Editorial

Violence against women in India is persistent in both subtle and obvious ways. This is due to a continued neglect by policymakers on the pervasive gender inequality. Honour killings, target rape and sex trafficking are some of the manifestations dealt with in this issue.

Kaushambi Kaushal points out in her article ‘No Honour in Honour Killing’ that the majority of honour killings in India may not be reported because of a patriarchal state bias. She delves into the roots of the honour killings saying that they are entrenched inside an unequal marriage system.

Tanya D’Lima, Jennifer L. Solotaroff and Rohini Prabha Pande illustrate this further through a content analysis of media reports in their article ‘For the Sake of Family and Tradition: Honour Killings in India and Pakistan’. They point out that it is hard to get accurate data in South Asia, as the issue is made invisible even in data collection.

The general bias of policymakers seems to have a history both in British colonialism and Indian patriarchy. Varun Sharma’s article ‘Criminalizing Nomadic Femininity’ explains the manner in which the colonial stigmatizing of nomadic groups, particularly its women and children, is being adapted and given a renewed direction through Hindu hyper-nationalism. He uses the Kathua incident, where a 12-year-old nomadic Muslim girl was gangraped by five Hindu men, as a case study. The rapists wanted to punish her nomadic group as well as her religious community.

Raul Irani’s photo essay ‘Prostitutes of Kabari Bazar, Meerut, and the Bachchra Community in Neemuch’ addresses the history of prostitution and sex trafficking in India. His work focuses on the nomadic Bachchra community of Neemuch, Madhya Pradesh, and Kabari Bazar, Meerut. These were formerly nomadic groups who resisted British colonialism. They were labelled as ‘Criminal Tribes’ by the British Raj and forced of traditional ownership of land and livelihood. Many ended up on Zamindari and Army land, eking out an existence by being sexually available. Now they are trapped in inter-generational prostitution. Although the Criminal Tribes Act has been revoked in independent India, the bias and discrimination continue. The majority of them venture into prostitution due to lack of resources and the fact that they are still branded as pimps and prostitutes.

Swarali Patil’s article ‘Hegemonic Past: Exclusion of Subaltern Histories in NCERT Textbooks’ questions: Why certain histories never became part of the textbook and why only certain sources are used to write history? Patil talks about how Dalit women’s and tribal histories have been continuously silenced in textbooks, both in colonial and independent India.

As usual, change comes, not from policymakers, but from the resistance of grassroots women. In the article ‘Role of Women in Telangana Statehood Movement’, Bongurala Gangadhar illustrates how the murder of Belli Lalitha, a labour activist, folk singer and political leader, sparked a movement. Her folk songs mobilized millions of people in the final phase of the Telangana movement. They put the dreams of women aspiring for freedom from labour oppression, sex trafficking, dowry, domestic violence and liquor mafia, at the centre.

‘If policymakers pay attention to the issues raised, when women resist in different ways, violence against women can end’, say Tahira Iram, Dr Ahmed Raza Bilal and Sajida Parveen. In their article ‘Empowering the Runaway Women: A Call Against Violence’, the authors argue that domestic violence, physical abuse, life threats, love affairs and forced marriages are the reasons behind women running away from their families. A living wage jobs, education, medical and health facilities will prevent runaways and address the root causes by increasing choices for women. This in turn will reduce violence against women.