Tag Archives: Rape

Almost 80 percent of Indian women face public harassment in cities

A woman adjusts her scarf as the sun sets over Kashmir's Dal Lake in Srinagar

By Nita Bhalla

NEW DELHI (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Nearly four out of five women in India have faced public harassment ranging from staring, insults and wolf-whistling to being followed, groped or even raped, said a survey by the charity ActionAid UK.

The study – which polled over 500 women in cities across India – found that 84 percent of the respondents who experienced harassment were aged between 25 and 35 years old and were largely working women and students.

“For us in India the findings are not big news, what is noteworthy of the 500 women interviewed in India, is the extent to which women have responded and reported boldly about facing harassment and violence,” Sandeep Chachra, ActionAid India’s executive director, said on Monday.

“It is as if society is telling women that public spaces are not for them, and what is more interesting is that women are asserting their claim of these spaces.”

Indian women face a barrage of threats ranging from child marriage, dowry killings and human trafficking to rape and domestic violence, largely due to deep-rooted attitudes that view them as inferior to men.

There were 337,922 reports of violence against women such as rape, molestation, abduction and cruelty by husbands in 2014, up nine percent from the previous year, according to the latest data from India’s National Crime Records Bureau.

The online survey, which was released on Friday, was conducted by British market research firm YouGov in early May. It polled 502 women living in cities across the country, including New Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai and Kolkata.

It said women faced harassment in multiple places – on the street, in parks, at community events, on college campuses and while traveling on public transport.

“CULTURE OF HARASSMENT”

Over a third of the Indian women surveyed said they had been groped in public or faced someone exposing themselves, while more than half reported that they had been followed.

Forty-six percent reported insults and name-calling in public, 44 percent experienced wolf-whistling, 16 percent had been drugged and nine percent reported they had been raped.

A wave of public protests after the fatal gang rape of a woman on a Delhi bus in December 2012 jolted many in the world’s second most populous country out of apathy and forced the government to enact stiffer penalties on gender crimes.

This included the death sentence for repeat rape offenders, criminalizing stalking and voyeurism, and making acid attacks and human trafficking specific offences.

Since then, a spike in media reports, government campaigns and civil society programs have increased public awareness of women’s rights and emboldened victims to register abuses.

But activists say the figures are still gross underestimates, as many victims remain reluctant to report crimes such as sexual violence for fear their families and communities will shun them.

ActionAid representatives urged authorities to work toward ending patriarchal mindsets and sexist attitudes which they said were to blame for this “culture of harassment.”

“Safety of women is directly related to patriarchal mind sets that manifests itself in streets, homes and workplaces,” said Sehjo Singh, ActionAid India’s director of programs and policy.

“The fear of harassment and violence has a crippling effect on women’s abilities and potential, and in itself it is an attack on women’s rights.”

(Reporting by Nita Bhalla, Editing by Ros Russell. Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women’s rights, trafficking, corruption and climate change. Visit news.trust.org)

Pregnant in a war zone: What are your choices?

Queen Rania of Jordan meets with Syrian refugee women during her visit at the Kara Tepe refugee camp on the Greek island of Lesbos

By Astrid Zweynert

LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – In Yemen women give birth in caves to avoid air strikes, in war-torn Syria child marriages are increasing, while in eastern Ukraine, where conflict has been raging for two years, domestic violence is rising, aid agencies have been reporting.

Even though these scenarios are typical of the hardships faced by women in conflict zones or disasters, too little is being done to address their needs beyond providing them with the most basic humanitarian aid, said Babatunde Osotimehin, executive director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).

“The focus is on water, food and shelter and that’s crucial and life-saving but life does go on in conflicts and disasters, including sex and births,” Osotimehin told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in an interview in London.

Numerous studies have shown women in need of aid because of conflict or disaster are more vulnerable to sexual violence, sexually transmitted diseases and unwanted pregnancies, he said.

An UNFPA report last December said more than 500 women a day die from complications arising from pregnancy and child birth in countries facing conflict or disaster.

“Even in peaceful times, it can be difficult to become a mother. But in a war zone, on a boat with smugglers, or in a refugee camp, being pregnant is truly daunting,” Osotimehin, a physician and former Nigerian minister of health, said.

As humanitarian crises have multiplied in recent years and more than 100 million people now being in need of assistance, women’s health and reproductive rights are often an afterthought, he said.

URGENT NEED

UNFPA said in February it is seeking $107 million to meet the needs of women and girls affected by the war in Syria, the world’s largest humanitarian crisis.

