How many deaths will it take till we know that victims are not to blamed? Even after being chopped into 35 pieces, Shraddha couldn’t avoid the brunt of victim blaming.
Union Minister Kaushal Kishore yesterday blamed the ‘live in’ relationship of ‘educated girl’ for the abuse inflicted on them. Referring to Shraddha murder case that has sent shockwaves throughout the country, Kishore said that the ‘educated girls’ who stay away from their parents to live with their partners must get registered first.
“Why are they living in live-in relationships? If they have to do so, there should be proper registration. If parents are not willing to publicly support such relationships, you should have a court marriage and then live together,” the union minister said.
Echoing the voice of the patriarchal society that believes that the parental consent can only remedy to avoid such masculine violence, he added, “Educated girls should not get into such relationships. They should learn from such incidents (Shraddha murder). They should stay with someone with the approval of their parents.”
This statement of the Minister of State for Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs brought strong reactions from political circles.
Shiv Sena leader Priyanka Chaturvedi took strong exception to his comment and tweeted, “Surprised he didn't say girls are responsible for being born into this nation. Shameless, heartless, and cruel, blame-the-woman-for-all-problems mentality continues to thrive.”
Shraddha was brutally killed by his live in partner Aftab Poonawala in May who chopped her body into 35 pieces and had spread it across different parts of Delhi. The police only got to know about the murder when her father flagged a red warning and filed a kidnapping complaint against Aftab.
Since police have arrested. Aftab, new information are coming up during the investigation revealing how he planned the murder and tried to destroy all the evidences. He also impersonated Shraddha for a few days and spoke to her friends in social media to avoid any suspicion. However, in September, one of her friends informed her brother that Shraddha’s phone has been switched off for quite a long time. Following this her father came to Delhi from Mumbai and found that their flat is locked.
This incident not only has evoked sharp responses from different quarters, a section of feminists are of the opinion that unless the patriarchal structure of the society is not hit at the roots through proper awareness campaigns, such events will continue to grow.
According to a research paper published in Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health every one woman in three in India is susceptible to Intimate Partner Violence (IPV). However, just one among 10 actually file reports.
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