25 years' court data proves RSS chief wrong; 75% of rape convicts from 'Bharat'

January 5, 2013

shame_in_numberNew Delhi, Jan 5: Women's groups have criticised RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat's view on rape in "India" and "Bharat" for being regressive. But data shows that not only are Bhagwat's views regressive, they're also plain wrong.

While the National Crime Records Bureau does not split registered cases of sexual assault by rural and urban areas, Mrinal Satish, an associate professor of law at Delhi's National Law University, used court data to find that 75% of rape cases that led to convictions over the last 25 years were from rural India.

For his doctoral dissertation at the Yale Law School in the US, Satish looked at all high court and Supreme Court cases involving rape reported in the Criminal Law Journal (which reports criminal law cases) between 1983 and 2009 in which at least one court (trial court, HC or SC) had convicted the accused. The data thus does not include cases in which the accused was acquitted at all levels. Satish also had to leave out cases that were not for some reason reported in the Journal.

He found that over 80% of these rape cases in high courts and close to 75% of rape cases in the Supreme Court came from rural areas. Close to 75% of gang rape cases in HCs and 63% of gang rape cases in the SC came from rural areas. Over 65% of cases involving the rape of a child (less than 12 years old) came from rural areas. On average, 75% of all rape cases in higher courts that had led to at least one conviction came from rural areas. While the numbers are fairly proportional to India's rural/urban population, they do disprove Bhagwat's statement that rapes do not take place in rural areas.

"Rape as a tool of caste violence is rampant in rural areas," says Kalpana Viswanath of the women's rights group Jagori. "The controlling of women's bodies through institutions like khap panchayats is also a rural phenomenon," says Viswanath.

Moreover, activists hotly dispute Bhagwat's attempt to draw a correlation between "modernity" and rape. For one, custodial rape, which has little correlation with "modernity", is rampant in India. The case that changed the history of rape law in India, the Mathura rape case in which two policemen in north-east Maharashtra raped a tribal girl in a police station, was a case of custodial rape. Rapes of disabled women, patients in hospitals, children and older women - all with little association with "modernity" - are extremely common, Viswanath adds. "Ultimately this is an attempt to take the debate back to making rape the fault of women, rather than focusing attention on where it's needed, on society and institutions," says Viswanath.

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March 31,2020

Hyderabad, Mar 31: Six people from Telangana who attended a religious congregation in Delhi's Nizamuddin died due to the novel coronavirus, the state government said on Monday.

"Coronavirus has spread among some of those who attended a religious prayer meeting from March 13 to 15 at Markaz in Nizamuddin area in Delhi," according to an official release. "Among those who attended were some persons from Telangana."

Two of the six died at the Gandhi Hospital, one each in two private hospitals, and one each in Nizamabad and Gadwal towns, the statement said, without mentioning the time of their deaths.

The special teams under the collectors have identified the persons who came in contact with the deceased and they are shifted to the hospitals, it said.

Police and paramilitary personnel cordoned off a major area in Nizamuddin West in south Delhi on Monday and over 200 people have been kept in isolation in hospitals after several people who took part in a religious congregation there showed symptoms of coronavirus.

The Telagana government asked those who participated in the prayers to inform the authorities. It will conduct tests and offer treatment to them free of cost, according to the release.

The government also requested the people to alert if they come to know about those who participated in the prayers.

Earlier a separate government release said a person died of COVID-19 in Telangana, taking the toll to two and the total number touched 77 after six fresh cases were reported on Monday.

As many as 13 patients who underwent treatment for the virus were discharged on Monday, a media bulletin on COVID-19 issued by the state government said.

A techie, the first COVID-19 case in Telangana, has been discharged recently. The state now has 61 active cases, the bulletin said.

Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao had on Sunday said barring a 76-year-old person, who had other ailments, the other patients were doing well.

Rao had said 25,937 people were under surveillance and being watched by 5,746 teams and they would be out of watch after completing their mandated 14-day quarantine period. He had said all those who are under observation would be out of vigil by April 7 if there are no fresh suspected cases.

"From March 30, their time is nearing completion. After that, they do not need to be under any surveillance. By April 7, we will have a situation of zero... We pray God that we should not get new cases,"

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News Network
April 11,2020

Malappuram, Apr 11: Farmers in Malappuram district are facing problems in selling cucumbers and watermelons due to the drop in demand and prices in the market amid the nationwide COVID-19 lockdown.

"We have cultivated cucumbers for our Vishu festival in Kerala. In recent conditions, we are facing issues in selling our crops. In comparison to the previous years, we have a huge production this time," said Saifu, a farmer in the Malappuram district.

"We have also cultivated different kinds of watermelons here. The major issues that we are facing are the low prices and the lockdown," he added.

The nationwide COVID-19 lockdown was imposed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi form March 25 for 21 days as a precautionary measure against the spread of the virus.

According to the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, the total number of positive COVID-19 cases in Kerala is 364. Till now, 123 people have either been cured or discharged, while two deaths have been reported.

The total number of positive coronavirus cases across the country are 7,529 including 6,634 active cases. So far, 652 patients have either been cured or discharged while 242 deaths have been recorded in the country, as per data provided by the Ministry of Health on Saturday evening.

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March 28,2020

Mumbai, Mar 28: Industrialist Ratan Tata on Saturday announced that Tata Trusts has committed Rs 500 crore for the medical supplies and equipments which will help combat the coronavirus outbreak.

"The COVID-19 crisis is one of the toughest challenges we will face as a race. The Tata Trusts and the Tata group companies have in the past risen to the needs of the nation. At this moment, the need of the hour is greater than any other time," said Ratan Tata, in an official release.

"Tata is committing Rs 500 crore for: personal protective equipment for the medical personnel on the frontlines; respiratory systems for treating increasing cases; testing kits to increase per capita testing; setting up modular treatment facilities for infected patients and knowledge management and training of health workers and the general public," Tata added.
Tata Chairman also expressed his deep gratitude for the members of all the organizations who are fighting coronavirus at the frontline, puting their life at risk.

"The Tata Trusts, Tata Sons and the Tata group companies are joined by committed local and global partners as well as the government to fight this crisis on a united public health collaboration platform which will strive to reach out to sections that are underprivileged and deprived," he added.

According to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW), there are 873 confirmed cases of coronavirus cases in the country and 19 fatalities have been reported.

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