National Human Rights Commission indicts Chhattisgarh police for sexual violence against Adivasi women in Bastar
Women Against Sexual Violence and State Repression
7 January 2017
NHRC indicts Chhattisgarh police for sexual violence against
Adivasi women in Bastar
Interim order validates WSS complaints
WSS welcomes the decisive intervention
of the National Human Rights Commission in cases of sexual
violence against Adivasi women by police and security forces engaged
in anti-Maoist operations in Chhattisgarh. Validating our assertion
that sexual violence is being used as a weapon of war in Bastar, the
Commission has held the State government “vicariously liable” for gross
violations of human rights.
Taking cognisance of
press reports based on WSS fact-findings and successive
complaints submitted by us, the NHRC conducted its own field investigation
in March 2016, meeting and recording the statements of 16 women. In its
strongly-worded note issued today, the Commission has prima facie validated
their FIRs of rape, sexual assault and physical violence. Statements are
awaited from 20 more women who have also filed FIRs of sexual violence ranging
from mass rapes to sexual assault of minor girls and pregnant women.
These cases were
brought to light as a result of first-hand investigations by WSS with allied
groups in Peddagellur, Kunna and Bellam Lendra villages of Bastar Division
between October 2015 and January 2016. Fact-finding teams recorded women’s
testimonies and supported them in filing complaints in the face of systematic
stonewalling and obstruction of the process by the police and district
authorities. The cases where FIRs have been filed may be only the tip of the
iceberg - reports of sexual violence by security forces continue to come in
from other villages in the Bastar belt where search and combing
operations were carried out during this period.
The NHRC order is an explicit acknowledgement of grievous rights abuses,
and gives us reason to hope not only of justice for the violated women, but an
end to the reign of terror created by the police and security forces in the
name of anti-Maoist operations. While
we welcome the NHRC directive to the State government for lodging of FIRs under
the Prevention of Atrocities Act and the payment of interim compensation to the
complainants, we are painfully aware that this is only a small step in the long
road to justice. Many women have not yet been able to file complaints and are
under pressure to remain silent. Where FIRs have been filed, investigations are
delayed and hampered by the authorities. Efforts to provide legal and social
support to women survivors have been met with extreme hostility.
In our latest
submission to the NHRC (3 January 2017), we have highlighted the all-out
vendetta launched by the Bastar police under the command of IG SRP Kalluri,
against all those who are calling them to account. Adivasi leaders, human
rights activists, lawyers, academics and journalists have been targeted,
hounded and threatened by the police and police-sponsored vigilante groups. The
intention is clearly to ensure that there are no witnesses to the gross
violations of the human rights of Adivasi citizens in the war against Maoists
in Bastar.
Defying strictures by
the Supreme Court and the NHRC, IG Kalluri has publicly accused Adv
Shalini Gera of the Jagdalpur Legal Aid Group of exchanging demonetised
currency for Maoists, and celebrated the arrest and denial of bail to a
fact-finding team of lawyers and human rights defenders from Telengana who have
been jailed on similar charges. Wecall on the NHRC to act on our complaint in this regard,
and intervene decisively to restore democratic functioning and the
rule of law in Bastar.
The NHRC is continuing
its investigations into the various complaints from WSS and others providing
evidence of further incidents of rape, sexual assault, plunder and destruction
of property and staged encounters in Bastar. We hope the NHRC will urgently pursue these investigations and ensure
criminal prosecution for all those involved in committing, overseeing and
condoning these violations.
WSS has consistently
highlighted the futility of militarised approaches to the
Maoist insurgency. Far from ending the violence, the militarisation of the
Bastar region has only
increased the vulnerablity of local communities and provided a cloak of
impunity for the perpetration of gross volations of human rights by state
actors. We hope that the NHRC will
take note of the systematic pattern of offences against civilians and
non-combatants in the course of anti-Maoist operations, and will lay down clear
and unambiguous guidelines for the conduct of such operations.
We are humbled and
inspired by the courage and determination of the Adivasi women who have come
forward and spoken out about the brutalities they have endured and survived.
They are steadfast in their demand of punishment for the perpetrators. WSS is committed to stand with them in their
struggle for justice and in their quest for peace and an end to violence in
their villages and communities.
