“I know the alternative policy of adopting the line of least resistance. I am convinced that it will be ineffective in the matter or uprooting untouchability. The silent infiltration of rational ideas among the ignorant mass of caste Hindus cannot, I am sure, work for the elevation of the depressed classes. First of all, the cate Hindus like all human beings follows his customary conduct in observing untouchability towards the Depressed Classes. Ordinarily people do not give up their customary mode of behavior because somebody is preaching against it. But when that customary mode or behavior has or is believed to have behind it the sanction of religion mere preaching, if it is not resented and resisted, will be allowed to waft along the wind without creating any effect on mind. The salvation of Depressed Classes will come only when the Caste Hindu is made to think and forced to feel that he must alter his ways. For that you must create a crisis by direct action against his customary code of conduct. The crisis will compel him to think and once he begins to think he will be more ready to change than he is otherwise likely to be. The great defect in the policy of lease resistance and silent infiltration of rational ideas lies in this that they do not compel thought, for they do not produce crisis.”
Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar in What Congress and M.K. Gandhi have done to the Untouchables
For us Dalits, grief and rage comes together in times like these. It is confusing what to feel and there is also a burden to display it. As much this writing deals with both, it is not about the wretchedness present in the lives of dalit women. This piece of writing does not emphasize upon the details on how the Hathras Rape victim Manisha Balmiki was raped, or rather it does not allude to the details of brutal rape committed by the Thakurs. Since the Hathras Rape Case has gotten the media attention, we have seen a selective liberal audience talking about caste which is otherwise casteist in their own convenient private spaces. This is not an attack on the Upper caste liberals. Just like thousands of Upper Castes have made the Hathras Rape case and their subject of discussion, of study, of their catharsis, similarly what this writing does is to make these reactionary behaviors from the Upper castes its subject.
Even though I am not going to talk about the details of the brutality, I want to highlight the details of the Public Outrage seen all over the country. Though, in the history of the anti-caste movement, Dalit women have time and again have talked and documented the peculiarities of their struggle and their resistance. Although, this may be the first time that this subject is being discussed in the mainstream by media houses and is a part of a dominant public discourse. In the media by news reporters as well as in the social media, I noticed some repetitive tropes in the reactions by the Savarna feminist women and other Upper Caste Liberals in general. These factions of people are the focus of this piece and I will be talking about them more in detail. Details which we often miss because we are busy focusing on the details of the rape and the dalit subject.
When I started looking at the various subjects, there were primarily three kinds of reaction. Firstly, the Hindu Right which does not really believe in the Rape or the Caste-atrocity and stand by the Thakurs who belongs to the Katju’s point of view as seen in his recent post. This faction stands by the Thakurs as their caste loyalties lie with them. I want to eliminate this first reaction as it is a mockery of itself.
Secondly, I have seen another faction which perpetrates caste by saying that there is no caste in this violence and it must be recognized as merely a sexual violence. These consists majorly of the urban Upper Castes who have never experienced a caste-based violence owing to their privilege and they do not want to acknowledge their caste not only because they don’t have to see it but also because confronting caste disturbs their privilege producing cycle. However, they believe that they live in a sexist and patriarchal society. They feel with utmost sincerity that women must not be raped. They have also supported in naming Manisha Balmiki as the “daughter of the nation” and claimed that you cannot rape the daughter of the nation. They critique Katju and their kinds and this makes them feel better about themselves. Several Dalit Feminists and Dalits activists in general have appeared in dominant media houses and have insisted on not only the presence of caste but rightly talked about caste as an active agent in this caste-based atrocity. Unfortunately, so much time and energy is spent in just making people realise that caste even had a role to play in an atrocity where the whole atrocity is based upon and motivated by the hindu caste system.
Thirdly, there is the third category of Upper Caste liberals who are acknowledging caste in this sexual violence, are horrified by the Rape and feeling a sudden disgust by the current social system. They are against the first category of course, against the fascistic forces of BJP. All over the media and the social media, their reactions have been filled with shock, disgust as well as horror. I will be talking more in details about this section.
