Rape survivors are degraded by 'finger test' in India

Agencies
November 8, 2017

Mumbai, Nov 8: Five years after a fatal Delhi bus rape, more Indian women are reporting attacks but are often humiliated by police and medics or intimidated to withdraw cases, activists said on Wednesday.

A study by Human Rights Watch (HRW) found the outlawed "two-finger test" - which involves a doctor inserting fingers into a rape victim's vagina to determine if she is sexually active - being carried out in a hospital in the state of Rajasthan.

"In some states, both the police and the medical system have not adopted the measures the government set out," Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia director at the U.S.-based advocacy group told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

"While the intention is there (to help rape survivors), it does not percolate down the system."

Home ministry officials said they could only comment once they had seen the report.

India has some of the highest number of rapes in the world but many sex crimes are not reported, offenders often go unpunished and the wheels of justice turn slowly, activists say.

HRW analysed the impact of reforms introduced following the fatal gang rape of a student in a New Delhi bus in 2012 that led to national outrage and put a global spotlight on rape in India.

Nearly 35,000 rape cases were reported to the police and 7,000 convictions were made in 2015, both increasing by about 40 percent in three years, according to government data.

But access to support services, ranging from legal aid to healthcare, is poor and gender-friendly government guidelines are often flouted, HRW said.

"Women and girls said that they received almost no attention to their health needs, including counselling, even when it was clear they had a great need for it," the report said.

India's top court said in 2013 that the two-finger test violated a woman's right to privacy.

It was banned and the Indian Council of Medical Research issued new guidelines in 2014.

But HRW found the test mentioned in a form that doctors fill in when they examine rape survivors at a Rajasthan hospital.

Sexual violence remains a taboo in the world's largest democracy, and women and girls fear stigma or retribution if they report attacks.

HRW called for India to introduce a victim and witness protection system to encourage people to come forward.

It interviewed more than 20 rape survivors, as well as lawyers, doctors and police officials in four states with a high prevalence of rape, as well as New Delhi and Mumbai.

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News Network
May 18,2020

As many as employees of Zee News have tested positive for the coronavirus, Editor-in-Chief Sudhir Chaudhary said on Monday. Most of them are asymptomatic, he said, tweeting an official statement from Zee News about the situation.

The organisation said that on May 15, one of its employees tested positive for the coronavirus. Following this, the company started testing employees who may have come in contact with the employee. Twenty-seven more were found to be infected.

“Fortunately most of them are asymptomatic and are not complaining of any discomfort,” Zee News said. “We believe this is because of early diagnosis and proactive intervention.”

The news network said all guidelines and protocols have been followed, and its office, newsroom and studios have been sealed for sanitisation. The Zee News team has been shifted to an alternative facility.

“At the moment, Zee Media Corporation has 2,500 employees, by far the largest in the private sector,” the company said. “We are committed to the safety of each one of them.”

Chaudhary also claimed that “those who are infected had the option of sitting at home and sharing memes”. “They came to work because they are committed professionals.”

Following this, some social media users claimed that Zee News employees found infected with Covid-19 were still at work. In response, Chaudhary alleged that a malicious campaign was being conducted to distort his statement. He said no infected employee had come to work, and all the contacts of the employee who tested positive on May 15 had been tested and quarantined.

Over the past two months, journalists from several media organisations have tested positive for the coronavirus. On April 21, 26 employees of a Tamil news channel based in Chennai tested positive for the coronavirus. The previous day, over 50 journalists from Mumbai were found infected, after samples of over 170 journalists were tested.

On May 7, a newspaper journalist died of the coronavirus in Agra. Some states, such as Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka and Delhi, have tested journalists for Covid-19.

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News Network
May 25,2020

Thiruvananthapuram, May 25: About 100 people, including a Magistrate and some police personnel, have been asked to go into quarantine after an accused, who was produced before a lower court here following his arrest, later testedpositive, officials said on Monday. The accused, who was arrested along with two others in connection with a case relating to illicit liquor transportation two days ago, had been shifted to thePoojapura central jail after he was remanded to judicial custody.

With his sample testing positive on Sunday, theman has been sent to a designated COVID-19 hospital. The Nedumangad court magistrate, before whom he was produced, 34 police personnel, including a circle inspector, who were on duty at the Venjaramoodu police station when the accused was broughtafter his arrest, some employees of a government hospital where his swab sample was taken and 12 officials of thePoojapura central jail have gone into quarantine, police sources said.

. Meanwhile, Malayalam film actor Suraj Venjaramoodu and Vamanapuram MLA D K Murali (CPI) are under self-imposed quarantineas they had attended a function in which the circle inspector had taken part.

Two days ago, a car in which illicit liqour was being transported had hit a policeman and sped away, but people managed to stop the vehicle and the three accused, who were in an inebriated state, were arrested, sources said.

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News Network
January 21,2020

Lucknow, Jan 21: Defending his brainchild, the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), Union home minister Amit Shah on Tuesday said the new law will not be scrapped despite the countrywide protests against it.

Addressing a rally here to drum up support for the CAA, Shah also declared that construction of a Ram temple "touching the skies" in Ayodhya will begin within three months.

He said there is no provision in the amended law for taking anyone's citizenship away. "A canard is being spread against the CAA by the Congress, SP, BSP, and Trinamool Congress. The CAA is a law to grant citizenship," he added.

"I want to say that irrespective of the protests this will not be withdrawn," he added.

Shah challenged Congress leaders to hold a discussion with him on CAA at a public forum.

He named Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, Samajwadi Party's Akhilesh Yadav, Bahujan Samaj Party's Mayawati and TMC chief Mamata Banerjee while throwing the "challenge".

Congress has become blind due to vote bank politics,"he said. He also blamed the Congress for Partition.

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