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India News Network Digest    
Fri, 15 Dec 95
Volume 2 : Issue 721

[This article has been excerpted.]

Rural Indian women protest rape verdict By JENNIFER MORROW

JAIPUR, India, Dec. 15 (UPI) -- Outraged rural women and social activists Friday marched through Jaipur, the capital of India's desert state of Rajasthan, to protest a court verdict that ruled five upper caste men were unlikely to have raped a lower caste woman.

More than 3,000 protesters demanded a retrial of the five, who were cleared of all charges in connection with the gang rape of Bhanwari Devi, 43, a low caste woman who was campaigning against the traditional practice of child marriage.

"Bhanwari, fight on!" the demonstrators chanted...as they marched through the streets. "We will fight with you!"

Bhanwari, from the Rajasthani village of Bhateri, was assaulted in September 1992, after she protested the plans of an influential man in her village to marry off his 1-year-old daughter.

Bhanwari, who herself was married when she was just 3 years old, identified her attackers as five upper caste men, including the father of the little girl. Two of the men raped her, she said, while the others restrained her husband.

But during the trial, defense lawyers argued...upper caste men would not have engaged in any intercourse with Bhanwari because she was from a lower caste.

Last month, judges at the Rajasthan Sessions Court acquitted the five men, saying it was
unlikely..."respectable community elders" would rape.

Most social activists say the verdict implicitly endorses the defense assertion...good, upper caste Hindu men would not rape a lower caste woman. The activists say this finding is ludicrous and denies the violence used to terrorize rural Indian women, especially those who
challenge the established order.

"The verdict is so appalling and so poorly written...all I can think is the judge was trying to help us build a better case for an appeal," said Madhu Mehra, a Delhi-based attorney.

Renuka Pramacha, of the Rajasthan University Women's Association, said the case has become a focal point for women's groups across the country.

"We are here to validate every woman's experience of violence since the court will not," Pramacha said.

Thousands of women are raped every year in India and some statistics estimate...at least one woman is raped every hour.

However, few dare to take their cases to trial either because of the stigma attached to rape victims or out of fear of retribution from their assailants.

Bhanwari, who attended the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing in September, told United Press International she continues to be ostracized and harassed by members of the dominant caste of her village.

Several weeks ago, she said, some relatives of the accused tried to strangle her and warned her of future attacks.

"My heart beats faster anytime I go back to my village, but I know they are the ones who have done wrong, not me," Bhanwari said.

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