They are also doing their best to critique the Yogi Government of Uttar Pradesh, the judiciary and courts and the BJP. Little do they realise that making this Caste-based sexual violence just as a means to critique BJP and Hindutva and simultaneously forgetting that Hinduism and its Caste system is just another means to deviate the focus. However, it is true that the UP government and the State machineries do have a vital role to play but the tools which drive the State in this particular case is the Hindu Caste System. The brigade of Yogi and BJP Government amplifies the agendas and the structure of the caste system propagated by Manu, by hindu scriptures, by Gandhi.
One has to pause and understand that there is a fundamental difference in the critique of the State which comes from a liberal/Marxist standpoint opposed to a dalit/bahujan standpoint. Yes, we must attack the fascist forces of BJP with rage but however as dalits, for us the hindu caste system and fascism does not fall too far from each other. Hence, talking about one without another is fruitless. The critique of the State from a dalit standpoint which uses the characteristics of the Hindu Religion and Caste must uncover the dual standard version of critiquing an “ultra version” of Hinduism and rebranding it as Fascism or Hindutva. Savarnas must ask themselves, what are the contents of this fascism which BJP entails? What are the motives of this Fascism? Is it possible to be a hindu, celebrate certain tenets of Hinduism and be anti-fascistic? Moreover, along with BJP and Yogi, people have been reiterating the word Hindutva when talking about Hathras. What is the difference, if there is any, between the caste system propagated by Hindutva than the caste system propagated by a “simple hindu religion” Hinduism, if any?
Now, this faction of Savarna outrage while acknowledging caste also believe with utmost sincerity that dalit women must not be raped. We witnessed words like “unbelievable’, “horror”, “disgusted”, “heartbroken”, “enoughisenough” and similar equally horrific words which have been common to a lot of upper castes in their social media opinions as well as in TV media. The element of horror put to use by these upper caste reactionaries reveal to us what is important to them, what they essentially take from this. The particularity of this case in Hathras, Uttar Pradesh with the mutilation of the victim’s tongue along with her death and the helplessness of herself and her family has been jolted upon very much by them. The insistence on the brutality has served these Savarnas in many ways. It has served as a shock element which is a wake-up call about the existence of Caste. But where? Where does the caste exist? In their homes or in rural Uttar Pradesh? Do they know that it exists in modern institutions? I am eager to know.
One can see that the distance between their house and rural Uttar Pradesh say Hathras calms them down. It helps them settle down and critique something so distant from their homes, a setting which is almost completely opposite to the setting of their homes. Their gated communities reassure them that it shall not turn like the rural UP ever. Furthermore, the brutality and the barbaric elements of this caste-based crime also forwards it towards its exceptionality. For them, the violence is so grotesque and exceptional, it is almost from another world. This extreme brutal caste violence is heightened against the form of everyday casteism they themselves participate in. They might turn their backs to acknowledge the amount of casteism they produce and reproduce through their everydayness in their modern urban settings. It is as if the Hathras case is so fulfillingly and satisfactorily immersed in violence and wretchedness that that they do not have an option but to acknowledge caste.
It is more and more convenient now to talk about caste because the crime has been able to crush the subject of dalit woman up until her death. Sharing and looking at the pictures of Manisha in her most violated, feeble and vulnerable phase allows pity to flow through because the emotion of pity comes very easily for Dalits by them. Why not share pictures of violent Thakurs? It is actually very easy for them to pity the dalits than to confront the perpetrators. To comfort and pity dalits allows them to place themselves at an elevated podium of an exclusive righteous place. Righteousness by meaning is a virtue with brahminical tendencies which allows them to put themselves as a purer form of human being, emotionally and spiritually as Manu said. This righteous elevation of their selves is possible because of the brutality and the violence on dalit women. At the same time, this brahminical pure and righteous insistence blinds them to the horrors committed by their own caste. So a conversation like “lets talk about Thakurs” does not replace “lets talk about dalits”.
However, a problem soon occurs when they are dealing with caste in modern institutions like Universities, their homes, their workplace, their restaurants, their gated communities, their food, their resumes, their degrees, their popular culture, their leisure, their partners, their friends. They have a problem when they encounter a dalit who is smarter than them in universities, at a better position at their workplace, or in an equal position. It posits a threat to them.
