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Invisible victims of sexual violence. Access to justice for women and girls with disabilities in India

HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH
April 2018

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This report is based on 17 cases of sexual violence against women and girls with disabilities in eight Indian states. It comes five years after The Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2013 (the 2013 amendments) were adopted in India. It follows Human Rights Watch’s November 2017 report “Everyone Blames Me”: Barriers to Justice and Support Services for Sexual Assault Survivors in India, which found that rape survivors still face significant barriers obtaining justice and critical support services because legal and other reforms have not been fully realised.

This report finds that while the 2013 amendments have made significant progress in responding to the widespread challenges that victims of sexual violence endure, they have yet to properly develop and implement support for survivors with disabilities in the form of trainings and reforms throughout the criminal justice system. It highlights gaps in enforcement and calls for concrete measures to address the needs of women and girls with disabilities seeking justice for abuse. 

‘Ask us what we need’: Operationalizing Guidance on Disability Inclusion in Refugee and Displaced Persons Programs

PEARCE, Emma
2015

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Persons with disabilities remain one of the most vulnerable and socially excluded groups in any displaced community. Barriers to accessing humanitarian assistance programs increase their protection risks, including risk of violence, abuse and exploitation. Women’s Refugee Commission has been supporting the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and implementing partners to translate guidance on disability inclusion into practice at field levels through the provision of technical support to eight country operations. In the course of the project, WRC has consulted with over 600 persons with disabilities and care-givers and over 130 humanitarian actors in displacement contexts. Key protection concerns identified include a lack of participation in community decision making; stigma and discrimination of children and young persons with disabilities by their non-disabled peers; violence against persons with disabilities, including gender-based violence; lack of access to disabilityspecific health care; and unmet basic needs among families of persons with multiple impairments. Suggested strategies to further advance disability inclusion in humanitarian programming include: strengthening identification of protection risks and case management services for persons with disabilities; facilitating contextspecific action planning around key guidelines; and engaging the disability movement in advocacy on refugee issues.

 

Disability and the Global South (DGS), 2015, Vol. 2 No. 1

Childhood Sexual Abuse and Disability: A critical study of an invisibilized constituency in India

VAIDYA, Shruti
2015

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This paper explores childhood sexual abuse as understood by disabled individuals from their particular locations. The paper reports on qualitative research with disabled adults identifying themselves as survivors/victims of childhood sexual abuse. In the Indian context, Childhood sexual abuse has been understood in a monolithic way, erasing all differences that exist among children from different social locations. The paper attempts to provide an alternative perspective by focusing on the specificities of the experiences of disabled persons. The textual sources examined in the paper investigate the concept of childhood, disability and sexuality and their interconnections, both in the Western and the Indian context. Discourses that construct children as passive and ignorant make it important to provide narratives which capture strategies of resistance within power structures which constrain choices. This paper makes an attempt to document and analyze the experiences of disabled individuals who have undergone childhood sexual abuse within the larger context of Indian laws, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) which engage with the concept and reportage and which represent dominant views on Childhood sexual abuse and disabilities.

 

Disability and the Global South (DGS), 2015, Vol. 2 No. 2

Treated worse than animals : abuses against women and girls with psychosocial or intellectual disabilities in institutions in India

SHARMA, Kriti
December 2014

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This in-depth, illustrated report on the abuses of female patients with psychosocial or intellectual disabilities at institutions in India found that patients experience widespread neglect and abuses of their rights, including denial of legal capacity, a lack of community-based support and services, verbal and physical violence as well as involuntary treatment and admission. It recommends that “India undertake urgent reforms to guarantee the legal capacity of people with psychosocial or intellectual disabilities and take steps to shift from institutional to community-based care and services for people with disabilities”, with specific recommendations for central and state government level, national and state commissions and international donors

 

Note: Easy-to-read version, summary and video also available

Violence against people with disabilities

PAUL, Nalini M
March 2010

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These slides highlight the high levels of violence towards people and children with disabilities, different types of violence, and what is being done to address the issue through legislation

Study on child abuse : India 2007

KACKER, Loveleen
VARADAN, Srinivas
KUMAR, Pravesh
2007

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The aim of the study was to develop a comprehensive understanding of the phenomenon of child abuse, with a view to help facilitate the formulation of appropriate policies and programmes meant to effectively curb and control the problem of child abuse in India. Among the findings of the study, it clearly emerged that across different kinds of abuse (physical, sexual, emotional and girl child neglect), it is young children, in the 5-12 year group, who are most at risk of abuse and exploitation. The study also puts forward strategies to address the problem of child abuse and identifies areas of further research

Good practices for working with experiential and at-risk youth

2007

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This resource was produced by the Youth Partnership Project for Child Survivors of Commercial Sexual Exploitation in South Asia (YPP) after a consultation questionnaire was sent to young people in all the countries involved in YPP and a workshop, held in Kathmandu in October 2006, to analyse the responses. It offers both examples of good practices and lessons learned

Yaari dosti : Young men redefine masculinity, a training manual

POPULATION COUNCIL
2006

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This manual was adapted from the Brazilian Program H curriculum and piloted in urban slum communities in India as part of an operations research study aimed at reducing HIV risk among young men by addressing perceptions of gender norms. The manual can be used by health educators, teachers and/or other professionals or volunteers who want to work, or are already working, with young men between 15 and 24 years old. It is divided into four subsections: gender, sexuality and reproductive health, violence, and preventing and living with HIV & AIDS, around each of which there is a series of activities

Future forsaken : abuses against children affected by HIV/AIDS in India

HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH (HRW)
2004

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This report documents abuses against India’s HIV/AIDS-affected children, including doctors refusing to treat or even touch HIV-positive children, schools expelling or segregating children because they or their parents are HIV-positive, and orphanages and other residential institutions rejecting HIV-positive children or denying that they house them. Children from families affected by AIDS may be denied an education, pushed onto the street, forced into the worst forms of child labour, or otherwise exploited, all of which puts them at greater risk of contracting HIV. This report calls on the Indian government to recognise their plight and to take immediate action to protect them from discrimination and exploitation

Equity to women with disabilities in India

RAO, Indumathi
2004

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Prepared for India's National Commission for Women, this strategy paper explores the situation of women with disabilities in India. It looks at the discrimination that women with disabilities experience in all areas of life, including access to education, training, employment and health.

From many lands

NARAYAN, Deepa
PETESCH, Patti
Eds
2002

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This book presents the experiences of people who are worn down by persistent deprivation, and buffeted by severe shocks they feel ill-equipped to overcome. The stories reveal some of the reasons why poor people remain poor, despite working long hours day after day. They document the frequently demeaning encounters with state, market and civic institutions that distort the well-intended political, economic and social policies. This book focuses on the diversity of poverty in 14 countries and highlights the key findings

Child friendly cities initiative

UNITED NATIONS CHILDREN'S FUND (UNICEF)

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This website is a knowledge base for the global Child Friendly Cities (CFC) Initiative. It contains the CFC Database, which collects information on the role played by local governance systems in the areas of child rights, child participation and services for children; a CFC toolkit, which offers a definition of a CFC, examples of good practice and successful methods from around the world, a framework for action and key references

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