The National Commission for Women (NCW) on Monday formed a committee to investigate the shocking case of a Dalit minor who was brutally attacked for resisting rape in Uttar Pradesh, a state where, activists say, the situation for women, ruled by a woman chief minister, is going from bad to worse.
NCW chairperson Girija Vyas said: "crime against women in UP are committed again and again. I had visited Kanpur and Lucknow just recently and had meetings with different people and government officials and they assured that that such incidents will not happen again, but it has." A teenaged Dalit girl was subjected to a brutal attack late on Saturday and her ear was nearly chopped off and fingers smashed while resisting a rape attempt by three youths of her village in Uttar Pradesh's Fatehpur district, the police said on Sunday.
One man has been arrested. The teenager was attacked with a sharp-edged weapon. "We have taken suo motu cognisance of the matter and are forming a committee for a detailed investigation," Vyas said. "I have also written to chief minister Mayawati that she herself should do something for the Dalit girl.
But I have found that the government and the police is not sensitive because even after so many rape cases, nobody feels their responsibility and nothing concrete has been done," she added. Ranjana Kumari, chairperson of the Centre for Social Research, said: "Girls are not safe in Uttar Pradesh. Just a week back, we came to know that a 17-year-old Dalit girl was gangraped and murdered on the outskirts of Lucknow and now there is this case of another Dalit teenager attacked for resisting rape". "I can't understand how chief minister Mayawati is keeping quiet on the whole matter? She is a Dalit leader herself and supposed to be the messiah of the community.
We demand that an enquiry be done on the matter and the guilty punished immediately," she added. Vyas further said: "Uttar Pradesh has the highest number of rape and abduction cases in the country and there is no justice delivered. There is police inaction and there have been instances when innocent victims land behind bars." "It's a bad situation and no case is being referred to fast track courts," she added.