By AW Siddiqui
If data available on internet is correct, 1 rape occurs every 25 minutes in India. And, that is the official number, based on registered cases. Considering all the other cases, which do not get registered, that number will be higher.
UK and USA have issued advisory notices to its female citizens travelling to, or staying in India.
Read: UK and USA issue travel advisory to women visiting India
Recent cases of women being raped and burnt in UP and Telangana has created storm in Indian media, and public reaction to 4 of the rapists killed in an encounter by police was mixed.
The Gurdain published a story on “despair as India rape crisis grows” while World Politics Review touched upon ‘How India Fails Its Rape Survivors’.
In a story published in India Today 6 Jan 2013, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat told a rally in Indore on Saturday that a woman is bound by contract to husband to look after him and should remain a housewife.
"A husband and wife are involved in a contract under which the husband has said that you should take care of my house and I will take care of all your needs. I will keep you safe.
"So, the husband follows the contract terms. Till the time, the wife follows the contract, the husband stays with her, if the wife violates the contract, he can disown her…" Bhagwat told the rally.
Blaming adoption of western culture in Indian society he said that the rape cases are mainly prevalent in urban India due to western influence and that erosion of traditional Indian values were more pronounced in urban areas, leading to increased rape instances, and that such crimes against women do not happen in rural areas of the country.
"Crimes against women happening in urban India are shameful. It is a dangerous trend. But such crimes won't happen in Bharat or the rural areas of the country. You go to villages and forests of the country and there will be no such incidents of gangrape or sex crimes," he had said.
According to India Today January 6, 2013, Bhagwat’s remark came against the backdrop of the Delhi gangrape incident, which was slammed by Congress, CPI-M and women's bodies while BJP and RSS defended it saying the comment should be taken in proper perspective.
Reacting sharply to Bhagwat's comment, India Today quoted CPI(M) leader Brinda Karat saying, "I don' think it is really surprising because at the end of the day, this is what RSS is.
Congress activists burn an effigy of RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat to protest against his remark on rapes in India.
On the RSS chief's husband-wife contract remark, Karat said, "I don't know if he knows this but in India on the basis of caste system, we have the worst kind of oppression of Dalit and adivasi women.
"When these people talk about 'Hindu Rashtra' and Hindutva, it is based on this highly casteist, partriarchal framework and that is why I think what RSS spokesmen are saying reflect their inner thoughts," she said, adding, "Because they believe women are subordinate to men and women are appendages to men."
On Bhagwat's comment on the rape issue, Karat had then said, "Bhagwat neither understands India nor Bharat." She had said government statistics of atrocities on women and sexual assault showed that the maximum number of victims belong to the poor, Dalit and tribal communities.
*Opinions expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect the views of UMMnews.
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