Women in West Bengal are apparently not safe under the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamul Congress government. The National Commission for Women (NCW), in a report released on Tuesday, stated that the state has “recorded the second highest number of rape case in the country and the rate of increase in reported cases is twice the national average”.
Ms Banerjee, who has been screaming herself hoarse against the so-called “terror” during the years of Left Front rule, has also been criticised for “transferring officers who have cracked rapes cases even before investigations were completed”. The report was prepared by an NCW team that recently visited the state to probe the increasing number of rape cases. It was pointed out that West Bengal has the “second lowest conviction rate in the country”.
The three-member NCW team claimed that “little girls from the age of seven to women of 72 were subjected to rape, which includes housewives, working women, mentally and physically disabled women, tribal women.”
The report added: “These incidents occurred at all times of the day and night in public places, government hospitals, homes, fields, everywhere.” The team also met chief minister Mamata Banerjee.
The statistics mentioned in the report are alarming. The figures, as mentioned in the report, claim that there were “44% of cases of gangrape; 39% victims were minor girls; 17% of victims were mentally/physically disabled; 8% rapes happened in hospitals/trains.” It added that “the accused is still absconding in 44% of cases”. On the alleged lack of sensitivity it was stated that “in 17 per cent of cases women’s characters, or the veracity of cases were publicly questioned”.
It was also pointed out that “about 39% of rapists were known to the women and that in about 25% of the cases, FIRs were not filed at all, or filed later due to public pressure or court orders to this effect”.