Cabinet Minister Kiren Rijiju said in the Rajya Sabha that 1,10,333 rape cases have been registered from 2014-2016. In 2015, 34,651 rape cases were registered and in 2019, 38,947 rape cases were registered. In 2016, 3 lakh 38 thousand 9 hundred 54 cases of sexual abuse were registered. According to the 2006 National Crime Bureau report, 71% of rape cases are not registered.
These are not just statistics, they are human lives! Who had to face the heinous crime. Apart from this, most women have to face sexual abuse continuously in their daily lives. A woman means a 10-month-old baby as well as an 80-year-old woman. Making sexual comments or jokes on someone, touching, looking at them with lewd eyes, staring, asking personal sexual questions, spreading sexual rumors about someone, all these are forms of sexual abuse. Sexual abuse is not only faced by women alone, but a large number of children (both boys and girls) fall victim to it.
According to the 2017 report of the National Crime Records Bureau, a child is sexually abused every 15 minutes in India. The report released by Indian Home Minister Rajnath Singh said that 1,06,958 cases of crimes against children were registered in 2016. Out of these, 36,022 cases were registered under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act. In 2015, there were 94,172 cases of violence against children, up from 89,423 in 2014. According to a 2007 report by the Indian Women and Child Development, 53 percent of children said they had experienced some kind of sexual abuse.
Doctors believe that children’s cases are much more complicated than adults’. They do not know the names of body parts, words related to sexual activity. That is why children say that uncle is not good, they should not be approached, they are dirty. If children are not understood, it can have an impact on their entire life. Victims of sexual abuse can go into depression. Sometimes they cannot forget the incident for the rest of their lives. They may develop sexual dysfunction, sometimes they lose self-confidence.
Some words that broke the silence:-
Even after many years, Komal (name changed), who lives in UP, could not tell her about the incident that happened to her at the age of 14 at her home.
“I used to tie Rakhi to him every year, but he was thinking about me, I don’t know what. I didn’t know when his laughter turned into teasing.”
“Whenever we were alone, he would not leave a single opportunity to take advantage. I understood everything, but I couldn’t tell anyone.”
One such case is that of Deepika (name changed) from Bihar. Deepika had to go through this horrific incident when she was just seven years old.
Deepika says, “People often say that they want to go back to their childhood, but I don’t want to go back to my childhood. I am scared of him. I regret till this day that I couldn’t say anything.”
“I was seven years old when it all started with me. He had been working at our house and shop for many years, even before I was born. The family had complete trust in him. When there was no one in the shop, he would make me sit on his lap. I didn’t like it, but I didn’t understand what he was doing.” “My fear of him increased. I didn’t want to come near him. But, sometimes my mother would give me food, sometimes she would call him, send him to his room.”
“I used to say that I would not go to my uncle’s house, but my family did not understand the reason. They thought that I would say anything like that when I was a child, but I could not say the whole thing even if I wanted to a million times. I could never find the right words, the right way. Deepika also gradually reduced her visits to her relatives.
She said, “I gradually started distancing myself from the guests who came to my house. If any uncle or maternal uncle came, I would stay away from them. I would remember that uncle only when they touched me or took me in their arms. Every touch seemed wrong.”
(Source- BBC News)
The capitalist development that took place in India in a special way never tried to abolish feudal values, but instead, using it, has made women stand in the middle of the market and made them an object to be bought and sold like commodities. This structure changed the feudal anti-women values only to the extent that it was in its own interest, women gradually gained the freedom to go out of the house. But feudal values (household chores remained the share of women, the one who enjoyed, the head was always the man who made all the decisions, the ghost of honor has been attached to women in the past and still is, practices like Devadasi are still here today, many virgins are associated with women during menstruation, even not letting their shadow fall on a plant so that it does not dry up, not stepping foot in the kitchen, in different religious institutions women are considered impure during menstruation, at that time either there is a complete ban on worship or permission to follow religious beliefs after purification, etc.) have become shackles. The remaining efforts to not see women as human beings have been done by the media, the film industry. Pornography, exhibition of women’s bodies, technology came but its big hand was seen in giving birth to a sick mentality because technology is also in the hands of those who make profit. Porn films have reached even a 10-year-old child! With this, the aim is to promote bestiality by destroying human moral values. Porn companies say that India is the world’s largest developing market, third after America and England. The result of this is crimes against humanity like rape, gang rape, amputation, filling stones in private parts, murder, sexual exploitation of children, which are constantly increasing instead of decreasing.