Making the conversation about caste centered around the brutal caste-based sexual violence case produces a convenient and unyielding passive conversation about dalit subjects at their feeblest and most vulnerable point. In their minds, saying that dalit women must not be raped, mutilated and murdered encounters as a very radical notion. I have seen many people known to me or otherwise with a casteist past about reservations or any political right which allows Dalits to stand equal to them writing ceaselessly about the brutal violence unleashed on Dalits. To produce a remotely productive conversation around Caste, these savarnas must talk about caste to their families and friends which exists within their spaces rather than somewhere in rural UP. Talk about caste does not have to translate into talking about dalits, talk about your surname, about your caste, about where you come from, how much property you own, how educated were your parents and grandparents, how much of your academic language do your parents grasp, how does the talk of purity/impurity happen at your home, why are your gods your gods? They must ask themselves, is Hathras rape the only way you are willing to stand for dalits? Only when the subject position satisfies your definition of violence by being in her most vulnerable form, in her absence, in her death?
Vaishali Khandekar is a dalit researcher at IIT Hyderabad. Email: khandekar.vaishali1902@gmail.com
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The Caravan Magazine in August 2020, reported an incident from the month of June this year from Pokhari Village, Uttar Pradesh. Several upper-caste men hailing from the Thakur community (the caste community from which UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath also hails from), attacked a colony of the Dalit community in the Gorakhpur district triggered by a puja of Goddess Kali in the presence of a few Dalits a day before the attack. Several people from the colony faced serious injuries, and the women faced attempts at molestation and harassment. An FIR was launched against each and every person who participated in perpetrating the crime, and were also identified by names. However, the report says, that even after two months, not a single person was arrested. The Thakurs – as it has been reported in news portals especially during elections – hold immense political representation and at least until 2004, held 50 percent of farmland in the entire state. But, the Gorakhpur incident, just like so many others in UP, would not hold the attention of mainstream media because it is part of the everyday, mundane, and probably also because the women on whom molestation was attempted, are still alive.
Nevertheless, looking at the times we are living in, I would invoke a woman hailing from UP who in a significant manner, got associated with the Thakur community around four decades from now – Phoolan Devi, just in case it captures attention to our pasts. There are conflicting accounts about some details in her life, and indeed it is difficult to speak about her after about 20 years of her demise. But we know that Phoolan Devi who belonged to the Mallah community (recognized as the lowest of the lower caste communities in UP) along with her gang of Bandits open fired at 22 innocent Thakur men at the Behmai village in 1981, reportedly, as revenge for several weeks of rape perpetrated on her, by two Thakur men from the same village. Till date – academics, political spectrums, feminists, human rights groups etc. are either divided or silent on the Behmai massacre event. I was not born while she lived most of her life, neither was I at a mature age to understand the socio-political contexts behind why she was shot dead in 2001. However, I grew up hearing stories about her, and remembered her every time debates on punitive measures with regards to sexual assault, molestation, harassment and rape took place in public and media portals over the years.
Today, when a rape case which is deemed important (or sensational) enough to be reported by media is brought forth, there is always a party which supports death penalty for the rapists, and one which does not. The latter believes that not only will a ‘quick-fix’ measure of punishment fail to delve deeper into the issue and uproot it properly – but also since the state itself is paternalistic – a State-executed death penalty will reiterate the powers of that very paternalistic State. It refers to the brutality of capital punishments, and expresses concerns about an individual’s right to live. I completely agree with the former reason – a death penalty is quick and has the potential to silence deeper conversations that are needed with relation to sexual violence, and more stringent actions that are needed in this regard. More so, there are many more social and legal gaps in such a proposition. For instance, in cases where rapes happen within the family or caste community and the perpetrator is known, the knowledge of a mandatory death penalty may lead to collective resistance against reporting of such crimes, as a result of which, lesser number of crimes shall be reported. Despite agreeing, I cannot refrain from noticing with disdain, some characteristics within ‘progressive-radical’ circles within academia and certain political spectrums. I want to ask, what does refraining from taking help from a paternalistic State or from legal bodies even mean? What is it that we exactly want, by posing a direct attack on the State?
