'Justice for Manisha': Peaceful protest against sexual violence and caste atrocities

New Delhi: She was just 19-year-old, went to get fodder for her animals not too far off in a field on September 14 with her mother, and never came back home. She was raped, tortured, strangled, her tongue was split into two and spine broken by four upper-caste (Thakur) men and left her fighting for her life.

The woman's family found her naked, bleeding, and paralyzed with a split tongue in the field outside their home. Two weeks later, she was declared dead after battling serious injuries in a hospital in New Delhi.

As per reports are concerned, the Thakur (Upper caste) men knew her. They were neighbours and had been having a 20-year-old feud.

But the case doesn't stop here, the woman was cremated early Wednesday, by the local police without even letting the family perform her final rites to dodge vehement protest by the Dalit community.

The videos showing the family weeping and begging as the police insisted on cremating the body without allowing them to take it home, went viral on social media, and created outrage among the netizens.

However, an incident like this is not new for Uttar Pradesh. The state has witnessed a large number of new cases of young girls being raped and most of these young girls are from Dalit communities. There are many incidents of minor girls being raped or gang-raped after they went outside of their village.

Last month, a 13-year-old Dalit girl was raped and killed in UP. In December 2019, a 23-year-old Dalit woman in the same state died after being set ablaze by a gang of men as she made her way to court to press rape charges. Both these cases are pending in court.

UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Wednesday ordered a special investigation team to look into the case and insisted to try in a fast track court.

This incident sparked outrage across the country on Wednesday and several politicians and activists demanding justice and protesters rallying in the streets. The spine chilling incident is hauntingly familiar of what happened to Nirbhaya in 2012 in Delhi.

Several celebrities came out and demanded justice for the young woman. Bollywood actors like Akshay Kumar, Anushka Sharma, Kareena Kapoor Khan, Kangana Ranaut, Huma Qureshi, and several others took to twitter to express dissent over the incident.

Hundreds of people including leaders from opposition parties on Friday gathered in Delhi's Jantar Mantar to demand justice. Bhim Army chief Chandrashekhar Azad and his supporters came to Jantar Mantar in protest against the government for what they say not doing enough to stop crime against women.

Also Read: To revive economy, Nagaland Govt invites returnees to become entrepreneurs