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http://www.ipsnews.net/2015/07/violence-against-women-alive-and-kicking-in-kashmir/
Kashmir Women Suffering a Surge in Gender-Based Violence
A
billboard in the northern Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir promotes gender
equality and protests violence against women. Credit: Athar Parvaiz/IPS
SRINAGAR, India, Jul 17 2015 (IPS) - Rizwana*
had hoped and expected that justice would be served – that the man who raped
her would be sufficiently punished for his crime. Months after she suffered at
his hands, however, the perpetrator remains at large.
Hailing
from a poor family in the northwestern part of the Indian administered state of
Kashmir, Rizwana worked hard to finish her studies, knowing that if she landed
a job it would help ease her family’s financial woes.
When
an official in the frontier Kupwara District hired her as an assistant earlier
this year, she thought she had struck gold. But she quickly discovered that the
man’s support and eagerness to offer her a job was simply a front for ulterior
motives.
“After
working in the office for just a few days he summoned me to a room on the upper
floor and bolted the door. Then he made sexual advances on me. When I objected
to his behaviour, he forcibly raped me,” the young graduate told IPS.
Her
entire family was traumatised by the experience; Rizwana quit her job and her
mother suffered a panic attack that confined her to the hospital for weeks
Rizwana
approached the State Women’s Commission (SWC) in Srinagar, the state’s summer
capital, and pleaded that the official be terminated from his position and sent
to jail.
“But
so far nothing has happened,” she said. “While the women’s commission is
supporting me, the rapist is yet to be brought to justice as he uses his
influence to get away with the crime.”
Militarisation breeds impunity
Anyone
who follows the daily headlines in this heavily militarised territory in
northern India knows that Rizwana’s case is not unusual. Every year, thousands
of women experience sexual or physical abuse, both in and outside their homes,
though few come forward to report it.
Women’s
rights advocates blame the conflict in Kashmir – which dates back to the 1947
partition of India and has claimed 60,000 lives in six decades – for nursing a
culture of impunity that makes women extremely vulnerable to gender-based
violence.
In
2007, the Indian government revealed that it had 337,000 army personnel
stationed in the region. At the time, this amounted to roughly one soldier for
every 18 persons, making Kashmir “the most heavily
militarised zone” in the world, according to sociologist Bashir
Ahmad Dabla.
In
2013, the United Nation’s special rapporteur on violence against woman stated
in her final country
report on India that legislative provisions like “the Armed Forces
(Special Powers) Act and the Armed Forces (Jammu and Kashmir) Special Powers
Act (AFSPA) has mostly resulted in impunity for human rights violations [since]
the law protects the armed forces from effective prosecution in non-military
courts for human rights violations committed against civilian women among
others, and it allows for the overriding of due process rights.”
Noting
that impunity for
armed forces was “eroding fundamental rights and freedoms […]
including dignity and bodily integrity rights for women in Jammu and Kashmir”,
the rapporteur called on the Indian government to repeal the Act.
A woman
holds up a picture of her son, injured in the conflict. Here in Kashmir, women
often bear the brunt of fighting and some have been subjected to rape at the
hands of the armed forces. Credit: Athar Parvaiz/IPS
Two
years later, her recommendations are yet to be acted upon, with the result that
not only armed forces but officials in any capacity feel at liberty to exploit
women’s rights and freedoms, often in the form of sexual transgressions.
For
instance, IPS recently gained access to a sexual harassment complaint filed by
the female staff of the Kashmir Agricultural University with the State Women’s
Commission.
Staff
filed a joint appeal earlier this month so as to conceal each woman’s
individual identity.
It
stated: “Being the working ladies at the university, we want to share with you
[the] bitter and hard realities we have been facing for the past many years”,
adding that the male staff – and one official in particular – routinely harass
the women, using their institutional authority to prevent the victims from
taking action.
The
complainants are demanding “strict punishment” for the culprits according to
provisions on sexual harassment in India’s 2013 Criminal Law (Amendment) Act.
Nayeema
Ahmad Mehjoor, chairperson of the SWC, told IPS that she acted on the appeal as
soon as it was filed, and has already visited the university in order to take
up the issue with the necessary authorities.
“They
have assured me of initiating a fair probe, and we are expecting a detailed
report within a few days,” she stated.
Domestic violence on the rise
These
assurances are comforting but hold little weight in a society that routinely
puts women’s issues on the backburner, a reality reflected in the low rate of
reporting sexual crimes.
