The forcible cremation of the 19-year-old gang rape victim in Hathras, Uttar Pradesh, has provoked nationwide protests.
In Bengaluru, many students, activists, advocates and citizens came together to express solidarity with the victim and her family, demanding justice. They gathered at the Mysore Bank Circle, raising slogans and holding posters demanding the resignation of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.
Many protestors also emphasised that the incident was hardly an isolated one, that the problem was not geographically restricted to Uttar Pradesh and that sexual violence against Dalits and women was a symptom of a larger system of caste-based and patriarchal oppression. “This is one in hundreds of such rapes,” said Avani Chocksi, an advocate, explaining that four Dalit women get raped every day according to the NCRB data.
“This is a systemic problem and needs to be addressed holistically to see substantive change. We cannot treat it as a one-off incident like we treated the Nirbhaya case,” she said.
Ridha, a student who took part in the protest, said: “The police are now even denying that she was raped, that her tongue was cut off and that she was critically injured. Why was she cremated in a hurry then?”
Madhu Bhushan, an activist, questioned, “The state is behaving with absolute impunity. The police kept the parents away in front of cameras and burnt her body. Are we not supposed to question this?”