IS UP SAFE
FOR GIRLS?
By
Brij Khandelwal
Agra
July 21 (IANS)
Samajwadi
Party supremo Mulayam Singh
Yadav’s response to the increasing incidence of rapes
in Uttar Pradesh has drawn caustic comments from social activists here.
Yadav
two days ago had reacted saying sexual crimes in a state with 210 million people
were not as alarming compared to some other states. Earlier too, Yadav had been taken to task for his casual comment “ladke hain, galtiyan ho jati hain.”
A
retired police official (not wanting to be identified) told IANS “the actual
number of crimes was much higher than projected, as most middle and upper class
families hesitated lodging formal complaints. Of late
of course the trend has changed and now more young girls are coming forward to
speak out their minds.”
Political
workers have called Mulayam’s comment in bad taste and
one that would only encourage the rapists.
The
Samajwadi Party is adopting an ostritch-like stance, not reading the writing on the wall,
says activist Shravan Kumar Singh. “In last few days
alone, four persons gang-raped a young dalit girl in
Mathura
district. In Meerut,
a mother and her daughter who had gone to collect fire-wood, were abducted and
raped repeatedly in a forest area by six persons. In
Firozabad
late Saturday night a 12th standard girl was forcibly taken to a
desolate place and gang raped. A youth in
Aligarh
district raped a girl. The boy, a polytechnic student tied the 13 year old girl
with her dupatta and raped her after threatening her
life with a pistol. In Allahabad
too a 10th standard girl was raped by a truck driver and cleaner,” he
pointed out.
The
situation is hardly safe in the Agra
region for girls who are going out for studies, say the worried parents.
The
city of love is turning hostile to the safety of young
girls.
Girls
are not safe in Agra,
say the senior citizens. The predicament is two-fold: more and more girls from
the vast rural hinterland and the smaller towns on the periphery of the city are
venturing out for work or studies.
"The
pomp and glare of the city life lures many who become targets of abuse by
predators at large," says Naresh Paras, a human rights activist. The right to education for
all and the attraction of free meals, free books, bags, uniforms and even
cycles, have facilitated mobility proving a great motivating factor to bring girls out
of their conventional mindsets and backgrounds. "But this trend has also created
a whole lot of social problems, failed love affairs, murders, attacks, rapes and
cheating and invariably its the young girls who have to suffer," Naresh adds.
While
civil society activists blame the political class for callous indifference and
complicity in some cases, senior police officials at several interactions
recently have targeted changing life-styles and loosening parental grip on
children.
Why
is the city of love turning into a sex and crime capital of west UP? Many
locals blame the police, others target the changing
moral values. "Its a combination of factors and all of
us are partly to blame. With
freedom
and mobility come a set of problems as predators are on the prowl everywhere,"
says a woman activist Padmini of Naari and Baal Vikas Samiti.
From
April to July, more than a score young girls have become victims
of
physical
molestation or brutal rapes, many lifted while sleeping out of their homes
with parents in the dark of night. "The girls are brutally raped and then to
hide their identity either murdered or mutilated. Of late there have been so
many incidents of girls being thrown before running trains. Why the law
enforcing agencies are not waking up to these new challenges," asks school
teacher Meera Gupta.
"In
recent years there has been high migration from the smaller towns and villages
on the periphery. These impoverished people live in slums and underdeveloped
areas without facilities, exposing the girls and women to crimes," explains
activist Madhukar Chaturvedi.
Flesh
traders with regular supply of girls from
Nepal
and other areas bordering
Bangladesh
to the centuries-old red light areas of Basai, Mal ka
Bazar, Seo ka Bazar areas are sustained by the migrant population. "A
large supply comes from
Bangladesh.
In Agra
alone there must be at least a few thousand girls from the east married to
locals, reflecting the imbalanced sex-ratio.
A
random visit to the family courts and the Mahila thanas, gives a fair indication of the rotten state of
affairs. You now have young married women revolting against an oppressive system
propped up by insane and inhuman mother in laws, or relatives and in most cases
drunkard husbands. "One does see a rise in promiscuity also, perhaps fuelled by
media or internet. Young girls having affairs and even indulging in pre-marital
relations or
participating in drink-drug parties, have no qualms about what they describe as
the decadent moral values," a human rights activist Megh Singh Yadav says.
