KOLKATA: The heartwrenching incident of a tribal woman being paraded naked and tied to an electric pole at Belgaum in Karnataka, has now caused national outrage.
The tribal woman was made to suffer such humiliation after reports surfaced of the woman’s son eloping with another girl. Reportedly, it was the girl’s family who attacked the tribal woman’s house in New Vatamuri village.
FLASH: Reacting to the #Karnataka shocker, the National Commission for Women has taken suo motu cognisance on Friday, of the case of a woman being stripped naked, while their house was set on fire.
Reports @joymalabagchi
— The New Indian (@TheNewIndian_in) December 15, 2023
The incident took place on Monday, sparking intense outrage across social media. The National Commission for Women (NCW) has also taken suo motu congnisance of the situation on Friday.
With regards to the harrowing incident, social activist and the Director of Centre for Social Research, Ranjana Kumari, illustrated that this was not the first time that such an incident had happened. “This is not the first incident happening whenever such incidence happens that young men/ women elope normally the consequences are faced by the woman of the family. They come, they beat the woman, torture the woman.” Kumari told The New Indian.
She added, “This is a social mindset that punish the women and the onlookers, the bystanders who take pleasure in a woman’s body being exposed and hit, touched or brutalised. This is a criminal mindset we are suffering as a society and there is an urgent need to change it.”
She further highlighted that such atrocities are mostly committed against tribals and Dalit women since they are “vulnerable and downtrodden” which lets the criminals get away without reprimand.
On the other hand, Yogita Bhayana, a social activist, highlighted that the actual shocking fact of the entire incident was the lack of reaction to it. “We have a threshold to take such an incidence very lightly as citizens we keep on hearing such incidence from different parts of the country be it Bihar, Manipur but the shocker is people are not reacting to it. The authorities should take it very seriously. Women have always been the softest target,” she said.
Bhayana also highlighted that much of these instances happen through the portrayal of women in movies, which has also left a dent on their dignity and image.
According to details presented by the Karnataka Police, Ashok, 24, and Priyanka, 18, had fled their village on Monday night at 12:30 AM. They were members of the same community.
Presently, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) National President JP Nadda, has constituted a five-member fact-finding team to visit the place of occurrence and report to the President at the earliest.