(Subhashini Ali is former MP, former Member of the National Commission for Women and Vice President of the All India Democratic Women's Association.)Every morning, one wishes for a day free of horror, for a day free of some new example of brutality and viciousness. Unfortunately, what each day brings is something brutal enough to jolt even the most benumbed state of mind.
The 18th of July jolted us not with the report of a most gruesome assault suffered by a young woman in Lucknow, the capital of Uttar Pradesh - such reports have become too frequent to jolt us any more - but with photographs of her stripped, battered body which had deep wounds inflicted on it. Wounds deep enough to have caused her death by bleeding. These photographs were taken by the policemen who had been informed by the school chowkidar
that the dead body of a woman was lying next to the hand-pump of the school where he worked. The policemen did bring a piece of cloth with them to cover the body with but before they did so they took photographs, heaping the final indignity on a poor woman whose violation in the last moments of her life continued after her agonising death.
Once again, women took to the streets and expressed their anguish. The All India Democratic Women's Association (AIDWA) in Uttar Pradesh blocked traffic in front of the State Secretariat for hours. Candles were lit and resolutions passed. The incident took place within 20 kilometers of the capital in a village very close to the one visited by Bill Clinton. With police personnel and officers and administrative officials conspicuous by their presence, the victim was brought to the village school by the culprit, assaulted, beaten, stabbed and wounded and left to bleed to death. It still took the police three long days to arrest the man that they have identified as the culprit- someone who works in a building near the victim's home, a man who had been stalking her for days, a man who disguised himself as someone she knew and, on the assurance that he had found a place for her to stay, was able to lure her away from her home on the 17th evening. It was only after he removed his helmet that she recognised him and protested. But it was too late. She put up a tremendous resistance, scratching him with her nails and pushing him away. He has been identified by the marks that her nails left on his arms.
In the morning, her body was discovered and then made the object of voyeurs on Facebook and the social media. To find words of condemnation that are adequate seems impossible. The policemen in question have been suspended but in Uttar Pradesh that does not mean much. They must be summarily dismissed and imprisoned for the criminal and obscene act that they committed.
The victim was a widow with two children. Her husband died a few years ago despite the fact that she donated her kidney in a desperate attempt to save him. He was a contract worker in a government hospital, the most prestigious in the city. After he died, she 'inherited' his job, on contract, of course. She was earning Rs 5000/- a month and trying to bring up her two children on this meagre amount.
AIDWA has demanded that the Government take responsibility for the welfare and education of the orphaned children. We have also demanded that the fast-track court being promised by the government be set up immediately and this case be tried before it.
But the issue of providing security to women needs to be studied and addressed in its entirety. There are so many policies being pursued in a relentless and thoughtless manner that contribute to their insecurity and vulnerability. Casualisation and contractualisation of employment including that being provided by government institutions is certainly one. Had the victim's husband had a permanent job, not only would his family's financial situation been less precarious, but his widow would have inherited it. She would also have received accommodation in a government colony where, along with her children, she would have enjoyed a safe environment. She would certainly not have had to ask around for help in accessing affordable accommodation and fallen prey to a predator's designs. The ways in which secure livelihood opportunities contribute to making the world safer for women and children should be understood beyond monetary calculations.
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