minutes a woman is getting sexually exploited in some corner of the country. But not all these incidents get reported. This is mainly because there is of the stigma surrounding this crime, there is an urgent need for the society to stigmatise rape and not the survivors of rape. Fear of ostracization, no proper protection for witnesses (evident in the Unnao rape case) are other reasons that prevent people from speaking out about their experiences. CCRRA proposes to host a roundtable discussion on this sensitive issue on the occasion of “International Day of Elimination of Violence against Women” with the following objectives.
Objectives:
- To sensitise the stakeholders on sexual violence.
- To create a road map that will bring together stakeholders for proper implementation of legislations regarding crimes against women.
- To strengthen the system to will ensure that no victim is denied justice.
References:
- https://www.unwomen.org/en/what-we-do/ending-violence-against-women/take-action/16-days-of-activism
- Hindu Article- Decoding the NCRB dated on 22/10/2019.
Aishwarya Says:
I have always been against Glorifying Over Work and therefore, in the year 2021, I have decided to launch this campaign “Balancing Life”and talk about this wrong practice, that we have been following since last few years. I will be talking to and interviewing around 1 lakh people in the coming 2021 and publish their interview regarding their opinion on glamourising Over Work.
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We are also running a series Inspirational Women from January 2021 to March 31,2021, featuring around 1000 stories about Indian Women, who changed the world. #choosetochallenge