Jude sessions: In India, domestic helps work in an unsafe environment 02/04/11 12:20 PM

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Jude sessions
St Jude, farmer and patron saint of lost causes. At least they often seem so, but lets
hang in there and hope woh subah kabhi toh ayegi. But anyway guys - causes, activist
posts, development news links- will all find a home here. Its not everyone's cup of tea
though!

SATURDAY, APRIL 2, 2011 FOLLOWERS

In India, domestic helps work in an unsafe Bamboosong

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environment Followers (5)

The Shiney Ahuja case - the Bollywood actor convicted for raping the 20
year old maid working in his house - reflects two disturbing facts. One, that
domestic help in this country work in conditions that are not always safe or
harmonious. Add to this, the possibility of abuse, overwork, withholding of
pay, employment of child labour and other indignities of working in middle Invite your friends
class households. Given the social divide between the employer and the
employee, the dice is already loaded. This was especially so in this case
where the girl was a poor villager lately come to Mumbai for her livelihood, BLOG ARCHIVE
and who was so unlearned in self-defence that a preliminary pass made by
▼ 2011 (23)
the actor a couple of days before the rape did not alert her to the horrors in
store. ▼ April (1)
In India, domestic helps
The second aspect is the relentless defence of Ahuja by his wife. Ok, so he is work in an unsafe
environ...
her husband, albeit one who cheated the minute she was away, but did the
unfairness of his attack - one can call it nothing else given the brutality ▶ March (8)
revealed in the medical evidence - on a young girl mean nothing in the face
▶ February (5)
of so called family values? Family here may also include the larger Bollywood
family, who have as always, swung together to defend one of their own, ▶ January (9)
spearheaded by that actor with the most 'records' in various police districts,
▶ 2010 (47)
Salman Khan himself, castigating the judge for bias against actors. Actors
are as subject to the due process of law as any other citizen, yet it is they
who expect special dispensation whenever they indulge in criminal activity. ABOUT ME

Bamboosong
The media has been largely ambivalent. An exception is today's editorial in Bangalore, India
the Deccan Herald, which talks of the way the Ahujas tried everything from
Hi I'm Lina. Basically a writing
threats to bribery until the victim retracted from her initial complaint.
bloke (and doodler-on-the-
"Convictions in cases of rape are rare in this country. This is because side). I enjoy people and places.
assailants often use intimidation to silence the victims. There are social Live in Bangalore, a city with its
pressures too that prevent victims from going to the police and the courts. own dynamic mix of old and
Initially, Ahuja’s maid overcame her fears and inhibitions to go to the police new. Most of the stuff you see
but relentless pressure saw her withdraw her charges." [Read more] on my JUDE blog is to draw
attention to urgent issues
through pieces written by
Kudos to the judge therefore, who ignored this 'hostile evidence' and based
others. And WRITER's BLOC is
the sentence on the medical evidence instead to sentence Shiney Ahuja to
about quirky stuff all to do with
seven years rigorous imprisonment. One hopes the higher courts will also how writers think. For my own
uphold the sentence. bylines, pl see
scribd.com/chalkabout. For my
work, see
Posted by Bamboosong at 12:10 PM
linkedin.com/linakrishnan
View my complete profile

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