Group Rape of 58 Men Against a Teenage Girl in Southern India Exposed After 5 Years

Indian police have arrested 58 men on suspicion of raping a 13-year-old girl in a village, while two other suspects have fled abroad. The arrests followed the revelation by an 18-year-old girl, who had been sexually assaulted by dozens of men and boys in her community, about the years of sexual abuse she endured from classmates, neighbors, relatives, and strangers. According to CNN, this girl, from a poor laborer family and marginalized social class in India, was first raped five years ago by a male neighbor in her village in the Kerala region of southern India. Police stated that the first suspect exploited the girl for the sexual assault of dozens of other men by taking sexual videos and photos of her. The police reported that some men assaulted the victim both individually and in groups. The police report indicates that the suspects used social media platforms like Instagram and WhatsApp to contact the girl and assaulted her at night in both private and public spaces, including homes, cars, bus stations, and farms. Some cases involved strangers who lived in distant cities and traveled to the girl's locality to commit the assaults. The girl's laborer parents worked long hours in a village in the lush hills of Kerala, where the residents are low-paid laborers in construction and agriculture, and were unaware of their daughter's situation. The police have stated that they have dedicated 'maximum force' to handle this case, but amidst the shock to the local community from this incident, Indian society has remained largely silent. This comes at a time when anger over the rape and murder of a young female doctor interning in eastern Kolkata this summer led to a nationwide strike by doctors and street protests. According to CNN, which spoke with experts and activists, the silence of Indian society regarding the rape in Kerala stems from a multi-thousand-year-old social and religious hierarchy in India that determines individuals' status from birth. The girl who disclosed the assault belongs to the Dalit community in India, which is considered 'impure' according to parts of Hindu religious texts, and its members are primarily street sweepers and waste collectors. Despite the 'abolition of the caste system' 70 years ago, Dalits are still prohibited from entering temples and are expected to stay away from 'upper-class' communities, living in poverty and lacking access to civic services. Over 260 million people of India's 1.4 billion population are Dalits. Cynthia Stephen, a Dalit rights activist and social policy researcher, told CNN that when it comes to exploited Dalit women, society generally does not show anger because it thinks she is 'one of us.' According to government data, in over 98% of sexual assault cases in India, the victim knew the perpetrator beforehand. Despite reforms in laws and harsher penalties, violence and sexual assault remain common in India's patriarchal society. In 2022, over 31,500 cases of rape were reported in the country, with more than 4,200 of those against women from marginalized classes like the Dalits. Only 27% of sexual assault cases in 2022 led to a conviction of the accused. Since 2012, following widespread protests after the gang rape that led to the death of a female student on a bus in Delhi, laws against rape have been tightened, but the punishments for convicted offenders in such cases remain relatively light compared to other major crimes.