“All that glitters is not gold” is a maxim, which states that not everything that looks precious or true turns out to be so. This holds good for Modi’s Shining India. Indian women, who constitute about 48 percent of India’s 1.41 billion population, remain subjected to traumas of sexual slavery, rape, forced pregnancy, abortion, sterilization and child-age marriages. Most recently, a trainee doctor at Kolkata’s RG Kar Medical College was raped and murdered, after sustaining over 14 injuries. Protests are being conducted throughout India to express frustration and anger on such a brutal incident. In conflict-ridden regions like Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJ&K), the harassment, violence, torture and intimidation against women are used as tools of war. Ironically, every third women worldwide and particularly in India, experiences some sort of physical or sexual abuse at some point in her life. In IIOJ&K, women are often subjected to sexual violence, with over 28,000 rapes recorded only in 2020. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights recommends India to investigate and prosecute all such cases of sexual violence, suspected by state or non-state actors.
Every new conflict brings with it, a surging tide of human suffering. The episodical instances of sexual assault are the oldest, most forbidden but least decried crimes in war. Escalating political and security crises are exacerbated by militarization and uncontrolled proliferation of firearms. Sexual violence associated to the conflict, is often used as a tool of war to torture and intimidate women, girls, men, and boys dwelling in the conflict region. The notion of “conflict-related sexual violence” refers to any form of sexual violence against women, men, girls, or boys which is either directly or indirectly related to a conflict. The includes sexual slavery, rape, prostitution by force, forced pregnancy, forced abortion, forced sterilization, forced marriages, and other acts of comparable gravity. The word also refers to the trafficking of people, who have been subjected to sexual abuse or exploitation, taking place under hostile environment.
Most recently, a trainee doctor at Kolkata’s RG Kar Medical College was raped and murdered, after sustaining over 14 injuries. Protests are being conducted throughout India to express frustration and anger on such a brutal incident. Nearly one in three women worldwide particularly in India, experience physical or sexual abuse at some point in her life. Husbands or partners are often the ones, who abuse women the most. A 2018 survey reveals that one in seven women had suffered physical or sexual abuse at the hands of a spouse or boyfriend. But one cannot deny the sexual violence that takes place as result of a conflict.
Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu & Kashmir (IIOJ&K) is a conflictual territory in South Asia. Women in IIOJ&K have been subjected to sexual violence for seven decades now. Due to repeated abductions, sexual assaults, wrongful detentions, and rapes committed by Indian security personnel, under the guise of “Cordon and Search Operations,” women population of IIOJK endures an ongoing nightmare of horror and agony. The most twisted form of oppression (i.e rape) is being employed by Indian soldiers in IIOJK as a state-sponsored tactics/ instrument. According to a report by Kashmir Media Service-2021, “Rape is punished as a matter of Government policy in the occupied territory.” India intentionally targets Kashmiri women in an effort to humiliate and demoralize the local population, and it uses rape as a tactics of war to instill dread in the conflict-ridden region. According to another study by Kashmir Media Service, released in September 2021, Indian soldiers have abused more than 11,245 women in IIOJK during last three decades, allegedly quelling insurgency in the region.
According to another report, Indian Army actions in the occupied region have resulted in 22,923 Kashmiri women becoming widows, since January 1989. Additionally, it has also been learnt that Indian forces assaulted 100 women in villages of Kunan and Poshpora in IIOJ&K, varying in age from 8 to 80 years, during so called search operation on February 23, 1991. Following that heinous occurrence, Indian Security Forces have regularly and systematically used rape as an instrument to terrorize the population of disputed region. Over 28,000 rape cases were recorded in India in 2020. During first half of 2021, there was a 63 percent rise in crimes against women, according to a study carried out by Statistic Research Department that got published on October 13, 2021. The Indian Army has been accused of kidnapping, extra-judicial killings, and rapes of Kashmiri men, women, and children, according to the Annual Human Rights Review 2019 (1 Jan – 31 Dec 2019). The report states that “Children faced illegal and unjust detention, sexual abuse, and ill-treatment, including torture, at the hands of AFs, in addition to becoming victims of extra-judicial executions.”
According to a 2018 report from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, authorities in India should “investigate and prosecute all cases of sexual violence suspected by state / non-state actors, and provide reparations to victims.” Human Rights Watch (HRW) found a surge in rape activity in the impoverished and isolated areas of the occupied region following the repeal of Articles 370 and 35A. Indian civil and military authorities often conceal violations from the international community, while denying UNHRC investigators access to the valley, despite being a signatory to UN and UNHRC. In order to stifle innocent Kashmiri people’s constitutionally guaranteed right to freedom, Modi’s Hindutva supremacist administration continues to utilize rape as “weapon of war” and a mean of collective punishment in IIOJ&K. It is a flagrant breach of UNSC resolutions, international humanitarian laws, and human rights laws.
Women in the Kashmir valley live in a life worse than a nightmare, due to heinous acts of violence, mental torment, and cruel brutalities against them. Kashmiri women also have to deal with psychological issues, economic constraints, and extra-judicial executions of their sons and spouses, in addition to this terrible treatment by the Indian Government. With more than 900,000 personnel, the Indian Security Forces have been using rape as a weapon of war to ruthlessly crush and suppress the independence fight. In order to combat the rise in sexual and gender-based violence, harassment, and hate speech happening both offline and online, international collaboration must be strengthened. These issues diminish women’s and girls’ involvement in a society, which poses a genuine threat to democracy.
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