NCB 2021 reports that every hour 49 offences are committed against women in India. Seventy five per cent of the perpetrators of violence against women go unpunished mainly because of immunity granted to them by a casteist and patriarchal system
In the context of gruesome Shraddha murder, we must ponder over as to how safe are women inside their home? Is there life beyond the maternal home? Why has the accused’s religion and the word ‘live-in’ has hogged the limelight than the societal mindset?
It was not long ago that courts held the live-in relationship legal. However, in this case the narrative has been weaved around putting the blame on the live-in relationships. This simply amounts to moral policing and holding the women victims responsible for the crime. Little sympathy for the young woman, nor pricking the conscience of society but finding fault with the victim. Shraddha fell in love with Aftab at Mumbai, came to Delhi but found that she was not safe even at her chosen ‘home’. She was strangled to death by her loved partner who chopped her body into 35 pieces, stored it in a fridge and used the silence of city nights to spread the body parts across the Lutyens Delhi.
Cases show a pattern
Around the time this terrible crime was detected in Delhi, in Azamgarh in Uttar Pradesh, a young woman was killed and cut into six parts by her ex-boyfriend. Another woman in Sitapur district was killed by her husband and her body hacked into pieces and dumped in a field. The communalisation of violence against women in India is a highly dangerous weapon which will further subvert the judicial process and rendering of justice. In The Bilkis Bano case, the affidavit of the Gujarat government in the petition opposing the release of the gang rapists and killers specifically mentions that before their release, sanction was given by the union home ministry.
When union minister Kaushal Kishore suggested that the ‘educated women’ should get registered first before staying away with the ‘live in partners’ , it amounted only to our masculine beliefs. Had they got registered, would she be able to save her life?
As per the data of National Commission for Women (NCW), the domestic violence complaints whereas in the first week of March before the lockdown was imposed stood at 30; it shot up to 69 in the first week of lockdown only (March 23- April 1). The rising complaints led to NCW starting a WhatsApp number for registering complaints. The root of the violence is the patriarchal family structure. It must be understood that domestic violence is an undeclared war against women which has taken more victims through the years than any conventional war.
