The Chief Minister
Haryana
State
Chandigarh 17th October, 2012
Dear Shri Hooda,
On behalf of the undersigned
organizations and concerned individuals, we would like to express our anguish
and anger at the spate of horrific incidents of violence against women and
young girls that have occurred in your State.
Within a period of one month, there have been 19 incidents of brutal
rape, with many of the victims being dalits, and all of them belonging to the
poorest and weakest sections. The response of the Government and the police has
been tardy and ineffective. Adding to this, the extremely objectionable
statements being made by khap panchayat leaders demanding that age of marriage
should be lowered has led to criminals getting further emboldened. Other
statements which seem to suggest that the victims themselves are also
responsible have added insult to injury.
Some other issues also need your
immediate attention. The rampant increase in sex selective abortions in your
state, is leading to a pronounced gender imbalance which has to be addressed by
your Government on an emergency basis. The manner in which the state police
deals with crimes against women and
women complainants/victims should
also be addressed and changed. We also express our severe condemnation of the
way in which certain organisations have been running so-called Protection Homes
as places of intimidation and sexual exploitation of their inmates.
We would like to place the
following demands before you:
1. All complaints of rape and
sexual harassment must be treated with the utmost seriousness and investigated
without any delay. Any police or other officials who do not do this and those
who actually obstruct the delivery of justice must be given stringent
punishment.
2. A standard operating procedure
should be immediately circulated to all police stations in cases of rape and
sexual assault. As stated in the law,
women police officers should take statements from the rape victims in the
presence of a family member/s of the victim/complainant and all the evidence
must be immediately gathered.
3. The victim should be taken for
immediate medical checkup and attention and counselling and other forms of
assistance must be provided on an emergency basis. The trauma of the rape can
only be dealt with in this manner.
4. The victims must be
rehabilitated in every way possible. Compensation should also be made available
to them and, wherever feasible the victims should be given Govt. jobs.
5. Fast track courts must be
instituted to try the cases so that justice is not delayed and the victims,
their families and witnesses do not face harassment and suffer further trauma.
6. Self-styled bodies with no constitutional
sanction whatsoever, like khap panchayats must not be given any kind of
Governmental sanction or recognition. We
are shocked to hear that the Dept. of Women’s Welfare is trying to organise a
campaign against sex-selective abortions with the help of khap panchayats. On the one hand, the State Govt. is not doing
what it should to implement the PCPnDT Act and, on the other, it is giving
legitimacy to socially regressive organisations like khap panchayats. We demand that the law be implemented with
all seriousness, that Monitoring Committees at all levels be formed and their
regular and effective functioning ensured and that stringent punishment be
meted out to all those violating the Act.
7. Recently, a Khap Mahapanchayat leader has
demanded that the age of consent for marriage be reduced to 16 ostensibly to prevent the atrocities
being committed against minor girls. It
is very shocking that no member of your Govt. has condemned this demand and
made your Govt.’s stand clear. We demand an immediate response to this.
8. The police cases filed against
Ms Brinda Karat, Ms Jagmati Sangwan and other activists who participated in the
Rohtak rally on Oct 15th must be immediately withdrawn.
We, the undersigned, demand an
immediate response to this alarming and totally intolerable situation. The
safety and security of women and girls must be a top priority for the Govt of
Haryana.
AIDMAM, AIDWA, AIWC, ANHAD, CBCI,
CGHJ, CPA, CSR, CWDS, JWP, MWF, NFIW,
PUCL, RDMA, SAMA, YWCA, Action India, Jagori, Pehchaan, Prabhat Tara, Samata (BGVS),
Sangat, Saheli, Women’s Legal Forum
