Disabled women more vulnerable to sexual assaults: Activists

Disabled women more vulnerable to sexual assaults: Activists

Women with disabilities are more vulnerable to sexual assault and there should be better provisions for them in the law, disability rights activists said here on Tuesday.

State disability commissioner Kasturi Mohapatra said, "Women with disabilities were more vulnerable to exploitation and in most cases they were assaulted by men they trust. This includes family members. They need more care, support and security but the additional vulnerability of women with disabilities is not recognized anywhere. Though we have enough laws, the rate of implementation is very low. We need to change our mindset first."
 
Women with Disabilities, India Network, organized a seminar on the issue in Bhubaneswar on Tuesday.

"Though there are no consolidated figures on violence against women with disabilities, the magnitude and scale of the attacks can be estimated from the number of incidents reported in the media in Odisha. There must be a mechanism operational across the country where victims can report such incidents without hesitation," said Asha Hans, chairperson of the Odisha chapter of the network.

Speaking on the occasion, MP and actor Sidhant Mohapatra said, "Everybody must learn to respect each other and give equality to all. Charity begins at home, and we must start teaching our kids moral values like how to respect women. India has been passing through a crucial phase and we must learn how to deal with such degrading and disturbing incidents in the society."

Activists present at the meet said a summary of the discussions would be sent to the Convention On The Elimination Of All Forms Of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) of the United Nations. The recommendations of the CEDAW will be revised soon.

Little Has Changed For Modern Day Subhashini : A Short Story of Rabindranath Tagore is Still Relevent in Present Time

Little has changed for modern day Subhashini

Shampa Sengupta

 

When the girl was given the name of Subhashini, who could have guessed that she would be “dumb” when she grew up? Her two elder sisters were Sukheshini and Suhashini, and for the sake of uniformity her father had named his youngest girl Subhashini. She was called Subha in short form.

Her two elder sisters had been married with the usual difficulties in finding husbands and providing dowries, and now the youngest daughter lay like a silent weight upon the heart of her parents. People seemed to think that, because she did not speak, therefore she did not feel; they discussed her future and their anxiety concerning it even in her presence. She had understood from her earliest childhood that God had sent her like a curse to her father's house, so she withdrew herself from common people....”

The above lines are taken from a short story “Subha” written by Rabindranath Tagore more than 120 years ago. The journey of hundred and twenty years is long enough. But has there been any substantial change in lives of today’s disabled women? Or their lives linger in the similar darkness? Are they still deemed as a curse by their families and general society?  Like Subha, do they still face desertion and abuse by their in-laws because of their disability? Sadly the situation remains the same.

It is a known fact that in India, birth of a girl does not bring joy. Even though there is a law against it, female feticide is a common phenomenon. And “market value” falls more if she is born with dark complexion. What happens if she is born with any impairment? Dejection of her family increases and her abuse starts from her early childhood. Professor Anita Ghai, who is herself a wheel-chair user, has shown in her different writings the position of a disabled girl in the family structure.  Only in the month of August in 2013 in Bangalore, a blind woman was killed by her husband – investigation of the incident shows that her husband was not aware of her disability before marriage.

Disabled women are not just denied traditional roles of wife or motherhood, the society is not ready to accept that they can have a sexual life. As a result, there is no attempt to give them any form of sexuality education (unlike non-disabled women, they cannot learn from their peers or general surroundings). This “asexual” role assigned to them makes these women more vulnerable.

It is interesting that these women are seen either as “asexual” or as “hyper-sexual” but never at par with women without disabilities. In the year 2000, a girl with hearing and speech impairments was reportedly raped in a prison van by two policemen in Kolkata. When we from our womens network visited the concerned police station, the Officer In Charge told us “ We do not mind helping you with other cases, but this is about a deaf girl. And we all know these people are more sexually active, it was she who initiated the action, so I can not treat this case as rape”. We were astounded.

However these kinds of comments are not restricted to policemen. In 2012, another young girl, who was a homeless and had intellectual as well as psycho-social disabilities was sexually abused within a Government Mental Hospital in Kolkata. When this essayist met the Hospital superintendent, he said that “This girl used to run after all the male workers of this hospital. Mentally ill women usually cannot control their sexual urge. I am worried about my male staffs.”

The traditional Indian society still now considers marriage is the ultimate goal of every woman. Till date disabled women like Tagore’s Subha find it difficult to find a match. So in some of the states of India, Government announces special packages for grooms who agree to marry a disabled (read defective) girl.

Though the National Policy on Disability mentions women with disabilities, till 2013, none of the disability legislations of India have a gender component within its ambit.

Though domestic violence issues remain buried under the carpet, cases of sexual assaults on disabled women, particularly those within institutions, draw attention of media. It is to be noted here that in the year 2012, only mainstream media reported more than 40 cases of sexual abuse on disabled women in West Bengal.