For the circles that deem the State and the ‘court of law’ handicapped to solve issues of sexual violence, whether it is death penalty or more stringent punishments as punitive measure for the perpetrator, I would like to remind that both will inevitably have to fall under the ambit of the State’s decision – it is a truth we cannot deny. We learnt our lessons well in the month of January, 2013 when the J.S Verma Committee came up with a report on revising and amending laws on sexual violence in India, which established the death penalty as an unsatisfactory punitive measure, and reestablished the definitive boundaries of sexual violence by recognizing marital rape as a crime in the eyes of law (among many other things). It was only to our disappointment, that the final decisions were taken without paying much heed to the report. So unfortunately, whether handicapped or not, the truth shall remain that we do not have a language of resolution outside of legal and State forces.
More than four decades have passed to the things Phoolan had faced. Hathras is around 5 hours away by bus, both from Behmai (where the massacre happened in 1981) and Jalaun (where Phoolan is said to have spent the initial years of her life). WildFilmsIndia on their Youtube channel, uploaded a video in the month of May two years ago; the original date of that interview is unknown. But we can safely conclude that during the time of the interview, Phoolan was an MP, had entered her later political life where she had spoken in favour of democratic institutions, and the importance of legal order quite visibly. The faceless interviewer asks her how come in her early life as a bandit, she did not think of the importance of democratic and legal institutions and took to other forms of resolution, such as the gun? She cuts off the interviewer halfway, and answers saying she did go to the police when she faced issues. There, she was beaten and the police forces themselves did things to her, she does not want to talk about. She was never told as a little child to take to the gun, and she was also a daughter to someone. She became what the society made her. If we listen to her other available interviews, she is often, very curiously asked about her life as an outlaw, and that life has also been written about, studied and analysed widely. But despite the acknowledgement, what we fail to see is that perhaps the ‘progressive- radicals’ can appreciate her early life only because she surrendered her arms two years after the Behmai massacre and served 11 years of jail sentence. The State did intervene in her life at that point – but of course, on her own terms. Phoolan’s early life and the massacre does very clearly fall under a language outside of modern legal institutions and the State forces.
Today, when we are denied even a transparent report of what is happening inside the Thakur-dominated village of Hathras, I want to ask the ‘progressive-radicals’ like ourselves, as to where we stand? The paternalistic state is looming over us when we criticize death penalty as being useless, it is looming when we ask for more stringent laws, we do not like Phoolan’s early life and look at it as too disruptive, despite it being a very direct resistance to both modern legal language and the State forces. Despite all this, we are sitting as harbingers of critique of the State and legal bodies.
First of all, the progressive-radical left and academic spectrums should recognize that we are taking cognizance to caste violence only when there is death involved. The existence of caste for us, is merely in the form of caste violence, and that too if there is brutality leading to death. In the case of university spaces, scholars like Drishadwati Bargi have spoken about this, who argue that unless the occurrence of death acts as an evidence for caste minority students’ violation of rights and sufferings, there IS no caste based violence. I can simply prove my point with the fact that most of us did not even know – let alone take to the streets or write about, on the incidence of police neglect in the Gorakhpur district case with which I began my article. Secondly, there needs to be a recognition – that the State can be (and must be) challenged, but not erased. We know from the works of many including V. Geetha and K. Balagopal, that the State comes to help in the form of help and support groups for victims of sexual violence at local levels, in states like Karnataka, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu etc. and the ‘court of law’ has the potential to bear witness to and provide justice and protection to caste and other minority groups. While the upper caste rung has other means of gaining justice and protection, minorities don’t, and a sweeping criticism of the legal bodies and the State (towards their complete dismissal) by progressive-radical circles, is nothing less than arrogant. Moreover, not only in method and theory, but also in practice, articulation of political protests, and within classroom spaces, it must be recognized that a critique of the State cannot be articulated in isolation with caste in a country like ours. That the State and caste system go hand in hand, is absolutely naked in front us since time immemorial. Even if we are impatient enough to attack the State and call for the erasure of it in its present format, being witness to Phoolan’s response to the interviewer, her murder done to avenge the massacre on Thakurs, a “mysteriously” sealed Hathras village, and now, a denial of any event of rape in Hathras itself, must tell us of how if the State needs to be criticized to the point of erasure, then that must mandatorily happen alongside the recognition of its unity with caste as it exists in everyday life.
