Skip to main content

Rajasthan labour activist's lynching: Swacch Bharat campaign blamed for "shaming" women defecating in open

By Our Representative
The lynching of Zafar Hussein, a political and trade union activist of Pratapgarh, Rajasthan, attached with the CPI-ML (Liberation), was the direct result of India’s ruling establishment’s approach to Swacch Bharat Abhiyan, the national cleanliness drive launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a detailed letter sent to Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje has alleged.
The lynching happened during the Swaach Bharat Abhiyan team's campaign in the presence of the municipality chairperson Ashok Jain at 6 am on June 16. Hussein belongs to the Mehtab Shah (Jagwas) Kachhi Basti houses, where more than 450 families of all castes and communities live.
“The women of the Mehtab Shah (Jagwas) Kachhi Basti have no option but to go to khal (a ditch) behind the Basti. The community toilets are too few and not functional, showing the failure of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan”, Kavita Srivastava of the People’s Union of Civil Liberties (PUCL), Rajasthan, said in a letter sent to the chief minister, and forwarded as email alert to Counterview.
Pointing out that the lynching has taken place as a result of the policy of “shaming” especially women, defecating in the open, the letter says, “To indulge in shaming via taking photographs of people when they are relieving themselves as a policy in Swach Bharat Abhiyan is to put the onus on the poor that they are responsible for this condition; it also encourages men to commit the act of sexual violence, including voyeurism where women are concerned as we saw in the case of Pratapgarh.”
Those who have signed the letter include well-known activists Aruna Roy, Nikhil Dey, Kavita Srivastava, Bhanwar meghwanahi, Kailash Meena, Harkesh Bugalia, Mamta Jaitly, Renuka Pamecha, Komal Srivastava, RD Vyas, among others.
According to the letter, “It is ironic that before this incident Hussein had repeatedly written to the municipality, including his last letter-cum-press note on the June 14, which states that money which came for toilets to be constructed in Ward No 2 was diverted by the municipality officials, which showed the prejudicial behaviour of the municipality.”
Hussein had complained that the public toilets in the basti were “non-functional due to negligence on the part of the municipality”, even as seeking help of Rs 12,000 per toilet to individual households earmarked under the Abhiyan. He had added, how safai Karamcharis, on a daily basis, would chase women, taking their photographs with their mobile cameras “while they were relieving themselves, and also grabbed them.”
Kavita Srivastava
Case of sexual violence
Calling the lynching a clear act of “sexual violence”, the letter said, June 16, 2017 was the fourth day when the team of safai karamcharis committed the crime under section 354C of the Indian Penal Code, which states that “any man who watches, or captures the image of a woman engaging in a private act … shall be punished on first conviction with imprisonment…”
"Private act" is defined in as one “includes an act of watching carried out in a place … where the victim's genitals, posterior or breasts are exposed or covered only in underwear; or the victim is using a lavatory…”
Insisting that the safai karmacharis had “no right to go near the women when they were relieving themselves”, the letter said, “What is shocking is that not only did they go too close to where the women were, encroaching on their privacy, they also started kicking their water containers and to top it all started taking photographs of women in a state of undress.”
Pointing out that all this happened in the presence of the chairperson of the municipality, Ashok Jain, the letter said, “When the women objected, the men from the basti came running out, which included Zafar Hussain, who intervened and stopped the men from invading the privacy of the women. He was instead targeted and beaten brutally to death.”
Identifying the culprits as Kamal Harijan, Ritesh Harijan, Manish Harijan and Ashok Jain, the letter said, “Instead of taking Hussein to the hospital the karamcharis sped away in their vehicle to lodge an FIR against him under sections 332 and 353 at the behest of the municipal commissioner of having beaten up the safai karamcharis and obstructed them in governmental duty.”
Regretting that, despite post mortem under public pressure, no arrests have happened, the letter demands, “immediate suspension and arrest of all the three safai karamcharis and the chairperson of the municipality”, adding, “The family be given a compensation of Rs 1 crore” and there should be immediate “construction of community and individual toilets in the Jagwas Kachhi Basti.”

Comments

TRENDING

'Enough evidence' in Indian tradition to support legal basis for same-sex marriage

By Iyce Malhotra, Joseph Mathai, Sandeep Chachra*  The ongoing hearing in the Supreme Court on same-sex marriage provides space for much-needed conversations on issues that have hitherto remained “invisible” or engaged with patriarchal locker room humour. We must recognize that people with diverse sexualities and complex gender identities have faced discrimination, stigma and decades of oppression. Their issues have mainly remained buried in dominant social discourse, and many view them with deep insecurities.

