One victim has blogged about the horrific incident:

And as soon as they turn around in protest, the car doors are flung open, and a stream of 4-5 rabid men run out towards these women, screaming obscenities in Hindi and Kannada against women in general, fists flailing. Some of us who came in running at the sound of the screaming brakes now stand in the middle in defense of our women, and then blows start raining down. One of the goons make a couple of calls over the cellphone, and in seconds a stream of other equally rabid goondas land up. They gun straight for the women, and everyone – a few well-meaning bystanders, acquaintances who know us from the restaurant, basically everyone who tries to help the women – starts getting thoroughly beaten up.

Women are kicked in the groin, punched in the stomach, slapped across the face, grabbed everywhere, abused constantly. Men are smashed up professionally, blows aimed at livers, groins, kidneys and nose. A friend is hit repeatedly on the head by a stone until he passes out in a flood of blood.

The Hindu carried a story about three attacks:

The second incident took place on Tuesday at 10 a.m., when a 28-year-old woman on her way to Kormangala was accosted by four men near RBANM’s College in Ulsoor. “Four men got off an SUV and started screaming at me. They tugged at my clothes in front of at least eight mute spectators. One of them even pulled my shrug off, scratched my neck and hit my ear,” she told The Hindu on condition of anonymity. She said that the four were all aged between 25 and 35. “When I said I would call the police, one of them offered me his mobile phone and told me to go right ahead. They saw an airline tag on my bag, got more aggravated and called me an outsider,” she said. “One of them said I must be part of the pink chaddi campaign.” Fortunately, an army van passed by and two soldiers ordered the men to stop harassing the woman.

Different groups are planning protest marches for March 7 and 8. More details here as soon as I have them. And I’ll leave you with what Nisha Susan at the Pink Chaddi Campaign says:

For every one of you who sat about bemoaning the lack of ‘real’ action over the last month because ‘chaddis are not enough’, please come to Bangalore and join the action. The rest of you lovely people for whom sending chaddis was only one way of protesting, jump in. This promises to be fun because no one, least of the government, is expecting People Like Us to care at all. Shouldn’t we give them a pleasant post-Valentine surprise?

Date: Saturday, February 14, 2009
Time: 12:00pm – 2:00pm
Location: Mahatma Gandhi Statue on MG Road at 12 o’clock. We will walk through MG road and Brigade road

The recent incidents of fundamentalist violence in many parts of Karnataka has led to the curbing of freedoms of common people. One of the point of attacks has been to curb the right of people to have friends and lovers across communities. A fixed and divisive idea of Indian culture is being thrust upon us. While we resist this violence, we also need to clearly state that we see love as a basic human right which must be defended from attack by fundamentalists of all hues.

The idea of love which cuts across all boundaries, is part of every culture around the globe. The stories of Heer – Ranjha, Nala – Damayanti, Dushyanta – Shakuntale, Krishna, Rukmini, Romeo-Juliet and even John and Abhishek in Dostana are some among the many!

It is time for us to send a strong message to those who say that the ‘right to love’ is not part of our culture. They speak from a position of ignorance of a rich history of Love which is an integral part of our culture.

Please Join us to celebrate this precious right. Lets stand in solidarity and strengthen the choices and lives of those who love…. unabashedly.

Lets come together to celebrate love and send a message to those who propagate hate.

All you need to do is wear something RED OR PINK and meet us at Mahatma Gandhi Statue on MG Road at 12 o’clock. We will walk through MG road and Brigade road. If you don’t catch us at the Gandhi Statue look for us, we’ll be painting the town red… and pink. Join us with friends, family and lovers!

Time: 12:00 noon to 2:00 PM

Date: Valentine’s Day, 14th February, 2009.

For further details contact:

9448043941 Jagadeesh

9886182458 Ponni

9980010933 Arvind

When I first heard about the Mangalore pub incident, I was not surprised. Ever since the BJP came into power, as glad as I was to see the Gowdas go, I felt some apprehension. ‘Moral policing’ and communal conflicts always seem to ride on BJP power.

However, it was later, when I watched the videos that captured this disgusting act, that I was horrified, angry and sickened. The government’s lack of immediate action, the speeches against ‘pub culture’, the lack of remorse about what they are doing in the name of ‘morals’ left me indignant.

