Friends, When I told the journalists that in West Bengal alone, there are more than 40 rape cases "reported" on disabled women in last 2 yrs, they thought I am making a mistake, and there's 40 cases reported in India!!! I showed them my list to convince them and told them I visited/talked to majority of them personally. We have not yet seen implementation of specific clauses on disabled women/children of Criminal Law Amendment Act 2013/Protection of children From Sexual Offences Act till date. Please see the report of Times of India below.
Shampa Sengupta Kolkata http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/31124124.cms?intenttarget=no A 15-year-old mentally challenged woman<http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/topic/mentally-challenged-woman> was allegedly gang-raped in a lorry inCossipore<http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/topic/Cossipore> on February 24. As if the brutal crime was not enough, she was taken to a police station to have her statement recorded. Not knowing what was happening to her, she turned violent and police had to rope in an NGO to help them out. At least 43 such women have been raped in Bengal in the past two years alone. The last one being the Cossipore case in which the woman couldn't even understand she had been sexually assaulted. What adds to the trauma is that such survivors have to go through the same redress process although there are specific provisions to make it easier for them. "The law has been amended to bring in new provisions to deal with rape or sexual offence victims who are either physically or mentally challenged. Unfortunately, police are not implementing these provisions," said Shampa Sengupta of Shruti DisAbility Rights Centre. The code for criminal procedure under the Disability Specific Clauses in the Criminal Law Amendment Act, 2013 makes the involvement of a professional interpreter or a special educator very crucial. For example it says that the complaint of the sexual offence should be recorded either the home of the victim or any other place where she feels it comfortable. And the complaint should be recorded with the help of an interpreter or a special educator and the entire process video-graphed. "An intellectually challenged woman, who was gang-raped in Dankuni on February 12, was kept at the police station with her mother all night to have her complaint recorded. There was no special educator to help her out. This shows that the provisions are not being implemented," added Sengupta. During recording of her statement in court, the magistrate should involve a special educator, says the code. And it has to be videographed When it comes to implementing these amendments, Kolkata Police is a little more aware and educated than its district counterparts, said Debasis Banerjee, coordinator for Human Rights Law Network. "The involvement of a special educator has been stressed upon in dealing with cases of sexual offence. But hardly do we see this implemented," said Banerjee, an advocate who practises in Calcutta high court and has dealt with cases of sexual offence against disabled women. Police sources say that a list of special educators with contact details has to be made available to each police station. Most don't have it, because of which police find it difficult to follow the rule book. "We are sensitizing all police stations on this issue. Many local police stations are yet to be familiar with the provision. Even if they are aware it is difficult to approach a special educator whenever we need one as we do not have a data bank. All that we can do is rely on NGOs when we cannot communicate with the victim," said a Kolkata Police officer. Register at the dedicated AccessIndia list for discussing accessibility of mobile phones / Tabs on: http://mail.accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/mobile.accessindia_accessindia.org.in Search for old postings at: http://www.mail-archive.com/accessindia@accessindia.org.in/ To unsubscribe send a message to accessindia-requ...@accessindia.org.in with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in Disclaimer: 1. Contents of the mails, factual, or otherwise, reflect the thinking of the person sending the mail and AI in no way relates itself to its veracity; 2. AI cannot be held liable for any commission/omission based on the mails sent through this mailing list..
