Muzaffarnagar gangrapes: No justice for these Nirbhayas

She grew up with them — the three men who ganged up to rape her. Even as she kept calling them by their first names, pleading for mercy, they continued to violate her body. Her mother, who was tied to a chair, fainted on seeing the unimaginable happening before her. Yet, after a week, when the two women approached the police, they briefed the cops about other atrocities. They did not mention rape. As if it never took place. This is the story of numerous women who were gang raped in Uttar Pradesh’s Muzaffarnagar district, around 150 kilometers from the national capital, which witnessed large scale riots. Almost three weeks after communal clashes broke in the district, reports of gangrapes are finding space in the national media. Unlike the Delhi gangrape case which caught the imagination of the country, hundreds of gangrapes during riots continue to fall through the cracks. This is irrespective of the community of the victim, the region where the riot takes place and the political party ruling the state. [caption id=“attachment_1147423” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  A major reason why gender violence during riots largely goes unreported is because it becomes one of the many crimes taking place in a tense situation. PTI[/caption] The anatomy of rapes and riots is the same across the country. A miniscule percentage of actual rapes which take place during riots are reported to the authorities. Even lesser go to the trial stage, say activists who have closely observed patterns of gender violence in successive riots. A major reason why gender violence during riots largely goes unreported is because it becomes one of the many crimes taking place in a tense situation, unlike an isolated case of rape where the crime takes place when the victim may be least expecting it. Archana Dwivedi, deputy director of Nirantar, a Delhi based resource centre for gender, visited Muzaffarnagar. She says, “Women become subjects of many forms of violence during communal violence — their houses being burnt, children killed and husbands getting maimed before them. Although brutal, gangrape is one of the many forms of tortures in such clashes.” Government authorities and the police first try to bring the situation under control before taking stock of the damage done. When they reach to the victims, finally, they find that registration of FIRs related to sexual violence is not the first priority for the victims. “Very often, victims inform the authorities of other violations which they believe are more important such as loss of property and missing children. It happens, partially, because men come forward to lodge complaints,” says Dwivedi. Riots lead to displacement of victims numbering in thousands. While some never go back to their native places, others cannot afford to relocate. For many rape victims, therefore, it is the fear of once again facing the rapist in the neighbourhood which stops them from lodging complaints. “It is particularly true in cases where the victim belongs to a lower caste and the rapist is from an upper caste. Many such cases happened in Muzaffarnagar,” says Vimal Thorat, Hindi language professor with Indira Gandhi National Open University, who have visited riot effected areas including Muzaffarnagar, Kandhamal and Gujarat. For the minority — victims who can confront the men who violated them — aid reaches them too late, says Manshi Sharma, a Delhi based social activist. “By the time police begins the probe, the evidence is gone. What will the victim’s medical test prove 20 or 30 days after gang rape? Unusual time gaps increase legal complexities in such cases,” she says. Others believe that in an age when it takes street protests to get justice in a gangrape case in Delhi, expecting proper follow- up of every sexual violence case during riot, sounds ambitious. “The normal wheels of justice even when you are not handicapped by your identity move very slowly for ordinary women as well. When you are of a vulnerable caste or community, your ability to access justice is considerably weakened,” says Farha Naqvi, women’s rights activist.