Editorials: More than rapes and crimes Dialling MCW

Editorials: More than rapes and crimes Dialling MCW

http://www.thesangaiexpress.com/sangai-express-news.php?newsid=12845  

Girls from the North East region, particularly from Manipur, Nagaland and Mizoram, getting raped, molested and even murdered in Delhi is not new. Delhi is definitely not a safe place for women but more than one third of the crimes against women in the capital of the country are against girls from the North East region and hereby hangs a tale. Independent records put this at 50 pc, though Delhi Police has denied it, but this is besides the point. In this land which has produced a lady Prime Minister in the person of the late Mrs Indira Gandhi, a lady listed by international publications as one of the most influential and powerful persons in the world, AICC chief Sonia Gandhi, a land where women rule over four States as Chief Ministers, Mamata Banerjee in West Bengal, Mayawati in Uttar Pradesh, Jayalithaa in Tamil Nadu and Shiela Dixit in Delhi, women continue to be at the receiving end, and what adds to the gravity of the situation that women from North East face in Delhi is the seeming reluctance of Delhi Police to pursue the cases with the seriousness they deserve. On January 20 this year a young girl was raped in the night near Dwarka and though the police did claim that they had recovered the ATM card of the alleged rapist, it was not until a few days later that the accused was ‘identified’ and arrested. If this is the benchmark of the performance of the Police in the capital of the country, then the situation can only be imagined in other parts of the country or was it a case of the Chicken Neck syndrome coming out in all its bloom ? Measures have been taken up to check the cases of crimes against women from the North East in Delhi and NCR in particular but with liberal dosage of parochialism on the part of the cops. Remember the ridiculous regimen spelt out by the cops some years back, which included what food the boys and girls from North East should eat while in Delhi, thus giving some sort of an official stamp to the Mainland-North East divide. Take the typical social (male) mindset of Delhi and an insensitive law enforcing agency and clearly the only crutch that the thousands of boys and girls from the North East can rely on in Delhi has been the North East Support Centre and Helpline , helmed by a gentleman from Manipur, Moirangthem Modhuchandra.

It is not a comfortable situation at all and the logical question that follows is on the support system extended to the boys and girls in Delhi from the State Government as well as to the North East Support Centre and Helpline. Condemnations have not been found wanting whenever any girl from the region and Manipur is reportedly raped, molested or murdered in the capital city. However should a Government remain smug with just some words of condemnations ? What help has been extended to the victims of such abuses from the side of the State Government ? What support mechanisms have been worked out to help the North East Support Centre and Helpline during the long and tedious legal process that automatically follow such cases ? Why has the State Government not responded to the proposals of setting up some sort of a mechanism to work in collaboration with the North East Support Centre and Helpline ? Crime against women in Delhi is not unique to only those coming from Manipur or the North East but there is a ‘pattern’ in this which cannot be ignored. Apart from the Government, we have the Manipur State Women Commission. What steps have the Commission taken up in the cases reported so far from Delhi and other places ? We understand that the Commission did have a hand in the latest case of rape of a girl on January 20, but this came more in the form of an intitiative taken up by an individual. Set up in 2006 under the Manipur State Commission for Women Act, it is a statutory body, equipped to deal with the legal aspects of crimes against women. All fine, but how sincere has it been in addressing the myriad of issues dogging the girls from Manipur in other parts of the country ? Or is it content with merely treading the path of ‘episodic responses’ to particular cases ? A girl from Manipur was raped on January 20 and if the past is any indication, this will not be the last and this is all the more reason why there should be vibrant synergy amongst the North East Support Centre and Helpline, the State Government and the Manipur State Women Commission.