Girls not safe in Uttar Pradesh, say activists
By IANSMonday, February 7, 2011
NEW DELHI - Women activists Monday expressed shock at the attack on a Dalit minor whose ear was nearly chopped off and fingers smashed after she resisted gangrape, saying girls were not safe in Uttar Pradesh and the situation was going from bad to worse.
Girija Vyas, chairperson of the National Commission for Women (NCW), said: “Uttar Pradesh has the highest number of rape and adduction cases in the country and there is no justice delivered. There is police inaction and there have been instances when innocent victims land behind bars.”
“It’s a bad situation and no case is being referred to fast track courts,” she added.
The teenaged Dalit girl was subjected to a brutal attack late Saturday and her ear was nearly chopped off while resisting a rape attempt by three youths of her village in Uttar Pradesh’s Fatehpur district, police said Sunday. One man has been arrested.
The teenager was attacked with a sharp-edged weapon.
Ranjana Kumari, chairperson of the Centre for Social Research, said: “Girls are not safe in Uttar Pradesh. Just a week back we came to know that a 17-year-old Dalit girl was gangraped and murdered on the outskirts of Lucknow and now there is this case of another Dalit teenager attacked for resisting rape”.
“I can’t understand how Chief Minister Mayawati is keeping quiet on the whole matter? She is a Dalit leader herself and supposed to be the messiah of the community. We demand that an enquiry be done on the matter and the guilty punished immediately,” she added.