I feel it’s time we stopped using the term ‘moral policing’ when these acts occur. There is no moral involved in it. It is just a bunch of wimps masquerading as goons who attack unsuspecting women (or couples) with muscles rather than brains or logic. “The Idiots Strike Again” would make for better headlines.

We need to redefine Indian culture or rather stop it from being butchered and misused. We need to educate these idiots.

Maybe it’s time we brought on a Durga Sena to combat a Ram Sena. Maybe it’s time we armed ourselves with hockey sticks and jumped on these unsuspecting morons and beat them black and blue.

Gandhiji was a teetotaler but no one told him to be one. It was his choice. He spoke against the British as they were forcing their authority on us. That should tell us something. With these incidents, these groups are inflicting their unwanted authority and their personal choices on us.

I feel so frustrated as I write this, moving back in time, walking a path already walked again and again and again, instead of moving forward and meeting new challenges. We need to focus on illiteracy, poverty, exploitation and corruption. We have our work cut out for us. Instead they ban music, pubs, clothes and human rights -– not just women’s rights but basic human rights.

***
Anuradha Prasad works as a content writer for a movie-based website. She likes words and music and is deeply interested in people, and the boundaries between individuality and society.

Details:

In light of the recent violence that took place against women in Mangalore and the statements that were made thereafter, its time to say, I am. Indian culture is being defined, strained and subverted by many elements other than ourselves. In an attempt to induce the spirit of freedom, choice and non-violence we invite people from all spheres to join us on a walk on Sunday, the 8th of February, 4 pm onwards. “I am an Indian, this is my culture” is the initial adopted slogan that we hope people will wear in the form of tags or banners. The walk will start from Rest House Road Park, through brigade road, MG road and end at Cubbon Park. There will be two stops on the way, one at Levis Square on brigade road and the other at Barton centre on MG road. During these pauses (that will last about 5 to 10 minutes) and at the end of the walk at Cubbon Park every participant will get into any position that they feel most free in (sit/stand/lean/crouch/lie

We condemn the brutal assault by members of the Sri Ram Sene on young women in a pub in Mangalore, Karnataka, on Saturday, 24 January 2009. We are shocked by the response of the State administration, police, and political leadership, some of whom have dismissed this as a ‘minor incident’, while others have blatantly justified the violence. We believe that such threats to the democratic freedom and human rights of citizens, cannot be treated as ‘minor’. This incident, and the unabashed justifications of it are part of a larger trend to curb the freedoms of women in the name of a regressive and distorted notion of Indian culture and tradition.

To strongly condemn the disturbing trend of violence against women and ‘moral policing’ as a means to enforce a particularly regressive interpretation of culture, there will be a protest on Tuesday 3rd February, outside Karnatak Bhavan, Chanakyapuri (near Samrat hotel), Delhi, at 3 pm.

Jagori, Nirantar, Saheli, Sama

In one of its latest acts of bigotry and intolerance, members of the Sri Rama Sene and the Bajrang Dal barged into a lounge bar on Balmatta road in Mangalore and viciously attacked the girls who were present there. Their crime: Firstly they were indecently dressed and second, despite being Hindu, they were daring to socialise with Muslim boys. Prasad Attavar, State Deputy Convener of the Sri Ram Sene said that it was “a spontaneous reaction against women, who flouted traditional Indian norms of decency.”

And what was the spontaneous response from the government to this absolutely uncultured act of violence against young girls in the name of culture? Not surprisingly a studied silence from the powers that be and total inaction and apathy from the subservient police force in South Canara.

It took two days of repeated broadcast by national and local channels and some public noise from the opposition to provoke a damage control exercise by some of the representatives of the government including the Chief Minister and Home Minister that was not only ineffectual and weak but also callous and careless.

Stop politicising the issue, you predictably said. Is this kind of deliberate intimidation and oppression in the name of religion and culture that has become the norm in Mangalore and South Canara not an outright political act to consolidate your power and authority in the state, we wonder!

The attackers have been picked up for questioning, to examine their motives, you said. Can any motive justify this act of brutality against innocent youngsters, we ask.

It was a spontaneous reaction to the deterioration in our values that is offending our sensibilities you concluded. If this was a spontaneous reaction, God save us and our sensibilities from such planned and premeditated attacks!

