Kerala panel seeks probe into women's torture

D Jose in Thiruvananthapuram

The Kerala legislature's Committee for the Welfare of Women and Children has sought a high-level inquiry into the incident of a mob shaving the heads of two women in the state's northern district of Malapuram on the suspicion that they were spreading AIDS.

Committee chairperson Meenakshi Thampan told Rediff On The NeT that the committee had directed the state home secretary and the Malapuram district superintendent of police to probe the matter and report the findings to the committee. She said that the committee had received complaints from several women's organisations in the district that the two women, hailing from poor Muslim homes, were paraded through the streets by a mob of 100 and thrashed and tortured before their heads were shaven.

The two, aged 18 and 35 (identity concealed), were later ostracised by their families and society.

The 35-year-old woman was even denied access to her children and had to virtually hold an agitation to ensure her right to see her children. The two women, who are reportedly commercial sex workers in the area, are said to be a shattered lot after the humiliating experiences.

The incident occurred in the wake of a call given by the Citizens' Forum, headed by the Communist Party of India-Marxist's local committee secretary, to end all anti-social activities in the area. Some of the assailants suspected that the two women had links with a person who had been deported from a Gulf country after he was found HIV positive. They made the women their target after the death of the Gulf deportee.

Meenakshi Thampan said that the suspicion that the two had AIDS was unfounded. She said that the tests conducted subsequently on them proved that they were HIV negative. She described the incident as barbarous and demanded stern action against the guilty.

Meanwhile, the Malapuram superintendent of police said that 11 persons have been arrested and charged under the section dealing with outraging the modesty of the women.

The incident has also evoked protests from various quarters. Several women's organisations in the area have held protest demonstrations.

Strivedi, a women's organisation, conducted a door-to-door campaign to remove apprehensions in the minds of the people about AIDS patients. A women activist said that even educated men in the state believed that merely touching an AIDS patient can spread the infection.

"If this is the situation in a state which prides itself about its high literacy and better health awareness, what will be the situation in other states," she lamented. She said that it was the exaggerated stories and reports about AIDS by government agencies, the media, and the anti-AIDS activists that led to such incidents.

It may be recalled that a woman in Thiruvananthapuram was similarly boycotted by people after her husband's death. No amount of certificates proclaiming her HIV negative could convince the people. He child was even denied admission in the school.