The
situation is even worse in the domestic sphere, experts say, where spousal or
intimate partner violence is on the rise.
Gulshan
Akhtar, head of Srinagar’s lone Women’s Police Station, has been a busy officer
over the past few years as she struggles to deal with a growing domestic
violence caseload.
On
a typical day, she receives between seven and 10 cases of domestic disputes
involving violence towards the female partner.
“When
this police station was established in 1998, it used to receive far fewer
complaints compared to what we have been receiving over the past five-year
period,” Akhtar told IPS.
“Now
we receive 1,000 to 1,500 complaints of domestic violence annually,” she said,
adding that the SWC receives an additional 500 complaints on average every
year.
Kashmir’s
State Women’s Commission (SWC) records roughly 500 cases of domestic violence
every year. Credit: Athar Parvaiz/IPS
These
figures – which are conservative estimates, considering that many women are
silent about their suffering – reveal that every single day, over five Kashmiri
women endure sexual or physical abuse.
Local
news reports indicate that Jammu, the state’s winter capital, tops the list of
districts with the highest number of domestic violence cases, recording over
1,200 separate incidents since 2009.
Earlier
this year, newspapers quoting officials from the State Home Ministry stated
that over 4,000 culprits have been booked in connection with these crimes, but
rights groups maintain that prosecution levels are too low to act as a
deterrent.
This
past May, the women’s rights NGO Ehsaas organised a sit-in at Partap Park in
Srinagar to draw attention to a surge in domestic violence.
Academics,
journalists and activists gathered to mourn a woman whose husband had burned
her to death the month before.
Addressing
the crowd, Ehsaas Secretary and Women’s Project Consultant Ezabir Ali said, “It
is high time to speak out against this barbaric form of human nature and a send
message to the government to act strictly against such acts.”
The
sit-in called attention to all the many forms of violence against women – from
dowry killings and burnings, and from verbal and emotional abuse to rape. In
2013, according to statistics released by the Crime Branch, Kashmir recorded
378 cases of rape, an increase of 75 cases from the year before. Data for
2014-2015 is still pending.
Conflict leaves women vulnerable
Some
experts say the increase in such heinous crimes is due to militarisation and
the use of rape as a weapon of war.
A
2014 report by Human Rights Watch noted
that “a local court recently ordered the reopening of the investigation into
alleged mass rapes in the villages of Kunan and Poshpora in Jammu and Kashmir’s
Kupwara district in 1991. Residents of the villages allege that soldiers raped
women during a cordon and search operation.”
Because
of the brutality involved in these incidents, and because the victims included
old women and young girls alike, scholars and advocates have claimed that it
set a precedent for violence against women, since the perpetrators have yet to
be brought to justice.
Others
say violence has risen together with women’s shifting socio-economic role in
traditional Kashmiri society. With more women leaving the home to work, men
feel their financial hold weakening.
“This
is causing conflict as many men […] do not feel comfortable with women
acquiring a [better] economic status,” author and sociologist Dabla told IPS.
IPS
recently met two women at Srinagar’s Rambagh women police station, one of whom
had come to lodge a complaint that her husband was forcing her to hand over her
monthly earnings, or risk a divorce.
Indeed,
surveys and studies undertaken by the women’s NGO Ehsaas reveal that 75 percent
of Kashmiri men “felt their masculinity was threatened” if their wives did not
obey them.
Activists
working to safeguard women and create a more peaceful society overall say that
deep and fundamental changes in both the law and social attitudes are necessary
to achieve some degree of gender equality and women’s rights.
*Name
changed for her protection
_______________________________________________________________________________________
India - The Armed Forces (Jammu & Kashmir) Special Power
Act, 1990 No. 21 of 1990
An Act to enable certain special powers to be
conferred upon members of the armed forces in the disturbed areas in the State
of Jammu and Kashmir.
BE it enacted by Parliament in the
Forty-first Year of the Republic of India as follows :-
1. Short title, extent and
commencement.- (1) This Act may be called the Armed Forces (Jammu and
Kashmir) Special Powers Act, 1990.
(2) It extends to the whole of the State of
Jammu and Kashmir.
(3) It shall be deemed to have come into
force on the 5th day of July, 1990.