Seventeen of the assaulters have been arrested we hear from TV news. But the legal advisor to the Sri Rama Sene, Dinakar Shetty whom the TV news channels had no difficulty at all in finding for interviews, is still absconding the police say… Do you expect us to believe this? Especially when the police, particularly in this part of the state which is the stronghold of the saffron lobby, has been repeatedly turning a blind eye to all acts of violence that are being committed against Christians and Muslims in the name of tradition and culture by these very groups since 2007.

What is the culture that these goon organisations are claiming to protect? Is beating and molesting women in public places in order to control and make them conform to their own perverted notion of decency a traditional Indian value? How is this any different from the moral policing that the Taliban does in Pakistan and Afghanistan and what right wing Islamic groups do in Kashmir?

Is it a traditional Indian value to burn women at the rate of almost 3 – 4 women a day in the city of Bangalore in cases of “unnatural” deaths of women in marriage? Or preventing them from even being born in the increasing incidence of sex selective abortions, such that the sex ratios are becoming seriously imbalanced in regions like Mandya. Or selling women into the trafficking industry or marriage market from poverty struck regions in North Karnataka to states like Haryana where the female population is on the decline. Perhaps the moral police think that practices like dowry, female foeticide and trafficking of women are part of the same glorious tradition like Sati, the burning of widows on the husband’s pyre, which we remember, a former BJP Chief Minister upheld as part of Hindu culture.

Speaking at the session named Inclusive Growth in Karnataka – Challenges and Strategies of the 24th India Economic Summit, jointly organised by the World Economic Forum and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in New Delhi, the Chief Minister B.S.Yeddyurappa had stated that his government would focus on improving safety and security of women, and improve their political environment towards this objective. Is letting goons take law in to their own hands to “correct” women who dare come out into the public arena and intimidate them into staying within the confines of their homes your idea of improving the political environment and making it more inclusive Mr.Yeddyurappa?

Mr Advani, one of the leaders projected by his party as a chief contender for Prime Ministership of India should BJP come in to power, has very rightly said in his portal www.lkadvani.in about women …“They must be treated with respect and dignity both at home and in the public sphere. Few things outrage me more than reports of atrocities on women. Hence, my understanding of security envisages a situation in which our sisters and daughters feel safe to travel anywhere and at anytime without any fear or apprehension.” Does Mr. Advani know that 30 students of the St Marthas education institute were attacked when they were on an excursion to Mysore only because the girls happened to be Hindu and some of the boys Muslim. Does he endorse the tacit support that State Government is giving to the goon culture of Shri Ramsena and Bajrang Dal, in anticipation that it will bring the party electoral gains in the upcoming general elections? Just like what Mr. Modi did in Gujarat.

If women are visible and active in so many fields of public arena including political spaces, it is not due to concern or action by the self-serving political parties that are ruling either at the center or in states, but due to hard struggles waged at every front including home, work, community, religion and politics by countless women over the past many decades. We have had to fight every inch of the way and will not be cowed down by cheap goonda tactics. We will begin to teach all those misled mindsets with perverted ideas of good women and bad women what women are and what they can do to transform the world – starting from our own families once again, if need be!

As women who have always borne the brunt of fundamentalist cultures within the home and the community, we refuse to silently witness the brutal assaults on our pluralistic and open cultures in the name of language, tradition, religion and region that are spreading through our land. We refuse to endorse this deeply divisive political culture that is going to leave behind a legacy of hatred ad intolerance for the coming generations.

We, organisations working to protect the human rights of women, do not just condemn the activities of the groups that are now proudly and shamelessly claiming the responsibility for the attacks on the women in Mangalore. We demand that you, the government takes responsibility for these repeated violations against the life and dignity of women in this State. If there is any vestige of concern and shame is left in the ruling circles in this State, you would take immediate steps to prevent further such attacks by goons in the name of religion or traditional values.

If this is not possible and the matter is out of your hands, then have the decency to publicly declare that protecting women from the Saffron versions of Taliban squads is not within your capacity and let the public honestly decide the nature of governance they require.

