Women rights activists have observed 25 November as a day against gender-based violence since 1981. This day was selected to honour the Mirabal sisters; three political activists from the Dominican Republic who were brutally murdered in 1960 by order of the country’s ruler, Rafael Trujillo. In 1993, on December 20th the General Assembly adopted Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women through resolution 48/104, paving the path towards eradication violence against women / girls worldwide. Finally, on 7 February 2000, UNGA adopted resolution 52/134, officially designating 25 November as International day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women.
There are some countries in which women are not treated well one of such example is India. A woman is raped every 22 minutes in India according to 2011 statistics, despite the fact that over three quarters of such incidence are estimated to go unreported. Delhi is famous with the name of rape capital across the world. According to Thomson Reuters Foundation (a London-based charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, a Canadian news conglomerate): “India is the world’s most dangerous country for women due to high risk of sexual violence and being forced into slave labour.”
According to the WEF’s Global Gap Report (GGGR) 2022, India is placed at 135 out of 146 countries. 70.1 percent of the participants in the labour force are men, while the percentage of women is significantly less and accounts for only 19.2%. There is no dearth of evidence to illustrate this inequality. According to the World Inequality Report 2022, men in India earn 82% of the labour income whereas women get only 18%. The Monster Salary Index (MSI) published also reiterates the inequality faced by women in India and states that women in India earn 19% less than men.
In June 2022, Kashmir Media Services issued an analytical report titled, “India, using rape as a tool to suppress Kashmiris struggle” revealed that Indian forces personnel had sexually assaulted over 11,255 women during the last three decades in the occupied territory. Moreover, the report details that rape was sanctioned as a matter of official policy by India in IIOJK. It maintained that so far not a single Indian soldier or policeman involved in such heinous crimes in the occupied territory had been punished. “Despite evidence that Indian forces personnel are involved in widespread rape in IIOJK, not a single such case has been investigated so far. World human rights bodies have documented many cases of rape and gang rape by Indian troops in IIOJK. Rapist Indian forces are an ugly blot on humanity.”
Women are not safe in India and are continuously being targeted on the basis of their gender, religious beliefs, and many other orientations. Even women journalists are not safe in the Hindutva driven country. A UK based think tank, institute of commonwealth studies published a report, titled, “Women journalists trolled and targeted: India” which stated that, “The violence against journalists, the politically partisan media and the concentration of media ownership all demonstrate that press freedom is in crisis in the world’s largest democracy.” International community must speak against the violence perpetuated by Indian state against women and the so-called image of India being the largest democracy must be busted.
