A woman cooking on a makeshift stove at a relief camp in Malakpur village in Shamli district of Uttar Pradesh on Oct. 7.Credit Sajjad Hussain/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
NEW DELHI– About a month after the first report of a gang rape was registered in the Muzaffarnagar district of Uttar Pradesh, the police acknowledged they have yet to question anyone named in the six
gang rape complaints filed in the aftermath of last month’s sectarian riots.
According to Muzaffarnagar police records, six women have said they were gang raped and four others have said they were molested during the violence between Hindus and Muslims that broke out on Sept. 7 here
in the sugarcane belt of northern India, located 75 miles north of New Delhi, where the men who gang raped a young woman in December last year were sentenced to death last month.
The police said the women named their alleged assailants in their gang rape complaints, but Mala Yadav, the officer investigating these cases, said Wednesday that the police have not made any contact with the
men. Read more…
A refugee camp in Malakpur area of Shamli district, Uttar Pradesh.Credit Pamposh
Raina
MALAKPUR, Uttar Pradesh— Of the 42,000 people who fled their homes in Muzaffarnagar after violence broke out between Hindus and Muslims in early September, several thousand have settled near this village, about 60 miles north of New Delhi, staying
in rows of colorful tarpaulin tents that are just wide enough for a cot and just high enough to allow one to sit upright.
Bullock carts, motorbikes and tractors compete with each other on the narrow road leading up to the makeshift camp, set up on about 120 acres of state government land in Shamli district where a thick growth
of kikar trees was razed. Near the entrance of the camp, under a rectangular canopy a large group of men sat on their knees to offer prayers, or namaz. Read more…
A burned room inside a house in Lisarh village of Muzaffarnagar district, Uttar Pradesh.Credit Pamposh Raina
KANDHLA and LISARH, Uttar Pradesh—More than three weeks after deadly sectarian violence broke out in the Muzaffarnagar district of the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, cases of sexual violence
against women during the rioting are beginning to surface. Only five such complaints have been taken up by the police so far.
“Three cases of rape and two cases of molestation from Fugana village are being investigated. We received information about these just two days ago,” said Kalpana Saxena, a superintendent of the
police in Muzaffarnagar district, in a phone interview on Sunday.
“Two hundred F.I.R.s have been filed and 800 people have been arrested, mostly on charges of murder, arson and loot,” she said, referring to first information reports, or police complaints. Since
the riots began on Sept.7, 49 people have died and 42,000 have been displaced, according to official statistics. The displaced include Mohammad Yamin, 55, who sold iron gates in Lisarh village, 75 miles
north of New Delhi, and his family. Read more…
A government employee of the telegraph department at his workplace in Mumbai, Maharashtra, on July 15.Credit Divyakant Solanki/European Pressphoto Agency
Ashwini Kumar Sharma, 60, a data processing assistant with India’s Ministry of Home Affairs, is about to retire after 41 years of working with the government. After retirement, he will receive a monthly pension that will equal half the last salary
from his employer. He will get to withdraw the money that a mandatory government program made him set aside during his working years, along with the interest it accrued in a savings account.
Mr. Sharma will also be given a certain sum, known as “gratuity”— a token of gratitude for decades of service.
“Pension gives me a sense of security,” said Mr. Sharma, who is retiring at the end of September. “I am not worried about eating two square meals a day after I retire.” Read more…
A candle light vigil in Bangalore, Karnataka, on Aug. 24 to protest the gang rape of a Mumbai-based photojournalist.Credit Aijaz Rahi/Associated Press
After the gang rape of a 22-year-old photojournalist in Mumbai last month, a growing number of female journalists in India have broken the silence around sexual harassment and violence they have faced while
doing their jobs.