26^th January 2009

Signatories: Vimochana, Hengasara Hakkina Sangha, Namma Manasa, Alternative Law Forum, SICHREM, Mahila Karmikara Munnade, GAATWU, Dalit Bahujan Chaluvali, Visthar, Samanatha Mahila Vedike, Navajagruthi Mahila, Samanatha Sainika Dala, Openspace, Sadhana Mahila Gumpu, Karnataka Sex Workers Union, Sangama, LESBIT, SAMARA, Karnataka Sexuality Minorities Forum, Global Concerns-India, National Youth Foundation, CIEDS, Human Rights Law Network-Karnataka, Pedestrian Pictures, PUCL-K

Maariyamma is the secretary of the Karnataka Domestic Workers Union, which has been functioning for three-and-a-half years and currently has 800 members. I am with her at her house in Byrasandra slum in Bangalore. Vinutha and Jayamma, also part of the union, join us. ‘We have our union badge. Whenever there is any problem with domestic workers in our area, we wear the badge and go to their help,’ explains Maariyamma.

‘Often, domestic workers are falsely blamed for cheating and stealing things. I agree that we are poor. But that does not make us dishonest all the time! In many houses even to this day, they have separate tumblers and plates for us! We take bath, dress smartly, we drink from clean steel glasses in our homes, we eat fresh food , yes we may not afford it daily but we do buy good food for our children. So there is no need to treat us like that!’

A study conducted by the domestic workers union reveals that 70% of domestic workers are hired because people need to go outside to work. In other words, they are a crucial cog in the economic wheel, allowing many homes to earn an additional income. Yet, they remain poorly paid and face multiple discriminations. Most domestic workers are women from marginalised classes and castes and even here, in their workplace, they receive neither fair wages nor recognition as employees.

Maariyamma explains: ‘There is no one form of payment. It depends on the employer. Some are paid as low as Rs 300 for half a day’s work. There is nobody to monitor it. And we have no leave. We work on Sundays as well.’

‘Many domestic workers are single earners in their families. Often, men do not have any regular work. The salary we get is never enough,’ Jayamma adds. ‘I need to pay Rs 500 for school fees? What will I feed them? This is how we end up taking loans. We met the Labour Commissioner and the minister with a letter signed by all our union people asking for the government to take steps but nothing has been done.’

The Karnataka Government introduced a Minimum Wage Act in the year 2004 for domestic work. This for the first time domestic workers were included under the schedule of ‘workers’. The law stipulates that each task takes 45 minutes. For one such task done on six days a week, they should receive Rs 249 per month. It also says that for an eight-hour working day, they should receive Rs 1699 per month. Families larger than four persons should pay 10% more as wages.

Not many people know about the law so the union has been having meetings with residents’ associations and civil society groups to discuss it. However, the union says that the law is problematic for two reasons:

• the guidelines assume that one task takes 45 minutes but most domestic workers multi-task. According to a study conducted by the union, the average time taken for one task is actually 1 hr 36mins. This they feel is unfair to the worker, as the hourly and daily rates are lower than the 45-minute rate, and it is not feasible to complete the work in half the time.
• the assumption of a six-day week is false. In 161 cases out of 162, the worker did not receive a weekly day off, and did not receive overtime in lieu, according to a study conducted by the union.

The union recommends that there should be spreadsheets specifying different tasks such as sweeping, cleaning, washing, dusting, cooking etc. The time taken to complete each task should be calculated and charges fixed on this basis. The union proposes that a domestic worker doing at least three different tasks should be paid Rs 450. The union is also demanding a weekly day off. Social security issues are also to be discussed.

Significantly, the workers clearly articulate the need to be recognised as workers and treated with dignity and respect. As Maariyamma rightly puts it: ‘the present culture in our society has to change from one of Master-Servant to that of Employer-Employee. There are some people who treat their domestic maid with respect and sympathy. But how does one ensure that all workers who do domestic work get paid properly and treated with respect?’

Related resources:
The domestic workers of silicon city, Infochange
Domestic Slaves, Frontline
Study Shows Domestic Workers Endure Abuse, Cruelty Worldwide, Feminist Daily News
The Anti-Feminist Brigade: Women Who Hire Domestic Workers

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In the last seven years, 62 women in Karnataka have been victims of acid attacks. These are the cases that have been reported or registered according to a recent Campaign and Struggle Against Acid Attacks on Women (CSAAW) report. There could be many more in actuality.

