The Buniyadi Adhikar Andolan Pahel, an NGO run by a Dalit rights activist, Rajesh Solanki, has claimed that in the “BJP’s model state of Gujarat”, at a time when slogans on good governance are proliferating, number of incidents of kidnapping of Gujarati women has increased double fold and numbers of rapes on Dalit women has increased 63 per cent in the last two decades. Solanki also runs Dalit Hak Rakshak Manch (DHRM), which fights for the cause of Dalits in Gujarat.
In a statement, the NGO, quoting official data, has said, “As per the data released by the Director General of Police of Gujarat, 192 Dalit women were raped during decade of 1990-2000, while 313 were raped during decade of 2000-10. Thus, the decade between 2000 and 2010 has witnessed 63 per cent increase in rapes.”
“Shockingly”, the statement says, “A Dalit woman was compensated only Rs 25,694 for losing her ‘honour’ in model state of BJP. These are the actual figures of compensation given by the social justice and empowerment department of Gujarat.” The NGO does not say whether this is the total amount of per person amount handed over as compensation. It comments, “It is very difficult to say whether this thing is ridiculous or shameful for a state ruled by a RSS pracharak who claims to work for social harmony.”
As for overall violence on Dalit women, the NGO says, “Women are not safe in a state projected as a ‘model’ in entire country. A comparison of figures of year 2000 and 2012 from national crime records bureau reveals that numbers of rapes have increased from 330 in 2000 to 473 in 2012. The cases of kidnapping of women have increased from 868 in year 2000 to 1527 in year 2012.”
As for the incidents of domestic violence, the NGO said, these have “also have increased from 3,339 in year 2000 to 6,658 in year 2012.” The NGO comments, “A state may not have any control on inflation and Central government may be responsible for it, but the security of woman is definitely an obligation of the state government.” All this happening, according to the NGO, in a state whose government can commission entire anti-terrorist squad (ATS) team for the so-called security of a ‘khas’ woman” at a time when “the security of common women is not priority of the government.”
Further quoting from official documents, the NGO points out, “’The state document of human trafficking in Gujarat’ says that during 2006 to 2011 a total of 47,052 persons had gone missing. Out of these 13,283 are still missing. And among them 5,786 were elderly women and 2,293 were minor girls.” It adds, “As per the report, rate of missing women had increased during period of 2006 to 2011 and during this same period the numbers of cases registered under Immoral Traffic Prevention Act, 1956 were decreased.”
Pointing out that this shows inactivity of police, the NGO says, “1157 women were missing in 2006, 1111 in 2007, 1515 in 2008, 1620 in 2009, 1818 in 2010 and 1783 women were missing in 2011. And the numbers of cases registered by police was simply decreasing: 82 in 2006, 40 in 2007, 46 in 2008, 31 in 2009, 32 in 2010 and 25 in 2011.” In view of all these facts, the NGO has demanded “strict action” against the culprits so that Gujarat becomes really safe for women.
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