I’ve been shouting about this for years. The biggest internal security issue for India is that of women and girls facing a high risk situation from men. We’re talking about 500 million females here. Make no mistake. The regularity with which women are assaulted,

raped, gang raped, harassed, beaten, attacked with acid, and murdered is NOT NORMAL. It is a war on women and girls.

I purposely use the language of security to draw attention to this issue because we are confronted with abject state and institutional apathy.

Last year I did threads about the gang rape cases and murders of women we were seeing regularly in some districts of UP. It’s still happening. And there is no concerted response or push to fix this matter.

Dalit, tribal women, minors face the worst of this violence and abuse.

It has got to stop. #Unnao

The most worrying trend I’ve been noticing is the involvement of minors in violence against minors. How are you raising these boys?

This is the thread I did about Shamli and Lakhimpur Kheri. We can add Unnao to this list too. https://twitter.com/vsirnate/status/1298563810467381248

And other states don’t heave a sigh of relief just yet. The parameters in Jharkhand are about as bad. And in urban areas.

And if this isn’t enough violence there are cases of witch hunting murders where people are burned and beheaded. When you see India from the unromanticized viewpoint of data on violence, it really destroys any faith you have in the political or justice system.

One of the reasons I oppose Hindutva is because I know that female and caste equality and safety is not a priority for them even if they keep harping on empowerment. An ideology built on patriarchy and caste will never annihilate them.

What we are seeing all of these cases is the outcome of worst possible combination of both patriarchy and caste. How do we stop it?