The list of 62 includes women of all ages, caste and class backgrounds. All of them were independent women who asserted themselves against coercion, pressure and violence. All were attacked by someone they knew — acquaintances aspiring to be lovers, husbands, bosses, landlords. It’s clear that acid attacks are being used as weapons in the brutal backlash of patriarchy towards women who show any form of agency.

Acid attacks are extremely difficult to treat: the acid seeps into the layers of the skin to cause long-term infection and corrosion. Victims often need multiple complicated and expensive surgeries. Not everyone can afford such treatments. So far, most families have sold their houses and other property to meet the expenses. To make matters worse, only some super specialty hospitals in Bangalore are equipped to treat acid attack victims. Government hospitals (including the burns ward in Victoria Hospital in Bangalore) have no facilities whatsoever to adequately handle such cases. Some doctors are not even aware of basic first aid measures such as flushing acid out of the body immediately after the attack. Many women do not survive because they’re unable to access proper medical care after the attack.

And one cannot begin to articulate the emotional trauma of the woman and her family.

There is no law in our country that recognizes acid attack as a crime. Cases are registered under IPC section 326 (causing grievous injury) or IPC section 307 (attempt to murder). There is no law that looks at these attacks as gendered crime. In many cases, the accused person gets out on bail despite these sections being non-bailable and continues to threaten the victim. Police investigations invariably begin with questions on the sexual history and purity of the woman. Most cases that have reached the courts have faced procedural delays. Survivors, who are already coping with so much, have to contend with legal harassment as well.

Campaign and Struggle Against Acid Attacks on Women (CSAAW), a coalition of women’s rights groups, media activists and students and concerned citizens, was started in 2003. The group has been working to help victims reclaim their lives as well as demanding that the government respond to their needs. These are some of their broad demands:

• Control over availability of acid as acid is easily available
• A specific law that recognizes acid attack as gendered crime against women
• Proper medical facilities and medical aid for victims. All the government hospitals should be able to provide proper treatment to acid victims.
• Necessary rehabilitation for the survivors

Here is an NPR article on acid attacks and a Deccan Herald article about some of the victims. Updates on the issue are available here, here, and here.

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Siddamma, who belonged to the Soliga community, was a renowned midwife and expert in maternity care in those parts. She not only catered to her own village but also traveled to nearby villages to help deliver babies. She handled even complicated cases with an easy calm. Her knowledge of medicinal plants which could heal reproductive health problems was simply astounding. As many people in Yerakana Gadde Poodu say, Siddamma was a mobile library of the forest. She often walked into the forest and climbed the surrounding hills “like a deer” even after she grew old. She is said to have overseen more than 2,000 deliveries.

Siddamma received her extensive knowledge of medicinal plants from her mother who was also a midwife. Dr Sudarshan, who started Vivekananda Girijana Kalyana Kendra (VGKK), a health and education center for tribal communities in and around the area, was impressed with Siddamma’s knowledge of maternity care. Soon, she began assisting him with many of the cases which came to the center. Siddamma not only delivered the child but also treated the various ailments of new mothers with herbal medicine.

Her daughter Jade Maadi, who helped her mother with deliveries and accompanied her to the forests, talks about the many herbal medicines for infertility, sexually transmitted diseases and other reproductive illnesses as well as herbal methods of contraception that Siddamma knew about. She was a recipient of the Rajyotsava Award, the Induvalu Honnaiah Memorial Award and the Kavitha Memorial Award.

Jalle Siddamma died on May 29th 2004 after a brief illness.

VGKK has documented some of Siddamma’s knowledge of the forests and her unique techniques. Siddamma treated innumerable women during her lifetime and remains an enigma to many gynecologists. With the abysmal level of health care in rural areas where women’s reproductive health is woefully inadequate, the role that people like Jalle Siddamma play usually goes unnoticed and unacknowledged. Women like her are usually left out of history books, which become exclusive records of men’s achievements.

I still remember Siddamma singing pieces of Goru Goruka, a folk epic of the Soliga god when she was in her lighter moods. As she sang, her son (who is physically challenged and can be found begging at the BR Hills bus stop even today) joined her. Today, her daughter Jade Maadi continues her mother’s legacy, silent and uncomplaining.

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