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