15th April 2018 : DAMMS and the Manipuri Students community living in Delhi is perturbed and concerned with the rise of sexual violence against women and children happening across India. The incidents seem to be getting uglier and more frighteningly brutal as the country asks what measures can be taken to better protect women and girls. The recent rape and murder of Asifa Banu, an eight-year-old girl belonging to the Backward community of Jammu and subsequent communalization of the case to divide the people for political gains has shaken and anguished us to the core.
We are also deeply shocked and saddened by the gang rape case of a woman in Nagaon, Assam and the Unnao rape case in UP. While sexual violence against women has been on a surge, the ongoing issue of politicizing the rape and murder of Ashifa for petty political gains is unfortunate, distasteful and unacceptable in any form. We are also concerned with the systematic evil design of violence meted out to minorities living in India. We believe that the rape and murder of Asifa was not just an evil act of criminals, but a part of a larger conspiracy of threatening a minority community to drive out of the region who are seemingly living at the mercy of the majority Hindu community living in the region. The evident delay in condemning the rape and murder of Asifa by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his council of ministers is quite disheartening and unacceptable.
Sadly, the truth is that we are living in a hyper-hypocritical, hypersexual and highly disoriented society where women are still
considered second-class gender and victimizing them as an accepted form of conduct. In any failed society, women and children are always at the receiving end. On the institutional front, the government is not doing enough to protect our women and children from sexual abuses. The likes of highly celebrated “Beti Bachao Beti Padhao” tagline seem to serve little purpose until the government brings in a strict institutional mechanism to crush down any form of such victimization and sexual offenses.
DAMMS maintains the view that such inhuman offenses must be dealt with the strongest form of punishment to avert recurrence of such crime in the society. We are also deeply concerned at the callous attitude of the authority concerned in delivering justice to the victim families. DAMMS urges the concerned authority to deliver justice to the families concerned and set an exemplary step so that such heinous crimes against women and children may not recur in future. The ongoing political game of dividing people across the communal line by using the Asifa rape case has to be stopped immediately and necessary steps must be taken without further delay. DAMMS extends its deep sense of sorrow and prayers to the victims and their families. We pray for a speedy justice delivery to the victims concerned.
Ch. Kheiruddin Shah
President , DAMMS
