The contents of a recent press release from the Manipur State Women Commission stating that it had visited the family of a girl who had been raped was more worrying than reassuring. While a state Women Commission is integral to expedite cases relating to women, there have been numerous cases where Commission members have shown more insensitivity to women who have undergone experiences of sexual trauma or violence rather than serving the purpose of providing the support that is due from them. There is nothing wrong with members of the Manipur State Commission visiting the house of the girl and meeting the girl and her family members. Such visits would be in fact, a part of its duties and functions expected of the Commission so that its members are aware of the nature of case progression. What such a Commission is not expected to do is to reveal the name and other details that can led to the identity of the girl being revealed. It would have been more apt if the State Commission for Women had sent out a notification asking media in the state to refrain from publishing names and other details of women or minors who have been raped or who have undergone other forms of violence. But instead of pointing out media oversights and stepping in to set appropriate steps into action, it has only added to the cycle of misguided action. What the Manipur State Commission has ended up doing is something that even some members of the National Commission for Women have been accused of. In the aftermath of public outrage over the GS road molestation case where a girl was molested by a group of bye standers around a popular hang out spot in Guwahati, a member of the National Commission for Women ended up giving media sound bytes on what the Commission was doing. Nothing wrong with her statement and what she was doing except for one major blooper: she ended up revealing the name of the girl. The media then did not reveal the name of the girl and when the Chief Minister of the state, in this case Assam sent out a press release mentioning a financial compensation for the girl along with her name, the media and public criticism that followed immediately led the Chief Minister’s office to cancel its earlier press release and dispatch another one in its place without the name being mentioned.
It is not difficult to see why members of the Women Commission or other groups that call themselves as supporters of women who have undergone rape, sexual violence or domestic violence become one more agency that starts with good intentions at heart but adding nothing of value to the process for ensuring justice. The problem lies in the lack of pushing for legal recourse and the absence of any follow up or engagements with the police related aspects of such cases. There have been no lack of Joint Action Committees that step in with calls for justice but as IFP has pointed out earlier; such groups start by violating the women for whom they are standing up by naming the women in question. In a society that is as closely deep knitted as ours, women who have undergone sexual violence including rape and molestation and other forms of violence need all protection possible to remain behind public knowledge. It is easy to get carried away by the anger of the moment that immediately follows an act of violation and injustice but what needs to be remembered is that the women in question whose names get dragged endlessly and ad-nausea to an episode that they would want to get away from, have their lives yet to unfold after the immediate present. The process for ensuring that justice is not denied to women who have undergone various forms of violence is to engage with the legal and police set up and systems and also to put pressure on making sure that cases are properly investigated. There is no lack of support for calls for justice for women in the state but if we go by figures of instances where there have been legal action being taken up against those responsible, the real story will emerge that not much has happened on this front. More needs to be done on this front with various women groups getting together, to demand appropriate measures and actions that need to be in place for investigating cases of violence against women. Currently, there are rumblings that no proper procedure is followed in police cases which is not just restricted to those that has to do with violations of women. There are strong suggestions coming forth that hints at evidence being tampered or not being preserved which in any case makes them inadmissible for proper use during investigations. A concerted effort to putting the spotlight on legal and police processes and its gaps would be more viable rather than making noises of home visits.