Time period of 2012 -13 can be earmarked as crucial phase of women’s movement in India particularly in the light of the Delhi Rape Case of December 16th,2012 which lead to public outcry on sexual abuse and thus forced the Indian Government to take some measures on the same. As Government composed Justice Verma Committee to look into the changes required in the sexual assault laws, we, the disability groups, took the opportunity and placed our case studies and suggestions to the Committee. To our delight, we saw that Verma Committee gave due importance to our issue, gave us opportunity to face-to-face interactions with the concerned persons.

We found quite a few of our suggestions accepted by the Verma Committee – in their recommendations; they have made several suggestions which can be helpful to combat sexual violence on the disabled women. Though not all their recommendations were accepted, in the Criminal Law Amendment Act of 2013, we have found echoes of these recommendations.

The writer is an activist working on gender and disability rights for last 25 years.

http://www.thestatesman.net/news/27969-little-has-changed-for-modern-day-subhashini.html

Survey finds Disabled Women Doubly Disadvantaged in India

Survey finds Disabled Women Doubly Disadvantaged

A pioneering study on women with disabilities, conducted in five eastern Indian states, finds that disabled women, besides lacking education and employment opportunities, are completely ignorant about their legal rights

The first-ever baseline survey   on disabled women, conducted by the Association of Women with Disabilities   (AWWD) in the five eastern states of Assam, West Bengal, Orissa, Jharkhand   and Bihar, has found them to be sorely disadvantaged by lack of education   and employment opportunities, and ignorance about their legal rights. 

The survey was undertaken through   2007 in India and other SAARC countries; compilation of the report was   completed in 2008.

The survey was part of a South   Asian regional initiative aimed at ‘Creating Spaces for Women with   Disabilities (WWDs) to Communicate and Advocate for their Rights’,   undertaken by AWWD and its partners Akasa (Sri Lanka) and Social Assistance   for the Rehabilitation of the Physically Vulnerable (SARPV, Bangladesh).

The survey was carried out   in technical collaboration with Healthlink Worldwide, and funding from   DFID (UK). It restricted itself to physically disabled women.

According to the survey, illiteracy   among WWDs was found to be as high as 70.9% in Jharkhand, 63.8% in Bihar,   46.1% in West Bengal, 41.7% in Orissa, and 32.5% in Assam. The corresponding   illiteracy figures for able-bodied women in these states was 60.62%   in Jharkhand, 66.43% in Bihar, 39.78% in West Bengal, 49.5% in Orissa,   and 43.97% in Assam.

A very small percentage of   physically disabled women were found to have completed secondary education.   Assam, with 18.6% of its women having acquired secondary education,   fared better than all the other states. In West Bengal, only 3.3% of   WWDs were reported to have finished secondary education. This, despite   an overwhelming majority of respondents -- 90% in West Bengal and 75.7%   in Orissa -- feeling the need for WWDs to be educated.

Similarly, although a high   percentage of respondents felt the need for disabled women to get gainful   employment, less than a quarter of respondents were found to be employed.   So, whereas 91.8% in Bihar, 86.8% in Assam, 86.4% in West Bengal, 78.7%   in Jharkhand, and 67.4% in Orissa believed in the physically disabled   being employed, the employment figures were found to be dismal -- 23.6%   in West Bengal and a low 8.9% in Jharkhand -- although the figures for   general female participation in the workforce were as high as 26.4%   in Jharkhand, which was better than Orissa’s 24.7%, Assam’s 20.7%,   and considerably better than Bihar’s 18.8% and West Bengal’s 18.3%.

The major reason for this,   the survey found, was that there was no scope for employment; the disability   factor came in at second place.

As regards their role in household   decisions, 72% of women with disabilities confessed to having no role   at all in Bihar, as against 68.3% in Orissa, 49.6% in Jharkhand, and   44.5% in West Bengal. Assam fared much better here, with 72.2% of women   reporting that their role mattered in household decisions.

Neither did any of these women   have much say in decisions concerning their own life and health. Assam   fared best here too, with 73.9% having a say in decisions concerning   their own lives, compared to just 27% in Bihar and 24.3% in Orissa.

In terms of accessibility and   mobility, most women found all rooms in their houses easily accessible,   with figures clocking in as high as 90.6% in West Bengal, compared to   52.4% in Assam.

Awareness of the Persons with   Disabilities (PWD) Act, 1995 was a mere 5% in Assam and a low 0.3% in   Bihar. With the single exception of Orissa, where 57.3% were reportedly   aware of government schemes and policies related to women and the disabled,   the awareness ranged from 14.9% in Assam, 10% in Jharkhand and West   Bengal, to as low as 2.6% in Bihar.

Given the poor rate of education   and high illiteracy among disabled women, the issue of social discrimination   elicited confusing responses. At one end of the spectrum, 65.8% denied   ever being socially discriminated against, while at the other end 61.8%   accepted that they could not attend social gatherings.

Otherwise too, women were found   to be severely restricted in enjoying their basic rights owing to societal   and family pressures, as informed by panchayat representatives, schoolteachers   and government officials. As regards levels of awareness, government   officials and panchayat representatives fell short on many counts. Although   aware of the PWD Act, officials and panchayat representatives were poorly   informed about the various schemes and funding details. Nor was there   much awareness about the Convention on Elimination of all types of Discrimination   Against Women (CEDAW) and the United Nations’ Millennium Development   Goals (MDGs). As far as non-government organisations (NGOs) were concerned,   at least half of them were confused about provisions under the PWD Act.   Most believed that laws relating to women’s rights included provisions   to deal with women with disabilities.

