Growing Profile of Being Unsafe for Women: Who would be the Bengal saviour of the 21st century?

Writing on targeted oppression of women in West Bengal may bring confusion about the point of inception thereof. While some might prefer to begin with ‘Sati Pratha’ referring to Raja Rammohan Roy & his struggle to criminalise ‘Sati’, oppression on women existed in Bengal before the advent of Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu too in the 16th Century.

Again, before the battle of Plassey in 1757, then Nawab of Murshidabad Sirajuddaula engaged in targeted sexual assault of Hindu women in Bengal. He was a debauch and targeted the daughter of Rani Bhabani too and Rani coalesced together with the other Hindu merchants & Rajas to hatch a plan to defeat the debauch, non-Bengali Nawab with the help of Robert Clive of the East India Company.

Even during the British rule, the Bengal Province had witnessed several communal riots between the Hindus and the Muslims of the Province which casted harmful impacts on the society in general affecting men, women, children, domestic animals, properties, agro resources and the nature but didn’t showcase specific targeting of women.

However, during ‘the Great Calcutta Killing’ in 1946, women were specifically targeted. The unorganized army of the Muslim League kept the naked dead bodies of women hanging in the beef outlets of Rajabajar for open display. The same thing was done to the girls of Victoria College too hanging their naked dead bodies in front of the hostel windows. This was perhaps the first time when modern post-Islamic Bengal Province witnessed specific sexual targeting of women. The same pattern was also followed against Hindu women in Noakhali & several other places of East Pakistan thereafter.

As the social conscience was filled with remorse in the 16th, 18th or 19th century about the systemic oppression on women in the name of religion, great personalities were born to relieve the society from living with such guilt feeling. However, methodical sexual targeting of women in pre and post partition Bengal was portrayed with heroism by the Muslim League. Such spirit of heroism relieved the oppressors from the sense of guilt enabling them to practice unhesitating bestiality against women. The same unhesitant mindset is being observed these days in the West Bengal cases of rape crimes.

Though this piece is not a brief account of the historical incidents of oppression on women in Bengal, viewing such incidents of the recent past in West Bengal with respect to those in long past would help the reader to put them into perspective in terms of the attitude of the State & its people to the same. Given below please find a very few of the reported incidents of West Bengal in the month of August 2024.

West Bengal having 21 districts in totality, a few such incidents in 5 districts of it namely Malda, Uttar 24 Parganas, Bankura, Birbhum, & Jalpaiguri have been tracked. It also requires to be noted that except Malda & Uttar 24 Parganas, the other 3 districts are not the ones which generally witness the maximum number of crimes against women in West Bengal.

Malda

On August 1, a housewife (25) of Harishchandrapur, the wife of a migrant labour who stays & works in a different State, was given a call by someone claiming two of her domestic cattles were moving free out on field. As she came out of her house to check leaving back 3 of her children within, she was dragged to a nearby jute-field strapping her mouth by a piece of cloth & raped for 2 hours by 2 men. As the lady shouted, she was threatened to be killed if she reported the incident to anyone. She was allowed to go back home in lieu of a commitment that she won’t say anything to anyone. She, however, discussed the matter with her mother who again discussed it with a neighbour who gave them support & courage to report it to the Police. As a result of an outrage by the locals, Harishchandrapur PS had to arrest 2 men while the body language of the alleged culprits suggested they’re hardly disturbed by the police-proceedings against them. Nor did they appear to be ashamed at all to enter the police van. The locals of the village along with the victim herself wanted death penalty of the perpetrators.

On August 14, body of a minor girl was found lying on a ground in Daulatpur area of the same Harishchandrapur with her head smashed and bleeding genitals. Her condition suggested she was gang raped & then attempted to be murdered. Police, before registering the complaints, engaged in taking the girl first to the local hospital & then to Malda Medical College. The guardians of the minor too were so bewildered by the shock of the incidence that no one focused on registering the police complaint in time. People of Harishchandrapur outraged on the issue of gang rape of a minor.

On August 13, the wife of another migrant labour of Manikchak, Malda, was raped by one while two others video recorded the incident. She heard a knock at her door deep at night but didn’t open the door. Then the door was thrashed from outside & she opened it to be dragged by 3 persons to a nearby desolate place where they engaged in the crime against her. The lady spoke to her husband over phone & rushed to the police station the very next morning. The police allegedly kept her waiting for long to register her complaint. She said the persons who video recorded the incident belonged to her own locality while the rapist was unknown to her. It was alleged that the police wanted to register the complaint after 36 hours so that evidence of rape within the victim’s body couldn’t be found during medical test. However, medical test had confirmed rape & people created an uproar demanding arrest of the perpetrators. IC Manikchak PS, Subir Karmakar said that the police didn’t delay to start searching for the culprits.

