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| Source : BBC News |
"Records show a rape is committed every 22 minutes across the country of 1.2 billion people, though activists say that number is low because many victims are reluctant to come forward."Source : Indian girls found hanging after gang-rape, Al Jazeera English
EVERY 22 MINUTES. How? Why? In what twisted, ridiculous world are numbers like that even reality? In what world are human beings treated as nothing but objects by other human beings? Rape is one of the most vile, inhuman things that one human being can do to another. I can't begin to find the words to express my utter disgust when I read this, when I try to think of the incredible unfairness of a system that lets this happen and has let this happen for so long.
The Independent explains that the two girls were members of the Dalit community:
"Reports said the two girls were members of the Dalit community, previously called untouchables, which has traditionally stood at the very bottom of the Hindu caste system. Campaigners say Dalits are often the victims of sexual attacks and rapes and that often police are slow to investigate, especially in rural areas."Source : Police officers accused as low-caste teenage girls are 'gang-raped and hung from a tree' in India, The Independent
Navsarjan is a grassroots Dalit organization dedicated to ensuring human rights for all. The following explanation about the Dalit community and the Hindu caste system comes from their website:
"India's caste system assigns individuals a certain hierarchical status according to Hindu beliefs. Traditionally, there are four principal castes (divided into many sub-categories) and one category of people who fall outside the caste system—the Dalits. As members of the lowest rank of Indian society, Dalits face discrimination at almost every level: from access to education and medical facilities to restrictions on where they can live and what jobs they can have. The discrimination against the Dalits is especially significant because of the number of people affected; there are approximately 167 million Dalits in India, constituting over 16 percent of the total population.
Within the Dalit community, there are many divisions into sub-castes. Dalits are divided into leather workers, street sweepers, cobblers, agricultural workers, and manual "scavengers". The latter group, considered the lowest of the low and officially estimated at one million, traditionally are responsible for digging village graves, disposing of dead animals, and cleaning human excreta. Approximately three-quarters of the Dalit workforce are in the agricultural sector of the economy. A majority of the country’s forty million people who are bonded laborers are Dalits. These jobs rarely provide enough income for Dalits to feed their families or to send their children to school. As a result, many Dalits are impoverished, uneducated, and illiterate."Source : Who Are Dalits?, Welcome to Navsarjan
Please visit their website to read the entire page.
Learn more about this shocking matter and educate yourself about the injustice in our world.
The way the Dalit people are treated is shocking and from my western European point of view, it is something I simply can't understand. No matter how accepting I think I am, how much I try to be open to how others think, to what they believe and hold true - there are some things that I simply can't shrug off as 'their way, not my way'.