Women's solidarity team stopped from visiting Dantewada!

Press statement of MP Mahila Manch
Chhatisgarh Police stops women from proceeding to Dantewada to show solidarity to women fighting against sexual violence by state actors.
As a part of the Campaign against Sexual Violence and State Repression – independent women, women's organisations and groups from across the country met in Raipur on the 12th and 13th December to discuss the increasing and rampant use of sexual violence against women as a method of state repression, to share and understand the experiences of struggle in different areas and develop deeper solidarity with one another. The vulnerability of women in the adivasi-dominated areas of Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Orissa, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra has increased manifold with the state’s armed offensive in these areas in the name of Operation Greenhunt.
Women from different states shared the struggles of their respective areas. Later a group of 25 women of the campaign set out for the Dantewara district of Chhattisgarh on 13th evening in order to show solidarity with the women who have stood up against sexual violence and sought justice through democratic means.
The women enroute to Dantewada were repeatedly stopped and harassed by the police and police supported goons. Their jeeps were stopped on the pretext of licenses at Charama Thana, Kanker at the border of the Bastar division. Here they were detained for over an hour and their identities checked and papers of the vehicles and drivers scrutinized and refused to go further. The women were then forced to return the private vehicles and use public transport buses from Makditola to proceed towards Dantewara. The buses which they boarded were stopped again and they were again questioned and the driver and conductor threatened. After another stretch, the bus was stopped once more and the bus driver was threatened not to carry forward with the women’s team members, and they were forced to get down. They were finally not able to reach Dantewada. Even on their return journey to Raipur, the bus was stopped and the tyres punctured by sponsored protestors shouting slogans against the team. The DGP Chhatisgarh knew of the incidents as and when they were taking place, and no efforts were made to disperse the mob. Later, when the team held a press conference in Raipur, the police continuously interfered the proceedings.
We are very perturbed with the situations in Chhattisgarh. There is a complete break-down of democracy with the state is not allowing representatives of citizen’s and women’s groups to go to the area, gather information, understand the situations and meet the women who are strongly resisting the state’s high-handedness and their sexual exploitation. It is clear that the state is trying to hide facts with the way it has tried to curb people’s efforts to reach there and it is disturbing to imagine what would be the situation inside the zone for women. The recent situation in bordering Orissa has also been similar where a fact-finding team of 10 women from across the country were bullied, their vehicle’s glass was broken and the driver was rounded up by the police at the behest of local liquor mafia, landlords and mining companies.
Experiences across the country show a similar trend that driven by excessive corporatization, there has been an increased onslaught by the state on the lives and livelihoods of large sections of the our population in the name of “development” projects such as mining and special economic zones, It has become apparent that sustained state violence in Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Orissa, West Bengal and other states is being continuously used to evict people from their land and livelihood. While this is being done in the name of “development” or “maintaining law and order” and “liberate” these areas from the influence of Maoist rebels, the real design is to appropriate resources and dispossess people in the area.. In the state of Chhattisagarh (as in other tribal dominant areas), the ruling government is trying to pass off tribal lands to big corporate houses and foreign companies without proper public hearings and deliberations and forcefully evicting people from their paternal lands.
Patriarchal oppression aligns itself with, intensifies and is in turn intensified by, every other kind of systemic oppression and injustice. And that is what is taking place in Chhattisgarh today where a heavily militarized State has enterered areas as an occupying force.Sexual violence and rape have become the most brutal weapon of repression here. Women are being specifically targeted and their political participation is being repressed by use of rape and other kinds of violence. Historically women have been the worst sufferers of the lack of livelihood, food, shelter and security, of draconian laws and of state-abetted violence, specially the increasing use of sexual violence to intimidate communities, and we see history repeating itself in Chhattisgarh, Orissa, West Bengal and other states today.
Tribal women in Bastar in Chhattisgarh have been subjected to the most extreme forms of violence since 2005, by Salwa Judum, a civil militia created and funded by the state to ‘counter’ the ‘Maoists’. Villagers here have reported incidents of gang rapes, custodial rape, mutilation of private parts, murder and continuous sexual abuse in villages, police stations and the relief camps set up by the state government in the area. The murder in 2006 of a tribal for being a ‘Maoist’ and the subsequent gang-rape of his wife in front of their child for several days inside a police station in Sarguja by police personnel (including the SP) is one such documented case.
The reports of different fact-finding committees (CAVOW, NHRC) have shown that there are numerous incidents of sexual violations taking place within the region. In the case filed by Nandini Sundar and others, there are more than 90 sworn rape affidavits pending before the Supreme Court. Even with six women daring to file private complaints (after the police refused to register the cases of rape) and make their statements before a Magistrate in Konta, there was inexplicable and inordinate delay of months in registering the cases. The arrest warrants have also been shelved for now in the absence of names of the fathers of the accused being included although the persons are clearly identified by their own names and where they are currently posted. In the meanwhile these women and their entire villages are being threatened and intimidated by the accused.
It is in this bleak scenario, that the group of 25 women of the campaign set out for the Dantewara district of Chhattisgarh on 13th evening in solidarity with the women who have stood up against sexual violence and sought justice through democratic means.We are deeply disturbed and anguished by the state’s attempts to use force against these representatives of women’s groups from across the country. It is against democratic principles to suppress dissent and people’s attempts to associate. The campaign is not deterred by the state’s efforts to subsume and threaten democratic rights groups and activists reporting state atrocities against women with the label of “naxalite” and “naxalite-supporters”, and “undertaking anti-government activities”. Unquestioned, the sexual exploitation would continue to grow, remain uncovered and justice denied.
We resolve to respond to such challenges and continue with our efforts to unearth such anti-people and anti-women activities of the state and extend our solidarity to the brave women of conflict areas fighting for justice.
Madhya Pradesh mahila manch on behalf of
Campaign against Sexual Violence and State Repression