Buddhist shrines were 'massively destroyed' by Brahmanical rulers: Historian DN Jha

Nalanda mahavihara By Our Representative Prominent historian DN Jha, an expert in India's ancient and medieval past, in his new book , "Against the Grain: Notes on Identity, Intolerance and History", in a sharp critique of "Hindutva ideologues", who look at the ancient period of Indian history as "a golden age marked by social harmony, devoid of any religious violence", has said, "Demolition and desecration of rival religious establishments, and the appropriation of their idols, was not uncommon in India before the advent of Islam".

Victim of communal violence, Christians in Manipur want Church leadership to speak up

By Fr Cedric Prakash SJ*  The first eleven days of May 2023 have, in many ways, been a defining period of Indian history! Plenty has happened in a rapid-fire stream of events. Ironically, each one of them are indicators of how crimes and the criminalisation of society has become the ‘new norm’; these include, the May Day rallies with a focus on the four labour codes which are patently against the rights of workers; the U S Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) released its Annual Report on 1 May stating that conditions for religious freedom in India “continued to worsen in 2022”; the continued protest by the Indian women wrestlers at Jantar Mantar for the expulsion of the chief of the Indian Wrestlers Federation on very serious allegations; the Elections in Karnataka on 10 May (with communalism and corruption as the mainstay); the release of the fake, derogative and insensitive film ‘The Kerala Story’; the release of World Free Press Index on 3 May which places India

Swami Vivekananda's views on caste and sexuality were 'painfully' regressive

By Bhaskar Sur* Swami Vivekananda now belongs more to the modern Hindu mythology than reality. It makes a daunting job to discover the real human being who knew unemployment, humiliation of losing a teaching job for 'incompetence', longed in vain for the bliss of a happy conjugal life only to suffer the consequent frustration.

Polygamy in India "down" in 45 yrs: Muslims' from 5.7 to 2.55%, Hindus' 5.8 to 1.77%, "common" in SCs, STs

By Rajiv Shah Amidst All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) justifying polygamy, saying it “meets social and moral needs and the provision for it stems from concern and sympathy for women”, facts suggest the the practice is down from 5.7 per cent of Muslim families in 1961 to 2.55 per cent in 2006.

Modi govt 'wholly untrustworthy' on Covid data, censored criticism on pandemic: Lancet

By Rajiv Shah*   One of the world’s most prestigious health journals, brought out from England, has sharply criticised the Narendra Modi government for being “wholly untrustworthy on Covid-19 health data”, stating, the “official government figures place deaths at more than 530 000, while WHO excess death estimates for 2020 and 2021 are near 4·7 million.”

Undermining law, breastfeeding? Businesses 'using' celebrities to promote baby food

By Rajiv Shah*  A report prepared by the top child welfare NGO, Breastfeeding Promotion Network of India (BPNI), has identified as many as 15 offenders allegedly violating the Indian baby food law, the Infant Milk Substitutes Feeding Bottles, and Infant Foods (Regulation of Production, Supply and Distribution) Act 1992, and Amendment Act 2003 (IMS Act), stating, compliance with the law “seems to be dwindling by the day.”

Delhi demolitions for G-20 summit: Whither sabka saath, sabka vikas?, asks NAPM

By Our Representative  Well-known civil rights network, National Alliance of People's Movements (NAPM), even as expressing solidarity with “thousands of traumatized residents of Tughlakabad and some other bastis in New Delhi whose homes have been demolished and whose lives have been ravaged both prior to as well as in the lead-up to the G-20 Summit”, has said this is in utter disregard to “their minimum well-being and gross violation of their rights.”

'Misleading' Lancet estimates on zero food intake in infants, young children of India

By Srinivas Goli, Shalem Balla, Harchand Ram*  India is one of the world's hotspots for undernourished children, both in terms of prevalence and absolute numbers. Successive rounds of National Family Health Surveys ( NFHS ) have revealed that the progress observed since the early 1990s is far from what is expected when compared to the country's economic growth.

Greater reasons for Asia to unite than Europe, 'overcome' costly hostilities, political egos

By Dr S Faizi*  Europe, once a theatre of internecine wars, now has a robust European Union shaping the common destiny of its people. Although Europe is only a subcontinent of Asia as Arnold Toynbee had observed and as is visible to anyone looking at a map, we still not have a common Asian platform for economic and political cooperation.  It is high time Asia had its well mandated regional organisation to secure a common Asian future, ending the costly hostilities and political egos. We can have the Asian Union even when the bilateral hostilities, unique to Asia, refuse to go away completely.