To get rid of such an environment, the sensitive progressive section of the society will have to unite and stand firm against the anti-women mentality. Half the population (women) will have to come out of the four walls and fight for their rights. This fight is not only about being anti-men, but it is also about the complete abolition of profit-oriented commodity production and private property. It is impossible to make this structure pro-human in any way, but in the meantime, there are steps to fight against all kinds of exploitation, injustice, oppression and create a pro-people structure. Women can only fight against all forms of oppression by standing shoulder to shoulder with the entire working class. Like Ho Chi Minh’s poem, we will have to advise ourselves and promise ourselves to participate in the struggle to change society.
[ 4 ] Pregnant women and children suffering from malnutrition in the capitalist system??
Malnutrition and hunger have once again become a topic of discussion after the ‘Global Hunger Index Report’ released on October 12 and the recent death of an 11-year-old girl due to hunger in Simdiga district of Jharkhand. According to the ‘Global Hunger Index’ report, which measures how many people in a country are getting what kind of food, India has been ranked 100th out of 119 countries suffering from hunger. Nepal and Bangladesh are also in a better position than India.
According to this report, 21% of children under 5 years of age are malnourished in India. The weight of children under 5 years of age is very low for their height and one-third of children are short for their age. If we look at the separate statistics of boys and girls, then according to this report, 30.7% of boys and 22.7% of girls are victims of malnutrition from childhood to adolescence.
The problem of malnutrition in children has been present in India for a very long time. But now, for the last few years, a different trend of diseases is being seen in the poorer families. Despite having the same food and drink in the family, some children are underweight and some are obese.
According to the statistics of ‘Imperial College of London’ and ‘World Health Organization’, one in 50 children in India is a victim of obesity. 40 years ago, the problem of obesity in India was negligible, according to that, if we look at the current statistics, then this problem is also worth considering. Some of the causes of obesity are excessive idleness and junk food, which we are all already aware of. But in a country like India, where about 70% of the population is living on less than Rs 20 per day and where such figures of hunger are being seen, this cannot be the only reason for the increasing number of children suffering from obesity. So, we will have to look at the concrete reasons behind this. Scientists are also researching this subject.
According to a scientist named David Barker, the cause of obesity in children from poor families is malnutrition in pregnant women.
During pregnancy, a woman needs an average of 300 calories more energy than a normal person and for the proper development of the fetus, some specific elements are needed more, which can be fulfilled only by eating food in the right quantity and in the right way. But in India, due to the second-class status of women, many pregnant women get less food than a normal person. According to the National Health Survey, 2014-15, 23% of women in India are victims of malnutrition. 50% of pregnant women in the age group of 15 to 49 years are suffering from anemia. Malnutrition in pregnant women increases the rate of death during pregnancy and childbirth and the rate of miscarriage. A double whammy is seen in the children of malnourished pregnant women, which has been mentioned earlier that some children are very weak and some children are victims of obesity.
If we try to understand Barker’s theory in more detail, according to this, if the fetus does not get proper nutrition due to malnutrition in the pregnant woman, then it adapts itself to a diet of less food. The vital organs of the fetus such as the heart, brain, lungs, kidneys, etc. start working on less energy. Then after the birth of the child, these organs cannot use much energy and the food starts accumulating on the child’s body in the form of fat. In the long run, these children are at increased risk of diabetes, high blood pressure and other heart diseases. ‘Lifestyle’ diseases like diabetes, high blood pressure, which were till now considered diseases caused by the lifestyle of the rich, which is why they were given this name, are now being seen in the poor class as well. Barker’s opinion can help us understand this too.
Barker’s opinion helps us understand one aspect of this problem, but it is not enough to understand the issue. To understand this issue in depth, we have to understand the economic, social and political system of India. Today, science and technology have reached a point where the necessary conditions for the life of every person can be fulfilled. Yet, every third hungry person in the world is an Indian. While on one hand a small population, which has private ownership of the means of production, has an abundance of facilities, on the other hand a large population, which is engaged in production, is suffering from this scourge of malnutrition, which is affecting not only the present suffering but also the future generations. It can be said that on the one hand there are islands of the wealthy and on the other hand there are oceans of poverty.