Four million people out of around 13.5 million in need of humanitarian assistance inside Syria are women and girls of childbearing age, U.N. data shows.

Among those who have taken refuge in neighboring countries, 1.2 million are of childbearing age.

Osotimehin said child marriage is now being used by desperate parents in Syria, who fear for the safety of their daughters and marry them off in the hope that they will be protected and provided with food and other necessities.

In other war-torn countries the needs of women and girls are equally pressing.

In Yemen, where war has been raging for more than a year, Medecins Sans Frontiers said in February that pregnant women had been seeking shelter in caves to give birth rather than risk going to a hospital.

Osotimehin urged world leaders and aid agencies gathering for the first humanitarian summit in Istanbul, Turkey, later this month to make women’s and girls needs a key part of the humanitarian response as standard.

“It is crucial to direct humanitarian aid to protect women of childbearing age, both to lessen present suffering and reduce it in the future, but current resources are insufficient,” he said.

TALK BUT LITTLE ACTION

Global leaders launched a new women, peace and security program last March, including workshops, training and guidelines to ensure that gender equality and the needs of women and girls are an integral part of the humanitarian response.

While there has been no lack of talk about the needs of women in conflict zones, too little is being done to translate words into concrete and coordinated action, said Osotimehin.

The U.N. adopted a resolution on women, peace and security in 2000 and a call to action saw donors and international agencies commit in 2013 to reducing violence against women in emergencies, while a London summit in 2014 agreed steps to tackle impunity for the use of rape as weapon of war.

Despite those efforts it is unclear how much money is being invested on these issues because there is no uniform way of reporting funding and what it is spent on, said Osotimehin.

(Reporting by Astrid Zweynert; Editing by Ros Russell; Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, which covers humanitarian news, women’s rights, trafficking, property rights and climate change. Visit news.trust.org to see more stories)

U.S. violent crime rate rose in first half of 2015, FBI reports

The United States experienced a rise in the number of violent crimes during the first half of 2015, according to new statistics released by the FBI on Tuesday.

The bureau published its Preliminary Semiannual Uniform Crime Report, which looks at crime in the United States in six-month windows. The most recent report, which covers the first six months of 2015, indicates that violent crime increased 1.7 percent when compared to the same six-month stretch of 2014.

Violent crimes include murders, rapes, non-negligent manslaughter, robberies and aggravated assaults, the bureau said in a news release. Each individual type of crime also increased from the totals reported in the first six months of 2014.

However, the FBI said property crimes like burglaries, larcenies and vehicle thefts, dipped 4.2 percent when compared to totals from the first half of 2014.

The preliminary data paints a partial picture of crime in the United States, but not a full one.

The Uniform Crime Reporting Program, from which the new statistics were compiled, relies on approximately 18,000 law enforcement agencies across the country to voluntarily submit data to the FBI. The bureau said about 13,000 of those agencies submitted comparable data for the first halves of 2014 and 2015.

The FBI also didn’t release the number of crimes committed, only percent changes.

The statistics showed murder rose 6.2 percent, aggravated assaults went up 2.3 percent and there were 0.3 percent more robberies. The FBI has two different types of data for rape, as it changed the definition of the offense in 2013. The so-called “legacy definition” saw a 9.6 increase, the bureau said. The “revised definition,” which is broader and based on penetration, increased 1.1 percent.

Murders went up in cities of all sizes, including 17 percent in those with fewer than 10,000 people — despite just a 1.5 percent rise in violent crimes there.

When it comes to property crimes, the bureau said nationwide burglary rates fell 9.8 percent and larcenies dropped 3.2 percent, but motor vehicle thefts rose 1 percent.

The West was the only region in which violent crime and property crime increased, the bureau said, posting respective rises of 5.6 and 2.4 percent. The Northeast, meanwhile, was the only region to see declines in both categories, with an 8 percent drop in property crime and a 3.2 percent drop in violent offenses.

Data from the other two regions – the South and Midwest – mirrored national trends, with violent crime posting slight increases and property crimes declining.

The South saw a 1.6 percent increase in violent crime and a 6.4 percent drop in property crimes, according to the bureau, while the Midwest witnessed a 7 percent drop in property crimes and a 1.4 percent rise in violent crimes.

The FBI’s two most recent full-year crime reports, covering 2014 and 2013, both showed national declines in property and violent crimes from the previous year.

The FBI is expected to release its full report on 2015 crime data later this year.