One cold evening, a 10-year-old girl is walking home from her village in India after collecting firewood from a nearby field. On the way home, she is met by a 26-year-old man who rapes her. The sexual assault is so brutal that the girl is taken to the hospital.
Two years after the attack, the young girl does not clearly remember fighting for her life. However, the memories of the rape still haunt her to this day. She is afraid to go outside alone and rarely leaves her home at all - she only goes to school. The girl says she feels depressed because the attack on her has brought shame on her family. "I have nightmares. I wonder why this had to happen to me,” she says.
Dalits - victims of caste division
The victim of the brutal assault is too young to fully understand the reason for being attacked in this way. However, her mother is angry and knows exactly what led to her daughter's rape. "He attacked her because we are Dalits", the mother believes. "He allowed himself to do this because he is from a higher caste. We have to stand our ground - our status in society is the lowest", she explains, recalling that the man could have killed her daughter if she had not been discovered in time.
According to Hindu beliefs, people are divided into four castes - priests, warriors, merchants and workers. Dalits do not belong to any of these, which places them at the lowest level of India's caste system. They are called the "untouchables" or "unclean".
Being a woman in India is difficult, but being a Dalit woman is even worse. The family of a raped girl is forced to leave her village because of pressure from the upper caste, which protects the attacker and blames the victim. Men from the upper castes often use rape as a weapon to maintain the oppression of Dalit women. Cases of brutal rape often provoke protests in India. But not if the victim is a Dalit.
Pressure also against human rights defenders
Even Sana Bano, who is training to be a lawyer and volunteers to help victims from the Dalit community with legal advice, has a very dangerous job. The woman says that people from the upper castes are looking for her and threatening her. "They remind me that I am an unmarried woman and I need to think about my safety. In some cases, they even follow me to intimidate me".
Manjula is a human rights activist from Ahmedabad. According to her, the ten cases of rape of Dalit women that are documented every day are far from showing the full picture. According to her, this is only 25 percent of the total number of assaults. Most victims have no one to turn to for help. "The fact that many cases remain unreported is also a big problem. Most Dalit women are not even aware of their rights. Then how can they go to the police? Who will help them? Who will tell them that when they are raped, they should not bathe, they should not throw away their clothes, because all this is evidence”.
A life in constant fear
Manjula herself is a Dalit and a rape survivor. According to her, the caste system and gender inequality make life extremely difficult for Dalit women. "They live in fear that if they demand their rights, they will be killed or raped, they will be forced to leave their homes. And that is the reality. It happens all over the country”, says the activist.
The young girl survived the rape and now knows what it is like to be a Dalit woman in India. She says she doesn't think it is possible to get justice, but she will try. "Those who don't try always fail".
Authors: Yadav Shalu | Ahmad Sharik