The print media fared comparatively   better, with 43% of media persons being aware of state and national   policies related to persons with disabilities. However, the electronic   media showed very little awareness or inclination on reporting on issues   relating to the disabled.

People with     disabilities (PWDs) comprise 4-8% of     the total Indian population, which amounts to 40-90     million individuals. Nearly half of     the disabled are women. Yet, women with disabilities (WWDs) have always     remained an invisible minority owing to illiteracy and social attitudes.

Interestingly,     even as India’s GDP grew at a robust 7% and above     in the last decade, the employment rate     among disabled adults fell from 43% in 1991 to 38% in 2002, according     to the World Bank.

--By Rina Mukherji

 (Rina Mukherji is a Kolkata-based   journalist)  

Source : http://infochangeindia.org/disabilities/news/survey-finds-disabled-women-doubly-disadvantaged.html

Protecting Women and Girls with Disability

Protecting Women and Girls with Disability

By Broderick and Innes

Updated Wed 27 Nov 2013, 8:58am AEDT

Australian women and girls with disabilities are twice as likely as women and girls without disabilities to experience violence throughout their lives, yet this has remained largely outside public debate, write Elizabeth Broderick and Graeme Innes.

"Are you talking about rape? I've been raped many times. You just have to get used to it."

Imagine that your daughter, sister, mother, wife, girlfriend or female friend had the grave misfortune to have this happen to her - and that this statement, thick with defeat and resignation, was her response to such a gross perpetration of violence against her.

Now imagine she is in a care facility because she is a woman with a disability - a woman with an intellectual disability or a mental illness, a woman with a disability that severely limits her motor and speech abilities, or a woman with a disability that causes her to remain in bed - you can come up with other examples of women you may know.

The tragic thing is that this statement is real. It was spoken by a woman with a disability during a consultation conducted as part of research undertaken by the University of Western Sydney.

We are trying to complete a picture for you here - and it is a horrifying one.

It is also one that is far too common in our community and one that continues to be discretely swept under the carpet - as it has been for far, far too long.

Recent research from the University of New South Wales has found that Australian women and girls with disabilities are twice as likely as women and girls without disabilities to experience violence throughout their lives. 

To put this further in perspective, women and girls with disabilities represent one in five of Australia's female population and not only experience violence at significantly higher rates, but more frequently, for longer, in more ways and by more perpetrators.

Two years ago, Melbourne's Herald Sun reported that records showed between January 2009 and July 2011 more than two Department of Health Services clients were attacked every day on average, with almost 1800 assaults, sex attacks or rape allegations reported in the 30 months to July 2011. In more than 500 of these cases, approximately 28 per cent, state-appointed staff and carers were accused.

In an observation that is true across our entire country, the Victorian Public Advocate noted, "For too long, alleged violence has been wrongly described as 'incidents' requiring internal management rather than being named and dealt with as alleged crimes."

It is a shameful reality that Australian women and girls with disabilities experience high levels of domestic and family violence and sexual assault, and have high unmet needs in terms of access to domestic violence, sexual assault and related community services.

Take the story of Rosa, recounted by Intellectual Disability Right's Services in their 2008 Enabling Justice Report. Rosa is a 50 year-old woman with cerebral palsy and intellectual disability who has little speech and communicates using some words and gestures, When she told a support worker that another support worker raped her, police and Rosa's parents were called. Using words and gestures, she told the police she wanted to provide evidence and proceed with charges against the support worker. However, when the police sought consent, Rosa's parents declined a police interview or a medical examination to obtain evidence of the rape. She did eventually manage to receive support from an advocate, but by that time it was too late to obtain medical evidence and the investigation was dropped.

Rosa's story goes to the additional complication survivors of violence can face in trying to access justice.

Just for a moment, imagine yourself in that situation. What would you do?

In other cases, we heard of women in institutionalised care being effectively prostituted - shut in rooms and forced to service fellow men in care, often being paid, as it was described, with "a smoke for a poke".

The over-arching point here is that, instead of being viewed as a critical priority for national action, violence against women and girls with disabilities has remained largely outside public debate, social policy discussions and service system reform processes.

That must change.

At the Australian Human Rights Commission, we are already involved with important initiatives like the Stop the Violence Project which aims to provide better policies and practices to improve the way government and service providers respond to and prevent violence against women and girls with disability.

Today's International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women is the perfect opportunity for us all to lend our voices to these women and shine a floodlight on their often overlooked experiences - to start taking whatever steps we can to ensure that women and girls with disability can enjoy what, after all, is their fundamental human right of freedom from violence, exploitation and abuse.

Elizabeth Broderick is Australia's Sex Discrimination Commissioner and Graeme Innes is Australia's Disability Discrimination Commissioner.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-11-25/broderick-innes-protecting-women-and-girls-with-disability/5115472