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“Brides Are Not For Burning”
In India, the number of dowry-related deaths
has been increasing exponentially. The most
severe is “bride burning”, the burning of women
whose dowries were not considered sufficient
by their husband or in-laws. Most of these
incidents are reported as accidental burns in
the kitchen or are disguised as suicide.
The Supreme Court of India (on Monday,1 June
2009) expressed its anguish over the increasing
incidents of dowry deaths and suggested that
no mercy be shown to those accused of
burning women to death over dowry demands.
Mr. Justice Katju told applicant's counsel Jasbir
Singh Malik: “You have burnt to death a woman
by pouring kerosene. How can you do such a
barbaric act? It is an uncivilised act. You should
be hanged for the crime.”
Mr. Justice Katju said: “In India hundreds of
innocent women are being burnt to death. It is
an uncivilised act. How can we do it? We
should hang such persons.”
When counsel said it was a case of suicide, Mr.
Justice Katju said: “They all say that. Every time
they burn a bride, they say it was a suicide. On
the one hand they regard women as a devi, on
the other hand they burn them alive. This is
against the norms of civilised society. It's
barbaric. We will not grant you any relief.”

Since the late 1970s when the technology for sex determination first came
into being, sex selective abortion has unleashed a saga of horror in India.

In some parts of the
country, the sex ratio of
girls to boys has dropped
to less than 800:1,000. It's
alarming that even liberal
states like those in the
northeast have taken to
disposing of girls.

Worryingly, the trend is
far stronger in urban
rather than rural areas,
and among literate
rather than illiterate
women, exploding the
myth that growing
affluence and spread
of basic education
alone will result in the
erosion of gender bias.

Over the years, laws have been made stricter and the punishment
too is more stringent now. But since many people manage to evade
punishment, others too feel inclined to take the risk. Just look at the
way sex-determination tests go on despite a stiff ban on them. The
United Nations has expressed serious concern about the situation.

India is home to the world's largest population of child laborers, 60% are girls.
According to the statistics given by Indian government there are 20 million child
laborers in the country, while other agencies claim that it is 50 million.
Most of developed countries had made education compulsory and shifted focus
from making education as a duty instead of right. The Indian legislation has failed
to understand that the shift has to be from right to duty as it will make it
unacceptable not to send a child to school. Child labour could not be eradicated
unless there was universalisation of education and every child had access to
school. All out-of-school children must be considered child labour.

Still, every day, more than
50,000 people die as a result of
extreme poverty and nearly one
billion people go hungry each
day, 70% are women and girls.

United Nations agencies estimated
that every year 3 million girls are at risk
of undergoing the procedure which
involves the partial or total removal of
external female genital organs that
some 140 million women, mostly in
Asia and Africa, have already endured.

Millions of young women disappear in their native
land every year. Many of them are found later
being held against their will in other places and
forced into prostitution. According to the UNICEF,
Girls between 13 and 18 years of age constitute
the largest group in the sex industry. It is
estimated that around 500,000 girls below 18 are
victims of trafficking each year. The victims of
trafficking and female migrants are sometimes
unfairly blamed for spreading HIV when the
reality is that they are often the victims.

In addition to torture, sexual violence and rape by rebels and occupation forces,
a great number of women and girls are kept locked up in their homes by a very
real fear of abduction and criminal abuse. In war and conflicts, girls and women
have been denied their human right, including the right to health, education and
employment.

According to the UNAIDS around 17.3 million, women (almost half of the total
number of HIV-positive) living with HIV . While HIV is often driven by poverty, it is
also associated with inequality, gender-based abuses and economic transition.
The relationship between abuses of women's rights and their vulnerability to AIDS
is alarming.
Violence and discrimination prevents women from freely accessing HIV/AIDS
information, from negotiating condom use, and from resisting unprotected sex
with an HIV-positive partner, yet most of the governments have failed to take any
meaningful steps to prevent and punish such abuse.

More than two-thirds of
the women's
populations don't have
access to the financial
system. Poor women
are not considered
credit worthy. The idea
of the business is only
maximisation of profit.
That is too narrow an
interpretation of a
human being. Every
human being should
have the “right to
credit” because if
people have money,
they can change their
lives. It is true for
women. They have the
ability, but are sitting at
home. If we give them
finances, their hobbies
become business.

Millions of women suffer from discrimination in the world of work. This not only
violates a most basic human right, but has wider social and economic
consequences. Most of the governments turn a blind eye to illegal practices and
enact and enforce discriminatory laws. Corporations and private individuals
engage in abusive and discriminatory practices without fear of legal system.
Sexual harassment and violence in the workplace are common and constant
threats to working women's lives and livelihoods.

According to one United
Nations estimate, 113 to
200 million women are
“demographically missing”
from the world today. That is
to say, there should be 113
to 200 million more women
walking the earth, who
aren’t. By that same
estimate, 1.5 to 3 million
women and girls lose their
lives every year because of
gender-based neglect or
gender-based violence and
Sexual Violence in Conflict.

India alone accounts
for more than 50
million of the women
and girls who are
“missing” due to
female foeticide - the
sex-selective abortion
of girls, dowry death,
gender-based neglect
and all forms of
violence against
women.
We can point a finger
at poverty. But poverty
alone does not result
in these girls and
women’s deaths and
suffering; the blame
also falls on the social
system and attitudes
of the societies.

The decline in the sex ratio and the
millions of Missing Women and girls are
indicators of the feudal patriarchal
resurgence. Violence against women
and girls has gone public – whether it is
dowry murders, the practice of female
genital mutilation, honour killings, sex
selective abortions or death sentences
awarded to young lovers from different
communities by caste councils, rapes
and killings in communal and caste
violence, it is only women’s and human
rights groups who are protesting – the
public and institutional response to
these trends is very minimal.

Say No To Sex Selection and Female Foeticide!
Educate & Empowered Women for a Happy Future!
Make War and Hunger History!
We are making such material
available in our efforts to advance
understanding of issues of
humanitarian and ecological
significance. The images on this
presentation are not necessarily those
of survivors of violence and human
rights abuse.
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Photo & design: Firoz Ahmad Firoz
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