Anamika Das is currently pursuing her MPhil in Social Sciences from the Center for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta. Her current research interests include women’s movements as a whole, with a focus on the post 2010 women’s movements on gender and sexuality in India. Email id: adhigherstudies@gmail.com
A frenzied attack or bouts of insanity; “rape is rape”! Every 30 minutes one rape is crafted in India. A woman or a child…they are all prey of the rape lore. The rape cases are up swinging in numbers each day. Bruises and injuries only leave scars not recoveries. The victims soon or later are succumbed or marked as grime. Sympathies don’t lie in its supreme constituents.
The list of names flourishes each year — Nirbhaya case in 2012, Aruna Ramchandra case in 2015, Asifa Bano in 2018; Priyanka Reddy in 2019; Manisha Valmiki in 2020 and who’s next in 2021? Why stated ‘she was raped’? Why not alleged ‘he raped her’? This brutality is not just an android game in contemporary society, the cruelty had been breathing since centuries ago. The social responses, the laws and sections are very tedious to heal the wounds of the victims. Justice is just a dream.
According to the survey, 87 rape cases occurs every day, recorded in 2019; 7.3 per cent stiffen last year, and the victims are mostly in anguish. From 2018, 4.5 per cent rape cases ballooned up against children, were registered in 2019. Further, the government data reveals that of men in India, at least in their entire lives one out of 5 males are either groped or molested as a child or by the stronger men. Over 50 per cent of them are boys between the age of 5 and 15 only.
Any good society is formed with people’s organisation on uniting aspects and with their contributions towards universal human values. Unfortunately, we have a society which mainly boasts over caste, creed, class, religion, language, gender, and most importantly influences of politics and power is supreme over all.
One can calm oneself by acknowledging that every individual is not the same and these disgusting acts are committed by a few only who are grounded in their different characteristics or individual behaviours. But how can one repeatedly slaughter humanity and that too with complicity of the state from top to bottom? The Hathras incidence from UP is an example in hand as why is rape trending upslope in India? Why the Rape Raj is not abolishing yet even after the harsh Constitutional Amendment following the Nirbhaya incidence in Delhi? Remember, rape has no caste, religion or identity; ‘it is an act of hysteria’, a madness and an act against any sane society.
Blaming only any government is always not wise. The crime committed by the member is from this very society, we all live in. The government is not a pessimist or mind reader of the culprits or the rapists — what are their intentions or who is to be raped next by them. However, being complacent with the crimes or protecting the criminals like rapists and human lynchers have been observed time and again from certain governments for their political interests, which obviously is an additional bolt for us all- in India.
Rape is not enough to call it a Rape only. It is devouring humanity and undermining faith upon humans. Human constituted the laws, unlike animals, for guidance of citizens and to protect the humanity to fall apart.
Despite the harshness of these laws, an actual punishment falls less severe. The act of sexual violence, swelled underneath the bodies, mangled with a metal rod inside her, hanging her on a mango tree, cutting the throat, chopped her tongue or strangled. Indifferences and tolerance of sexual harassment are in the hilt. The agony and trauma the victim goes through, no brutality or punishment given to the rapist will justify. Rape does not cut or mark injuries into the only intimated parts of the body of a victim but pierced into their vehement. Such wounds are often unseen but never washed off. No amount of guilt or worries will cure it. No functioning of NGOs or systems run by the government or the law-makers can bestow the pride of justice. If we are in our nerves and understand ourselves then we have failed the humanity. It’s high time we wake up from slumber and educate our minds and thoughts.
Instead of ‘Beti Bachao Beti Padhao’ make the sons aware … that raping a woman is raping the womb of every mother.
Somewhere, right now in the nook of my city, before I complete this piece of writing … it may cross the line into one more rape. One more daughter or son, may be your child, is being raped this night! It pains, you may not feel the actual pain unless you are a victim or from a victim family.
Shahnaz Islam is an advocate of Gauhati High Court, a freelance writer and a poet
…so goes an old common blessing given to an Indian bride, talks of gender equality notwithstanding. While the small family norm slogan of ‘hum do, hamare do’ (we two, ours two) has rubbed in well the penchant for begetting at least one son has not waned.
