Title: Atrocities against Women - Stray Thoughts of a Toronto Goan By: Roland Francis Source: Goan Voice UK Daily Newsletter 7 April 2013
Full Text: Nothing is more nauseating than picking up any Goan or Indian newspaper and reading the various items either on the front page or tucked away inside relating to physical violence against women. A young bride burned by her husband with the connivance of his family for insufficient dowry, a minor raped by a family member, a teen sexually assaulted in school, another surgically dismembered in Goa's main hospital, a woman forced into satisfying drunken friends of an alcoholic husband, an innocent tourist's intentions twisted into acts of extreme lust, a child not yet three molested by a neighbor who was entrusted with temporary care, a woman taken as wife when the man is still married and driven to suicide by harassment. The list is unending and the rate of such crime increasing. Goa has come a long way, in the worse possible sense, from the early banning of 'sati' by the Portuguese, (the wife throwing herself into the burning funeral pyre of her dead husband), a measure of social progress much sooner into their rule than the British with the rest of India. It is not Indian law that is lacking, it is the hydra-headed monster of police corruption, political interference and the snail's pace of justice in India which is responsible for the violence against women. That and the culture of a country that till today in most of the land gives undue importance to the male at the cost of the female, treating the latter mainly as family chattel. While the Indian will pride himself in the way he treats his women compared to, say the Arabs, the truth tells a different story. Arab culture may on the one hand deny basic rights to their women based on some false interpretations of their desert religion, but Arab males treat all females in the most exemplary fashion not just their own, with perhaps the exception of their domestic help who they see as slaves. When they vacation in Europe, some of them will debauch themselves, but in their country, all women are safe. Another type of sexual violence becoming increasingly prevalent in Indian cities and even in Goa, is blatant groping. While foreign women tourists will come forward and describe in no uncertain terms how they were molested when they found themselves suddenly in the middle of a crowd of Indian males, Goan women will out of a perceived sense of shame, avoid reporting it. I can picture the titters of even the police recording the complaint as if it is some joke. What is it about Indian males that make them play out their hidden lusts in so brazen and public a manner? It is not that prostitution is rare or that Indian women are frigid (see the 1.2 billion number, no less), so what could arouse such shameful behaviour? It could be a lazy police force such as in Goa, one that demands money not only from the victim but also from the perpetrator. After taking money from both, it becomes easier to not to pursue the matter, since doing so means gathering evidence, recording statements, going to court and the various other things the police are supposed to do. Even in Bombay where the police force though less corrupt is at least a symbol of decisive action thanks to the young IPS Deputy Commissioners who seek to make a name for themselves for career advancement, I have seen lethargy in domestic disputes. The poor slum-dwelling wife goes to complain to the local police station about an abusive husband who grabs her day's earnings to get drunk and then beats her while accusing her of infidelity. The constable confronting the husband, threatens him against repeating the incident, but no record is made. Same incident in Toronto. A male and female constable goes to the house, each questioning their gender counterpart and if there is a mere hint of the male having raised a finger, he is handcuffed and jailed for the night. Then he enters the court system, one that will definitely give him second thoughts on account of consequences, if he is tempted to repeat the travesty. God counts a woman's tears. Despite all the cards stacked against her, or perhaps because of it, Goan women especially of the poorer and depressed economic classes are becoming more forceful, militant and socially active. Allelujah! Here is a video link thanks to Victor D'Cunha and JoeGoaUK to the narration by her sister straight from the heart, of the story a 15 year old girl in Goa who entered the medical care system with an inflamed appendix and came out dead due to causes that are not one bit short of murder. Pity the family, but power and justice to them. Hope you understand Konkani. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Li8De6lgIro ======================================