Reacting to the murder of a teenage girl in West Bengal, who was reportedly killed after being raped, women activists across the country lashed out at political leaders for encouraging feudal attitudes towards women.
Women's rights activist Annie Raja told ANI, "India's social mindset is still feudal and it is becoming more and more feudalistic. Unfortunately our Prime Minister when he is in Japan talks about women's empowerment and all these issues, unfortunately at the same time at home in India, women are facing such heinous crimes and there is no social commitment and political will to address such a serious situation in this country".
Addressing women activists, Shashwati Ghosh explained, "Whatever has happened is very shocking. Earlier to that there was a dispute in the family and because of that the local councilor asked the family to attend the dispute resolution meeting "shalishi sabha" and from there the girl disappeared. The family was actually in a powerless position. The father of the girl was an agricultural labourer."
"When they found out that the girl was missing what is shocking is that they were prevented to go and find out that girl. They had to stay back till the meeting was over. In the morning she was found on the tracks where they found her naked suggesting she was raped."
"My question is when the daughter went missing, why an immediate search was not initiated. That kind of laxity from a political party is quite shocking," Ghosh questioned.
Earlier today, the uncle of the girl had claimed that his niece was raped and killed. He also held members of the Trinamool Congress (TMC) responsible for the incident.
Also Read
"My brother-in-law was beaten up and my niece protested. They threatened her. If she committed suicide, why was she without clothes? I think they raped and then killed her and left her near the tracks," said Moael Roy, the deceased girl's uncle.
Roy had further said that the girl had protested against the village kangaroo-court's decision that her father should be punished for not paying for a power tiller that he had rented.
"When she tried to stop the villagers from thrashing her father, the 'court' allegedly turned on her. She vanished from the kangaroo court after the incident and nobody could trace her, later her body was found near the tracks," he added.
The deceased girl's uncle stated that a complaint had not been lodged with the police yet and added that a TMC leader Gobinda Bhowmick had threatened his niece.