Many modern Indian women find their womanhood incomplete without begetting a son. I know of several highly educated and professionally qualified young Indian women who heaved a sigh of relief and smug satisfaction on having a boy as their first or second born. A complete Indian family is envisaged as one with two kids- at least one of who ought be a son.
This is what centuries of patriarchy entrenched in our society has done to our psyche, which even a Harvard degree is unable to wipe out. One shudders to think of the plight of the less privileged ones. No wonder India’s sex ratio at birth stands at 919 girls for every 1000 boys. While the Pre-conception and Prenatal Diagnostic Techniques (Prohibition of Sex Selection) Act prohibits sex-selection of the foetus, its enforcement is lax, resulting in high incidences of female foeticide in many states. Ironically, those very families who have no qualms about killing the female foetus, revel in worshipping female deities with great pomp and show.
Having access to reproductive justice that entails “the human right to maintain personal bodily autonomy, have children, not have children, and parent the children in safe and sustainable communities” is a far cry for most women, not only in India but in many countries of the Asia Pacific region.
The term reproductive justice was coined and formulated as an organizing framework by a group of Black women in Chicago in 1994, just ahead of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in Cairo.
Reproductive justice links reproductive rights (legal rights to access reproductive health care services including abortion and birth control) with the social, political and economic inequalities that affect a woman’s ability to access reproductive health care services. Core components of reproductive justice include equal access to safe abortion, affordable contraceptives and comprehensive sex education, as well as freedom from sexual violence.
A fiery and enlightened panel of women activists aired their views on these issues during a recent online session of the 10th Asia Pacific Conference on Reproductive and Sexual Health and Rights (APCRSHR10), focussing on safe abortion in the region.
Mortality due to unsafe abortions still remains high at 13% of all maternal deaths in South East and South Asia. Abortion is illegal in 3 Asian countries- Iraq, Laos and Philippines. 17 countries allow abortion without restrictions and others allow it only under certain conditions. But even in countries like Cambodia, India and Nepal, that have liberal abortion laws, many women continue to face a host of barriers to obtaining safe, legal procedures. In Thailand, despite access to safe abortion services and contraceptives, teenage pregnancy remains a challenge. Stigma, coupled with lack of information, makes these services more inaccessible to unmarried women.
Sivananthi Thanenthiran, Executive Director, ARROW (Asian-Pacific Resource and Research Centre for Women), blames it upon the growing influence of religious fundamentalism and its anti-gender ideology with the rise in right wing governments.
“Extremist ideologies thrive on asserting control over women’s bodies, autonomy, sexuality and their daily lives. This confluence of conservative religious, cultural and customary practices is often interlinked with the pursuit of power. Criminalisation of abortion is a tool of patriarchy and structural racism. Safe abortion for women is not just about choice, but also about access. Governments should eliminate all legal barriers that limit women’s access to sexual and reproductive health services, commodities and information, including access to safe abortion. Generating evidence based data on abortion and related issues through a rights-based analytical framework is essential to influence policy and strengthen advocacy and accountability”, she asserts.
Dr Suchitra Dalvie, co-founder and Coordinator of the Asia Safe Abortion Partnership, roots for recognizing the political significance of safe self-managed abortions that governments should make available to pregnant women as a valid and safe choice, and not in situations where they are forced to do it underground. According to her, a pregnant woman should have enough accurate information to be able to self-assess her pregnancy, self-procure the pills and self-conduct the process of abortion in a location of her choice without having to visit a medical facility. She should also be able to access a healthcare provider if need be at any stage of the process.
Self-administered medical abortion
Self-administered medical abortion has been proposed as a strategy to reduce burden on the health systems and to provide convenience for women. And there is data to support the safety of such self managed abortions.
A systematic review of 18 randomized controlled trials and prospective cohort studies from 10 countries, including India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Vietnam and China, shows that self-administered medical abortion is as safe and effective as the one that is administered by a healthcare provider. So, women can effectively and safely induce their own early medical abortion through self-administration and may not require full supervision of a provider during any stage of the drug regimen.