In their accounts, the women highlight some of their experiences, which are seldom discussed in newsrooms because reporters run the risk of losing an assignment if they come across as weaklings. Read more…
Policemen in plain clothes escorted the juvenile accused in the Delhi gang rape case to a court in New Delhi on Saturday. Credit India/Reuters
NEW DELHI— A Juvenile Justice Board on Saturday convicted the youngest of the six defendants in the gang rape and murder of a 23-year-old physiotherapy student in New Delhi in December.
The juvenile board in New Delhi, led by the principal magistrate Geetanjali Goel, sentenced him to three years in a detention facility for juveniles.
The accused who cannot be named as he was 17 when he committed the crime had 16 charges against him. He turned 18 in June. The Delhi gang rape case triggered a debate in India over lowering the age of adult
criminal responsibility to 16. The law currently defines an individual below the age of 18 as a juvenile. Read more…
Children eating food at a slum area in Guwahati, Assam, on July 4.Credit Anupam
Nath/Associated Press
The landmark food security bill that guarantees a legal right to food to 70 percent of India’s 1.2 billion people was ratified by a majority vote in the lower house of the Indian Parliament, or Lok Sabha,
on Monday night after a protracted debate between lawmakers.
A pet project of the governing Indian National Congress party that leads the United Progressive Alliance national coalition, the ambitious bill will cost the exchequer about 1.2 trillion rupees, or $20 billion
annually.
The bill needs to be debated and passed in the upper house of the Parliament, or Rajya Sabha, and signed off by the president before becoming law. Read more…
Policemen in plain clothes escorting the juvenile accused, center, in the Dec. 16 gang rape, in New Delhi on July 11.Credit Sajjad Hussain/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
On Magazine Road, near the Delhi University campus, a seedy, expansive complex with high, pale yellow walls, which served as a warehouse for arms and ammunition during the British rule, houses three of the six correctional facilities for juvenile offenders
run by the Delhi government. Its most notorious inmate is the youngest defendant on trial for the gang rape and murder of a 23-year-old woman in Delhi.
“He is kept separate from other children in a facility known as ‘place of safety,’ ” said Manoj Kumar Upadhyay, a counselor at the juvenile home for boys. The accused is allowed to
interact with other inmates for a limited time to discourage discussions of his case, said Mr. Upadhyay. “He does talk to other boys when he is with them,” he added. Read more…
Policemen in plain clothes escorting the juvenile accused, center with face covered, after the court hearing in New Delhi on Thursday.Credit Money Sharma/European Pressphoto Agency
NEW DELHI— The Juvenile Justice Board on Thursday yet again deferred its verdict for the youngest of the six defendants in the gang rape and murder of a 23-year-old physiotherapy student in New Delhi
in December. A judgment is now expected on Aug. 5, according to the court officials.
The board, led by the principal magistrate Geetanjali Goel, had earlier this month delayed its decision on the charges against the accused, who cannot be named because he was 17 at the time of the crime. He turned 18 last month.
Rajesh Tiwari, the lawyer for the defendant, said the decision was delayed because of a pending appeal in the Supreme Court that seeks a consideration of the “mental and intellectual maturity”
of the young man, and not just his age, while deciding his punishment. Subramanian Swamy, president of the Janata Party, had filed the petition, which is expected to be heard in the country’s highest court on July 31. Read more…
Workers filling steel containers with rice at the Stri Shakti kitchen in West Delhi.Credit Courtesy of Pamposh Raina
NEW DELHI — In the Chandni Chowk area of north Delhi, a dilapidated mansion built in 1923 houses a government-run primary school. Every day, Raj Kumar, 42, a contractor, transports boxed free lunches
to the school. Earlier this week, he opened a container to show out how it was still half full.
“Look how much food went to waste today,” he said. “These children have been eating less since they heard about the deaths in Bihar.”
That day, the children in New Delhi had received a meal of chickpeas and semolina pudding as per the menu set by the government department that administers the school lunch program. The food was prepared in
a central kitchen run by a nongovernmental organization, unlike in Bihar, where the meal that killed 23 children last week was prepared inside the school complex. The principal of the school was arrested Wednesday by the police. Read more…