According to a report, in the last 6 years about 62,000 tons of food grains, mainly rice, have been send.
[ 5 ] ‘My Choice’: Another form of women’s slavery??
Recently, a two and a half minute video of film actress Deepika Padukone ‘My Choice’ was released on a website called ‘YouTube’. Directed by Homi Adajania, the things said in the name of women’s liberation in this video have sparked a lot of debates and controversies, which have become a hot topic on social media and film news channels. The video talks about women’s personal choice in opposition to the male-dominated society imposing restrictions on women’s dress, lifestyle, etc., and issuing fatwas. The debate that arose after this has touched upon many issues ranging from women’s freedom to human relationships, etc., which we will discuss here. We will come to the views expressed in it later, but before that, let us talk about the guardians of medieval values who have come forward in response to it, who have come forward in the form of numerous individuals, institutions and organizations, among which we talk about the statement of Rajni Thakural of Durga Vahini.
Durga Vahini is the women’s wing of the radical Hindu organization Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, whose main camp is in Aurangabad (Maharashtra). Rajni Thakural, the head of Durga Vahini, says that this video is against “Hindu culture”. Durga Vahini sees the “liberation” of Indian women in following medieval feudal values and rituals. According to Durga Vahini, women should not have any freedom to wear the clothes of their choice, choose a spouse, get education, or be financially independent. It wants to keep women imprisoned within the four walls of the house, engaged in the service of their husband and God, and a machine for producing children. For this reason, various faces, including the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and Durga Vahini, sometimes advise women to have four children each, and sometimes declare rape victims guilty of rape with different “logics”. This is not only the understanding of the radical Hindu forces, but a large section of our society is sick of this mentality. Many people even today are in favor of keeping women tied to the stove, imposing restrictions on their attire, banning them from working outside the home, and depriving them of the right to choose their profession and life partner. For this reason, today our society is full of heinous crimes like mistreatment of women, domestic violence, rape, even today thousands of young people are killed every year in the name of honor. These values, which have been passed down since the Middle Ages, have become a burden on our society today, and their bold rejection is the urgent need of the hour. Opposing them, abandoning them is the condition of being human in today’s times.
The video in question has also actually come out in opposition to these already prevalent values and concepts, and again, it was from the very foundation of these values and concepts that this video was opposed on a large scale. But in this video, the life-examination of medieval values was opposed from the ideological stance of “absolute” freedom from all kinds of social relations, which in reality does not liberate women but only perpetuates their slavery. It advocates taking women out of medieval restrictions and making them slaves to the forces of the market, where all human relationships and emotions lose their meaning and only profit becomes dominant. This video is actually a mask, we will have to identify the real forces and ideology behind this mask so that the true root and essence of these ideas can be captured.
For this discussion, it is necessary to first understand the structure of the current Indian society. The development from feudalism to capitalism in India did not happen through a revolutionary process, which is why the values and culture of the feudal era were not harmed in India and even today the medieval feudal values are dominant in our society. The anti-women mentality in our society, male supremacy, keeping women tied to the hearth and the kitchen, imposing restrictions on their dress, profession and choice of life partner are the results of this. Along with this, after 1947, the process of capitalist development started in India from above and later, imperialist capital also entered here in the form of Indian capitalism becoming a small partner of the imperialist powers. In capitalism, everything is handed over to the forces of the market. From common necessities like bread and water to human relationships and emotions, the desire for profit becomes dominant in everything. Under this, the body, beauty and emotions of women are also made a means of earning profit. It can be said that instead of slavery in the form of oppression and restrictions of the feudal era, the slavery of women comes to the fore in the capitalist era as an object of the market. Therefore, in enslaving women in India, a combination of feudal restrictions and the capitalist market is seen. Sometimes these two streams are seen enslaving women together and sometimes both are seen standing in opposition to each other and trying to enslave women in their own way. In the case of this video, the Durga Vahini and the ideas in the video are the form of opposition between these two streams. What is common between both is that neither of them talks about the real reasons for the slavery of women nor does it tell the right way to get rid of that slavery. Thus, behind this video, it is actually the capitalist class that makes women a commodity in the market. The ideology in this video is the ideology of the capitalist class.
