Skip to main content

600 groups observe #IfWeDoNotRise on Hathras day: '10 Dalit girls raped each day'

Shabnam Hashmi
To mark one month of the “alleged gang rape and brutalization by upper caste men” of a young Dalit woman from Hathras, a Delhi-based human rights organization Anhad (Act Now for Harmony and Democracy) led by senior activist Shabnam Hashmi, has held a nationwide campaign, #IfWeDoNotRise, on October 29 to give “voice to the cumulative outrage of citizens” against such incidents across India.
In a statement ahead of the campaign, Anhad said, “The Hathras case is only the tip of the iceberg. Statistics suggest that every day 10 Dalit women are raped in India. Following the Hathras tragedy, there have been horrific reports of rapes of Dalit women in Balrampur, Azamgarh, Bulandshahr and other parts of India. If we do not rise and demand that immediate steps be taken to address the crisis, gender and caste based violence with continue with impunity.”
Recalling the tragedy that befell the Hathras girl, who died on September 29 in Delhi, an Anhad statement says, “The police refused to hand over the body to her family for last rites and cremated her in the middle of the night, not only violating the rights of the family but willfully destroying all evidence. The state response smacked of willful negligence and complicity.”
Claiming that as many as 600 women’s groups, Dalit women’s organizations and movements, LGBTQIA groups, human rights organizations and other civil society networks participated in the #IfWeDoNotRise campaign, Anhad says, “Protests are being held in across India, creative events against patriarchy and caste will be organized on social media platforms, and state level webinars and Facebook lives will be organized with activists, poets, performers and prominent Dalit voices.”
The demands of the #IfWeDoNotRise campaign include resignation of Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath, holding him “accountable” for spate of caste and gender-based atrocities in the state”; and completion of the CBI investigation into the incident in a time bound manner, as directed by the Supreme Court to the Allahabad High Court for monitoring the probe.
Anhad also seeks time-bound inquiry and prosecution of police officers and officials of the district administration for their complicity in the incident, including the late night cremation of the girl without consent and participation of the family; and ensuring the family of the girl be given “all rights as per the provisions of the anti-atrocities Act and protection from any backlash and violence.”
It further seeks exemplary compensation to the family along with the provision for re-locating to a different place, if they so choose; legal action against those threatening or putting pressure on the family; and formation of an independent empowered committee to take stock of implementation of the recommendations of the Justice Verma committee, formed in the aftermath Nirbhaya gangrape Case in 2012 and the ensuing nationwide protests.

Comments

TRENDING

Trump’s research cuts 'may mean' advantage China: But will India leverage global brain drain to its advantage?

When I heard from a couple of NRI professionals—currently on work visas and engaged in research projects at American universities—that one of President Donald Trump's major policy thrusts was to cut federal funding to the country's top educational institutions, I was instantly reminded of what Prof. Kaushik Basu had said while delivering a lecture in Ahmedabad.

How the middle classes are returning to the BJP fold, be it Delhi or Gujarat: Mahakumbh, Sitharaman's budget

Whatever reasons may be offered for the Aam Aadmi Party's defeat in Delhi—whether it was the BJP's promises of more freebies than AAP, the shedding of ultra-nationalist slogans, or the successful demolition of Arvind Kejriwal's "Mr. Clean" image—my recent interaction with a group of middle-class individuals highlighted a notable trend. Those who had just begun to sit on the fence were now once again returning to the BJP fold.

How to turn India's e-waste problem, third largest, into opportunity? Simple: Offer industry incentives!

How should one interpret a major problem that may be bogging down a private consultant while preparing an industry-friendly report on a situation that adversely impacts society—especially when the consultant sees little possibility of progress in the supposed desired direction?

Mystical, mysterious, nature's marvel? Truth behind Gujarat’s so-called disappearing temple

I was a little surprised to read a story in Business Today, a publication that should have nothing to do with religion or spirituality, let alone superstition. Carried as one of the choices by Google News, whose algorithm decides which stories to feature, the story attempts to describe a natural phenomenon using terms such as "mysterious," "mystical," "marvel of nature," and "intriguing."

Google powered AI refuses to correct grammar of a 'balanced' piece on Trump sending chained immigrants to India!

This is a continuation of my blog on how, while the start-up-developed AI app DeepSeek is being criticized for consistently rejecting content related to China or Maoism, there appears to be no mention in Western media about why another app, developed by the powerful Google, Gemini, remains silent on Indian political issues.  

A Hindu alternative to Valentine's Day? 'Shiv-Parvati was first love marriage in Universe'

  The other day, I was searching on Google a quote on Maha Shivratri which I wanted to send to someone, a confirmed Shiv Bhakt, quite close to me -- with an underlying message to act positively instead of being negative. On top of the search, I chanced upon an article in, imagine!, a Nashik Corporation site which offered me something very unusual.  I don't know who owns this site, for there is nothing on it in the About Us link. It merely says, the Nashik Corporation  site   "is an educational and news website of the municipal corporation. Today, education and payment of tax are completely online." It goes on to add, "So we provide some of the latest information about Property Tax, Water Tax, Marriage Certificate, Caste Certificate, etc. So all taxpayer can get all information of their municipal in a single place.some facts about legal and financial issues that different city corporations face, but I was least interested in them."  Surely, this didn't intere...

World Hijab Day? Ex-Muslim women observe Feb 1 as No Hijab Day, insist: 'Put it on a Man'

I didn't know that there could ever be a thing as World Hijab Day until I received an email alert from Maryam Namazie of the Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain (CEMB), stating that several ex-Muslim women's groups had observed the same day—February 1—as No Hijab Day! According to Namazie, the day "was created on February 1 as a direct response to World Hijab Day" to "illuminate the coercive and oppressive realities of the hijab as a pillar of sex apartheid and a war on women."

5% poor in India? Union govt claim debunked, '26.4% of population below poverty line'

A recent paper, referring to the Household Consumption Expenditure Survey (HCES) 2022-23 of the Government of India (GoI), has debunked the official claim that poverty has substantially declined. Titled "Poverty in India: The Rangarajan Method and the 2022–23 Household Consumption Expenditure Survey", the paper —authored by scholars CA Sethu, LT Abhinav Surya, and CA Ruthu—states that "more than a quarter of India’s population falls below the poverty line."

Why burn Manusmriti? Why not preserve it to demonstrate, display historicity of casteism?

In a significant Facebook post, Rana Singh, former associate professor of English at Patna University, has revealed something that few seem to know. Titled "The Shudras in Manusmriti", Singh says,  because Manusmriti is discussed so often, he thought of reading it himself. “This book likely dates back to the 2nd or 3rd century BCE, and the presence of contradictory statements suggests that it is not the work of a single author,” he says in his Facebook post in Hindi, written in 2022 and recently reshared.