Another minor girl of Class 11 was raped in Englishbajar Malda by her neighbour who drugged her first by mixing the intoxicant in her soft drink. The incident of rape was video recorded and the minor was blackmailed about it for repetitive exploitation of hers. The girl was offered money for not reporting it to the police and was beaten & threatened as she didn’t agree to such proposal. While the people of her house went to the Englishbajar PS on August 7 for registering the complaint, the police didn’t act upon their complaint & the family approached SP Malda on August 21 when the SP said the police was searching for the criminal.

Uttar 24 Parganas

In the end of August in Hasnabad of North 24 Parganas, the police themselves were beaten as they went to arrest a rapist who raped a woman in an empty police outpost in Hasnabad. The main alleged culprit fled away while the police could arrest 2 of his associates & placed them in Basirhat Court.

A mutilated dead body of  a woman packed in a sack was found in a canal in Badu of Madhyamgram, Uttar 24 Parganas on August 16. Police from Madhyamgram PS reached the spot with dog squad & sent the body to Barasat District Hospital for autopsy. The locals suspected the miscreants had tortured her in some nearby desolate place, murdered thereafter & packed the body to put it into the canal in order to avoid the grip of law.

On around August 20, a man assaulted a female nurse working in a private hospital of New Town Kolkata which falls within Uttar 24 Parganas district. On her way back from hospital duty, a resident of Patharghata assaulted her on road by groping her & touching her in wrong ways hurling abusive slurs at her. The nurse registered a complaint in the Techno City PS & the police had arrested the culprit by checking the cctv footage of the place.

On August 13, in Bangaon, on their way back from tuition together, a boy allegedly took a minor girl to his uncle’s (MAMA) house when there was no one else but the grandmother. Both the children read in Class VIII. Once the grandmother was absent in the room, the boy closed the door and raped the girl. Returning back home the girl fell sick & described her experience. Her family members lodged complaint in the police station & subsequently alleged police remissness in their case. Thereafter the police filed a case against the accused under POCSO Act and detained him.

A teacher of Chikanpara R P School of Gaighata, Uttar 24 Parganas had kicked on the chest of a girl child reading in class 2 on August 14 as 2 children engaged in playful childish gestures between themselves. The teacher fled immediately after the incident while the mother of the child lodged complaints to the Panchayat Samiti President, the BDO & the School Sub-inspector of Gaighata.

A teacher of Bangaon Chapaberia Ramkrishna Vidyamandir Primary School was arrested in September 2022 allegedly for raping a tenant lady. As he was released on bail & joined the school back, guardians of the Primary School’s students vehemently protested with placards in front of the school on August 30. They wanted transfer of the rape-accused teacher.

In the end of August, locals of Rohanda Panchayat area of Madhyamgram engaged in a violent uproar in front of the police against a person who allegedly assaulted a minor girl sexually. The locals turned violent as the husband of the local member of the Panchayat who belonged to the State’s ruling party tried to safeguard the alleged culprit. To control the mob, the police lathicharged and hurled tear gas shells.

Bankura

On August 20, a Vanavasi minor girl was allegedly gang-raped by 4 persons in Onda, Bankura. While the Class VIII student was walking along the road in Jangalmahal, she was suddenly abducted from behind & dragged to the Ambari forest holding her mouth tight. The minor was threatened to keep her mouth shut about the incident. However, the child informed her mother about it after 3 days & the family approached Onda PS. Police lodged FIR against gang rape, took the girl for medical test, treatment & also arrested the 4 alleged culprits on August 25.

A housewife (46) of Bishnupur, Bankura went to the nearby Kathguri forest to collect pieces of woods & didn’t return. While her family members searched for her for the whole night, her half-naked dead body was found in Bankadaha of Bishnupur PS on August 25. They found marks on the soil suggesting she was dragged for around 200 meters within the jungle. Family members registered FIR in Bishnupur PS alleging she was raped & murdered.

Birbhum

Immediately after the heinous incident of R G Kar Medical College and Hospital, a person allegedly raped a housewife in the Panchsowa Panchayat area of Bolpur, Birbhum keeping her at gun point. It was alleged that the accused inserted the gun through her genitals to force her and then clicked a few pictures of her nudes. Thereafter, he packed her 4 year’s old son in a sack & raped her in an adjacent empty cowshed. The alleged rapist targeted the woman for long. Not receiving a favourable response, he finally engaged in such act.