2. Definitions.- In this
Act, unless the context otherwise requires,-
(a) "armed forces" means the
military forces and the air forces operating as land forces and includes any
other armed forces of the Union so operating ;
(b) "disturbed area" means an area
which is for the time being declared by notification under section 3 to be a
disturbed areas;
(c) all other words and expressions used
herein, but not defined and defined in the Air Force Act, 1950(45 of 1950), or
the Army Act, 1950(46 of 1950), shall have the meanings respectively assigned
to them in those Acts.
3. Power to declare areas to be
disturbed areas.- If, in relation to the State of Jammu and
Kashmir, the Governor of the State or the Central Government, is of opinion
that the whole or any part of the State is in such a disturbed and dangerous
condition that the use of armed forces in aid of the civil power is necessary
to prevent -
(a) activities involving terrorist acts
directed towards overawing the Government as by law established or striking
terror in the people or any section of the people of alienating any section of
the people or adversely affecting the harmony amongst different sections of the
people ;
(b) activities directed towards disclaiming,
questioning or disrupting the sovereignty and territorial integrity of India or
bringing about cession of a part of the territory of India or secession of a
part of the territory of India from the Union or causing insult to the Indian
National Flag, the Indian National Anthem and the Constitution of India,
the Governor of the State or the Central
Government, may, by notification in the Official Gazette, declare the whole or
any part of the State to be a disturbed area.
Explanation.- In this section,
"terrorist act" has the same meaning as in Explanation to article 248
of the Constitution of India as applicable to the State of Jammu and Kashmir.
4. Special powers of the armed
forces.- Any commissioned officer, warrant officer, non-commissioned
officer or any other person of equivalent rank in the armed forces may, in a
disturbed area,-
(a) if he is of opinion that it is necessary
so to do for the maintenance of public order, after giving such due warning as
he may consider necessary, fire upon or otherwise use force, even to the
causing of death, against any person who is acting in contravention of any law
or order for the time being in force in the disturbed area prohibiting the
assembly of five or more persons or the carrying of weapons or of things
capable of being used as weapons or of fire-arms, ammunition or explosive
substances ;
(b) if he is of opinion that it is necessary
so to do, destroy any arms dump, prepared or fortified position or shelter from
which armed attacks are made or are likely to be made or are attempted to be
made, or any structure used as a training camp for armed volunteers or utilised
as a hide-out by armed gangs or absconders wanted for any offence ;
(c) arrest, without warrant, any person who
has committed a cognizable offence or against whom a reasonable suspicion
exists that he has committed or is about to commit a cognizable offence and may
use such force as may be necessary to effect the arrest ;
(d) enter and search, without warrant, any
premises to make any such arrest as aforesaid or to recover any person believed
to be wrongfully restrained or confined or any property reasonably suspected to
be stolen property or any arms, ammunition or explosive substances believed to
be unlawfully kept in such premises, and may for that purpose use such force as
may be necessary, and seize any such property, arms, ammunition or explosive
substances ;
(e) stop, search and seize any vehicle or
vessel reasonably suspected to be carrying any person who is a proclaimed
offender, or any person who has committed a non-cognizable offence, or against
whom a reasonable suspicion exists that he has committed or is about to commit
a non-cognizable offence, or any person who is carrying any arms, ammunition or
explosive substance believed to be unlawfully held by him, and may, for that
purpose, use such force as may be necessary to effect such stoppage, search or
seizure, as the case may be.
5. Power of search to include
powers to break open locks, etc. - Every person making a search
under this Act shall have the power to break open the lock of any door,
almirah, safe, box, cupboard, drawer, package or other thing, if the key
thereof is withheld.
6. Arrested persons and seized
property to be made over to the police.- Any
person arrested and taken into custody under this Act and every property, arms,
ammunition or explosive substance or any vehicle or vessel seized under this
Act, shall be made over to the officer-in-charge of the nearest police station
with the least possible delay, together with a report of the circumstances
occasioning the arrest, or as the case may be, occasioning the seizure of such
property, arms, ammunition or explosive substance or any vehicle or vessel, as
the case may be.
7. Protection of persons acting
in good faith under this Act.- No prosecution, suit or other
legal proceeding shall be instituted, except with the previous sanction of the
Central Government, against any person in respect of anything done or purported
to be done in exercise of the powers conferred by this Act.
8. Repeal and saving.- (1) The
Armed Forces (Jammu and Kashmir) Special Powers Ordinance, 1990(Ord.3 of 1990),
is hereby repealed.
(2) Notwithstanding such repeal, anything
done or any action taken under the said Ordinance shall be deemed to have been
done or taken under the corresponding provisions of this Act.