As we have mentioned above,
The most controversial thing is the promotion of adultery. At one point in the video, it is said, “It is my choice to have relations outside marriage.” This is extremely abhorrent to human civilization, but it is not foreign to the market-based morality of capitalism. For the cattle, blinded by the race for profit, human emotions and relationships have no meaning; for them, all relationships like love, friendship, marriage, etc. are based on property and status. They have lost the human quality of being able to see humans as humans. Through films, TV serials, stories, novels, magazines, newspapers, etc., people are taught that humans are wild animals and that all relations and emotions other than physical relations between men and women are fraud. It is also necessary to see the sewage filth hidden beneath the dazzling life of these cattle. Buying women individually or collectively, using film actresses and models as a means of advancing their careers are very small things for them, but they also engage in shameful acts like exchanging wives for one night, having affairs with each other’s wives by deception, and handing over their wives and daughters to each other for their business deals, etc. In most of these cases, women also participate equally, because in the slavery and glamour of capital, they too lose their human essence like men. The bottom line is that the more their wealth increases, the more they move towards becoming animals. Due to their class outlook, such people can only encourage adultery, polygamy, and the buying and selling of women. It is not surprising that this same class of society today calls prostitution a “necessary need” of society and advocates for its legal recognition. These people cannot be expected to have a correct view of human relations, relationships, emotions and women’s freedom.
In the controversy that has arisen after this video, it is also worth noting that the issue of women’s slavery, oppression and second-class status is being presented as a form of mutual hostility between women and men, pitting the two against each other. That is why, in the name of women’s liberation, some are talking about giving advice to men, some are advising women to live in dignity, some are finding excuses like “who is less than girls”, some are making speeches like “give boys intelligence too” and some are holding a funeral for their intelligence under the pretext of phrases like “you can’t clap with one hand”. In the case of the video under discussion, this has been expressed in the form of numerous “male versions” of “My Choice” videos in response to this video, in which such a bad display of spiritual and cultural decay has been put on display that once the question arises in the mind that we are indeed living in a human world. Just listening to the ideas in them makes one cringe, and talking about them is even more mentally torture. Today, the question of women’s slavery is not only a women’s question but also a men’s question, because men who oppress women, enslave them and reduce them to objects also lose their conditions of being human. In this sense, it is a question of the liberation of the entire humanity, which cannot be solved by mutual hostility between men and women.
There are many important issues associated with this video that need to be discussed briefly. This video shows 99 women, most of whom belong to the upper strata of society. The things that are said in the video are mostly related to the “freedom” of these upper-class women. Whereas, there is no mention of the 80 percent of the laborers, workers and poor women of the society for whom issues like food, water, health, education and employment are the main issues, there is no mention of their demands, problems and rights. No place is given to the oppression, coercion, violence etc. that are being faced by them, which are not even heard in Indian law or courts. Therefore, 80 percent of the women have been excluded from the definition of women in this video. Looking at the economic and social condition of these 80 percent of the women, the question also arises that is it possible for these women to be liberated only by being given the right to choose their own choice and do what they want? For example, a woman who is poor and deprived, who is not only unable to choose a profession like teacher, doctor, etc., but is also unable to find a place among the workers due to the large number of unemployed, how much is the scope of “freedom” of such a woman? What other “choice” does she have other than to die of hunger or be forced to sell her body? The meaning is clear, the slogans of “freedom”, “freedom” and “choice” uttered in ignorance of the existing socio-economic structure are hollow, they cannot improve the lives of the majority of women.
Then the question arises as to where are the real roots of women’s slavery and what will be the right slogans for women’s liberation? The roots of women’s slavery are linked to the emergence of private property in human history. In primitive society, where all the natural gifts like land, trees, fruits, animals etc. were the common property of humanity, all the people of the tribe worked together and shared their food. During this period, neither women were in a state of slavery, nor men, nor was one part of the society the slave of another. When primitive society began to break up with the development of productive forces and private property arose, the ownership of this private property came into the hands of men due to their greater role in production.