Jalpaiguri

In the end of August, in a rape case of a minor girl of Moynaguri, the POCSO Court of the Jalpaiguri District ordered a historic verdict of 25 years’ imprisonment to the criminal. The rape happened in December 2020 when the girl went to a tea garden to pluck flowers along with her brother & other friends.

A minor girl (17) was missing from August 18 from Jalpaiguri’s Gaya Ganga tea garden area whose mutilated decomposing dead body was found after 10 days in a drain of the same tea garden. It was alleged that she was raped and murdered by her own uncle allegedly & presumably out of family enmity. Police initially suspected the girl was strangulated to death while the common people alleged she died after being raped. Police arrested the suspect i.e the dead girl’s uncle & sent her body for autopsy to confirm the precise cause of the death.

In the end of August, a 10 years old boy of Jalpaiguri was sexually tortured allegedly by 3 other adolescent boys of the same locality each of whom were aged between 15 – 17. They called the boy to play with them for quite a few consecutive days & tortured on him threatening not to open his mouth to anyone about it. As the boy had fallen sick after a few days, his family members came to know about the reality & they lodged an FIR in the New Jalpaiguri PS. The child had to be admitted in Uttarbanga Medical College as his physical condition turned critical. Police lodged cases under POCSO Act against each accused & arrested all three. Immediately after FIR was lodged against the accused, their family members attacked the house of the victim child & had beaten the father & the elder brother of the victim.

All these 17 incidents happened only in 5 those districts of West Bengal 3 of which don’t report the maximum number of such cases. In addition to Malda & Uttar 24 Parganas (described above), maximum number of rape cases are generally reported from districts like South 24 Parganas, Purba Bardhaman, Nadia, Uttar Dinajpur etc. which have not been covered above.

Against the backdrop of the R G Kar incident, a statistic came up in the media that within 10 days since the R G Kar incident, there were 21 rape incidents all over Bharat out of which 5 were from Uttarpradesh (Amethi, Bulandshahr, Ballia, Sonbhadra, Moradabad) and 1 from West Bengal (Siliguri). The Siliguri incident has not been described above as it happened in Darjeeling district. In reality, within 10 days from the R G Kar incident, West Bengal reported 7 other rape cases only from the 5 above-mentioned districts. This implies West Bengal reported at least 8 rape incidents (including Siliguri’s) while Uttar Pradesh reported 5 according to the popular statistic taking a round in the media. In reality, West Bengal would be found to have witnessed a number greater than 8 in these 10 days if all 21 districts of West Bengal are taken into account. So in reality, West Bengal is not lagging behind Uttarpradesh in terms of number of rape incidents, a fact which is far from being comfortable for Bengalis as West Bengal never stood on the same pedestal with Uttarpradesh in this regard. Moreover, in almost all the above-mentioned incidents, West Bengal Police allegedly displayed aversion to record & register cases related to oppression on women. This appears significant as NCRB report consists of case data provided by the States. In case of West Bengal, under-reporting of such cases appears probable by studying the discourse in most of the above-mentioned cases.

There is one more statistic, referring to NCRB report of 2022, mentioned by Shrimati Simantini Mukhopadhyay in her post-editorial in Anandabazar Patrika of September 18. It stated that Bharat faced 85 rape cases a day, 4 per hour & 1 in every 15 minutes. With regard to this it may be noted that in 5 districts of West Bengal i.e. in 23.8% of West Bengal there happened at least 17 cases of rape, rape & murder & sexual assault in a month’s time. If we extrapolate it to 100% of West Bengal at the same rate, then the State witnesses around 70 cases a month i.e. around 2 per day, 1 in every 12 hours. Holding tentatively 7% of Bharat’s population, West Bengal contributes significantly to the country’s rape count.

The other observation of Shrimati Mukhopadhyay that girls belonging to lower caste & class are more vulnerable to face rape crimes is also pertinent as out of the 17 incidents described above, 8 happened against minors, at least 3 happened against housewives who were forced to stay alone in their houses as their husbands were migrant workers elsewhere & at least 2 of the victims were dalits. West Bengal incidents also indicate the State’s growing profile of being unsafe for minors apart from being so for Dalits & women of lower socio-economic strata.

While Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu arrived in the 16th Century, Raja Rammohan Roy in the end eighteenth century, Ishwarchandra Vidyasagar & Shri Ramkrishna Paramhans in the nineteenth century & some others later in the twentieth century in Bengal to relieve women from the shackles of oppression, who would carry forward such legacy of Bengal at the present time to relieve women & children from savagery and bestial treatment? Would someone else emerge again from the punayabhumi of Bengal herself?