Presenting these findings Katherine Gambir, Research Advisor at Women’s Refugee Commission, said that, “Policy makers at global and national levels should consider amending medical abortion guidelines to offer women the choice to self administer early medical abortion procedures with or without clinical guidance, thereby alleviating the burden on overburdened healthcare systems. This is especially important in the context of COVID-19 when health systems are strained and access to clinic-based care is restricted. Also we are seeing an increase in gender based violence including intimate partner violence, which emphasises the urgency to ensure that women have access to sexual and reproductive healthcare and contraceptives, including emergency contraceptives and self-administered medical abortion”.
Comprehensive abortion care
Favourable legal environments are the first step in providing comprehensive abortion care by healthcare providers even in humanitarian settings, where women and girls face increased risk of unsafe abortions arising out of various forms of sexual and gender based violence and resulting in maternal mortality and morbidity. Comprehensive abortion care includes menstrual regulation – a procedure to regulate the menstrual cycle to ensure a non-pregnancy; post-abortion care; and contraceptive provision and counselling.
Maria Persson, Sexual and Reproductive Health Expert at Ipas Bangladesh (who was a Research Assistant at Karolinska Institutet when the study was conducted), shared the example of comprehensive abortion care provision in Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh, which is home to more than 900,000 Rohingya refugees displaced from Myanmar. The Bangladesh government, with help from civil society organisations, leads this humanitarian response, through healthcare facilities that provide free abortion care services.
Induced abortion in Bangladesh is illegal, unless the woman’s life is in danger. But menstrual regulation (a simple and inexpensive procedure that uses manual vacuum aspiration to make it impossible to be pregnant after missing a period) is legally permitted up to 10 weeks of gestation and is widely practised in healthcare facilities. Also a combination of mifepristone and misoprotol for medical abortion has been legalised since 2012.
Persson said that the legalisation of menstrual regulation coupled with collaboration between civil society organisations and the government has made provision of comprehensive abortion care possible in Cox’s Bazar. Integrating the full package of comprehensive abortion care services in the primary healthcare system to address women’s multiple sexual and reproductive health needs, training on menstrual regulation policy and abortion law and in-service training can ensure provision of quality care that is woman-centred and non-judgmental.
Indonesia- a Muslim nation- is another country where abortion is legally permissible only in medical indications, severe congenital defects and rape cases. The government’s family planning programme is only for married couples and contraceptives for unmarried women are not available. Abortion is generally stigmatized and there is a sensitivity for using the word even in health facilities. Sharing this information, Riznawaty Imma Aryanty, Reproductive Health programme specialist at United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) Indonesia, made a case for having proper comprehensive sexual education for the adolescents.
“It is also very important to have data on abortion and abortion related complications. For example if there are so many abortion complications, it would be an indication of unsafe abortion practices and force policy makers to do something about it. So we have to bring more data to the discussion table, and interpret it in an understanding manner to improve the situation”, she says.
While Indonesia’s interpretation of Islam is fairly liberal, yet its understanding of abortion is far more restrictive. Riznawaty sees the need of enlisting the support of moderate religious leaders and raising their voices to advance the cause of sexual and reproductive health and rights for women.
Abortion is essential healthcare
Agrees Amy Williamson, Country Director, Marie Stopes International, Cambodia, who was also the Chair of eighth session of APCRSHR10: restrictive access to abortion is tied up in outdated laws and policies and the current pandemic has only made it more urgent that these policies are changed to prevent an increase in unintended pregnancies, births and unsafe abortions. It is more important now than ever that abortion is recognised by governments and within health systems as essential healthcare. We need to take the stigma out of it and make it comfortable for everyone to speak about it, especially the young.
Yes, we need safe abortion services for everyone. But, as someone remarked, our long term goal – which should be achieved as soon as possible – must be to ensure every pregnancy is wanted and no unintended pregnancy is conceived at all. This can happen only if women and men can access and use options to prevent them. The wall of hegemonic control that patriarchy wields on women’s sexual and reproductive lives has to be demolished.
Shobha Shukla is the founding Managing Editor of CNS (Citizen News Service) and is a feminist, health and development justice advocate. She is a former senior Physics faculty of Loreto Convent College and current Coordinator of Asia Pacific Media Network to end TB & tobacco and prevent NCDs (APCAT Media). Follow her on Twitter @shobha1shukla or read her writings here www.bit.ly/ShobhaShukla
– Shared under Creative Commons
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