Hathras horror: 10,000 women, groups worldwide seek justice for victim

By QUAID NAJMI Mumbai, Oct 4 : Over 10,000 women, feminist groups and rights activists from all over the world on Sunday got together to seek justice for the Hathras gang-rape victim as the case has rocked national and Uttar Pradesh politics in the past one week.
While a majority of the signatories are from India, there are many others from USA, UK, Canada, Australia, UAE, Japan, Hong Kong, Nepal Sweden, Slovenia, the Netherlands, etc, cutting across religious, occupation or community lines have issued the joint statement.
Sharply condemning the brutal incident, they said that “despite a continuing saga of countless other cases of brutal sexual assault and murders, especially of young Dalit women, the conscience of this nation does not seem to be shaken enough to do anything serious to stop the systematic targeting of women, Dalits and the poor”.
“While there is a historicity to these incidents, under CM Yogi Adityanath’s rule, UP has only gone from bad to worse. Crimes against women and Dalits have increased, and police have been given unlimited powers without any accountability. Today, UP tops the charts for atrocities against Dalits, it also tops the charts for crimes against women,” the statement pointed out.
It expressed concern that even as news of the Hathras victim’s death broke, there were more cases of sexual violence against Dalit women from Balrampur, Bulandshahr and Azamgarh in Uttar Pradesh.
“The growing support base for Thakurs, the fact that no official visited the girl’s family even once after her death, tells us the facts as they are, nobody cares and caste solidarity remains one of the ugliest and strongest kinship performances of the modern Indian State, one that must be challenged and broken. The actions of the state will only further strengthen those who continue to commit such crimes without any fear of punishment,” they said.