Amnesty International Report 2006 – India
Violence against
women
In an effort to stem increasing
abuses against girls and women, including dowry deaths, sexual assault and acid
attacks, parliament in August passed the Protection of Women from Domestic
Violence Bill (2005), which legislates for comprehensive protection of women
from all forms of domestic violence.
Traditional preference for boys
has led to thousands of female foetuses being aborted despite the prohibition of
pre-natal sex determination for this purpose. In May the Health Minister stated
that there had not been a single conviction for breaking the ban since it was
introduced eight years earlier.
Many of the abuses suffered by
Muslim women in Gujarat in 2002 fell outside the definition of rape in national
law, thereby hampering victims’ quest for justice.
The Supreme Court in October
objected to a 2003 order of the Madhya Pradesh High Court reducing a 10-year
sentence for rape to nine months’ imprisonment. It held that an inadequate
punishment for rape was an “affront to society”.
The personal law of specific
communities became a political issue after the All India Muslim Personal Law
Board confirmed Muslim clerics’ fatwa concerning the marriage of Imrana
Ilahi. Imrana Ilahi alleged rape by her father-in-law in June in Muzzaffarnagar,
Uttar Pradesh; the Board subsequently annulled her marriage and pressed for her
rape allegation to be re-framed as a charge of adultery. Imrana Ilahi and her
husband defied the directive but the local village council continued to put
pressure on them to withdraw their charge of rape.
A petition seeking to prevent
the establishment of a parallel Muslim judicial system and binding fatwas
issued by Muslim clerics or organizations was pending in the Supreme Court at
the end of the year.
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Gujarat
Survivors of targeted killings
and sexual violence in 2002, some of which had amounted to crimes against
humanity, continued to be denied justice and reparations. Key cases relating to
these killings and sexual assaults of Muslim women in which complainants had
sought transfers to courts outside the state, were still pending in the Supreme
Court at the end of the year. In December a mass grave containing the remains of
Muslim victims was found
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