The alleged gang-rape of a 20-year-old Santhal woman three days ago on the orders of a panchayat in a village in Birbhum district is only the latest indication of how unsafe West Bengal has become for women. In 2012, Bengal recorded more crimes than any other Indian state and the number of attacks has been rising.
The number of crimes against women in Bengal tripled to 30,942 in 2012 from 6,842 ten years earlier, according the National Crime Records Bureau. This accounted for 13 per cent of all crimes against women in India in 2012, the highest share of all states.
That year, the rate of crimes against women per 100,000 people in West Bengal was 34, the third highest in India. This is four times the rate of crimes against women ten years earlier, when Bengal ranked only 25 on this parameter.
In the latest incident, the unelected all-male council in Subalpur village allegedly ordered the woman to be gang-raped because she had become involved with a man outside the community. On Thursday, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee ordered the suspension of the district's superintendent of police, while the 13 accused men were sent to judicial custody for two weeks.
Although the uptick in crimes against women set in before Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress came to power in 2011, two disturbing trends under its rule have exacerbated the situation, say some academics and activists. They said while reporting may have increased, this was a small part of the story.
Soon after the Trinamool Congress routed the Left Front, which had been ruling for 34 consecutive years, Chief Minister Banerjee made remarks following horrific incidents of rape that came across as highly insensitive. In one case, she said the incident had been "cooked up" to malign her government, although she later said the media had distorted her statement.
"It has not helped that Mamata has trivialised some of the complaints of rape," said Dipankar Bhattacharya, general secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist). "This government's attitude is inimical to issues of democracy and civil rights. Not that it was very good when the CPI (M) was ruling, but it has become worse."
In addition to the ambiguous message coming from the topmost levels of the administration, there has been a rapid criminalisation at the grassroots level, said Partho Sarothi Ray, a social activist and a leading member of Sanhati, a citizens' forum.
"Criminal elements have existed at the local level, but now it is rampant and uncontrolled," he said. "These local elements are indulging in extortion and forming syndicates that corner building material. These local people often have political connections. There is no clear message going out from the highest level that such crimes cannot happen."
This is because the Trinamool Congress does not have the highly organised structure of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and is forced therefore to depend upon these groups to exert its authority at the local level, he said. This has emboldened criminals and eroded women's confidence.
A spokesman for the Trinamool Congress said he could not respond immediately but would reply to questions sent by email.
While the political climate contributes to making women vulnerable, deeper socioeconomic factors are at work, academics said. "The fundamental problem is that not only West Bengal but India has an increasing number of workers with insecure jobs," said Amiya Kumar Bagchi, a professor of economics at the Institute of Development Studies, Kolkata, who was at the forefront of huge protests in June against the rising cases of sexual violence in the state. "Women have become targets of these insecure men."
Yet the number of crimes against women in West Bengal has been on the high side for many years, said Biswajit Ghosh, a professor of sociology at the University of Burdwan, 170 km from Kolkata. "A number of factors are at play, demographic and geographical, as well as a long-term negligence by the state and its machinery," he said.
To begin with, West Bengal's demography makes it vulnerable to crime, he says. For one, it has the second-highest population density of all Indian states, behind Bihar, at 1,028 people for every 1,000 sq km.
For another, scheduled castes, tribes and Muslims -- three minorities that are socio-economically weaker than the general population -- constitute 54 per cent of West Bengal’s population, the only state in which this exceeds 50 per cent. Hence, the sheer number of both vulnerable men and women is greater, Ghosh said. The state with the second-highest number of these groups is Uttar Pradesh, with a much lower 40 per cent.
West Bengal's location, in particular the fact that it shares a border with Bangladesh, has proved to be a problem, with the trafficking of women being a long-standing phenomenon, Ghosh said.
Finally, for decades, not merely under the current regime, the state has lacked democratic spaces that are not linked to a political party, he said. "When people try to start forums for discussion or action, a political party immediately jumps in to take control,” Ghosh said. “Even crimes, including rapes, were often reported to the local CPI (M) office, not the police station."
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The number of crimes against women in Bengal tripled to 30,942 in 2012 from 6,842 ten years earlier, according the National Crime Records Bureau. This accounted for 13 per cent of all crimes against women in India in 2012, the highest share of all states.
That year, the rate of crimes against women per 100,000 people in West Bengal was 34, the third highest in India. This is four times the rate of crimes against women ten years earlier, when Bengal ranked only 25 on this parameter.
In the latest incident, the unelected all-male council in Subalpur village allegedly ordered the woman to be gang-raped because she had become involved with a man outside the community. On Thursday, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee ordered the suspension of the district's superintendent of police, while the 13 accused men were sent to judicial custody for two weeks.
Although the uptick in crimes against women set in before Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress came to power in 2011, two disturbing trends under its rule have exacerbated the situation, say some academics and activists. They said while reporting may have increased, this was a small part of the story.
Soon after the Trinamool Congress routed the Left Front, which had been ruling for 34 consecutive years, Chief Minister Banerjee made remarks following horrific incidents of rape that came across as highly insensitive. In one case, she said the incident had been "cooked up" to malign her government, although she later said the media had distorted her statement.
"It has not helped that Mamata has trivialised some of the complaints of rape," said Dipankar Bhattacharya, general secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist). "This government's attitude is inimical to issues of democracy and civil rights. Not that it was very good when the CPI (M) was ruling, but it has become worse."
In addition to the ambiguous message coming from the topmost levels of the administration, there has been a rapid criminalisation at the grassroots level, said Partho Sarothi Ray, a social activist and a leading member of Sanhati, a citizens' forum.
"Criminal elements have existed at the local level, but now it is rampant and uncontrolled," he said. "These local elements are indulging in extortion and forming syndicates that corner building material. These local people often have political connections. There is no clear message going out from the highest level that such crimes cannot happen."
This is because the Trinamool Congress does not have the highly organised structure of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and is forced therefore to depend upon these groups to exert its authority at the local level, he said. This has emboldened criminals and eroded women's confidence.
A spokesman for the Trinamool Congress said he could not respond immediately but would reply to questions sent by email.
While the political climate contributes to making women vulnerable, deeper socioeconomic factors are at work, academics said. "The fundamental problem is that not only West Bengal but India has an increasing number of workers with insecure jobs," said Amiya Kumar Bagchi, a professor of economics at the Institute of Development Studies, Kolkata, who was at the forefront of huge protests in June against the rising cases of sexual violence in the state. "Women have become targets of these insecure men."
Yet the number of crimes against women in West Bengal has been on the high side for many years, said Biswajit Ghosh, a professor of sociology at the University of Burdwan, 170 km from Kolkata. "A number of factors are at play, demographic and geographical, as well as a long-term negligence by the state and its machinery," he said.
To begin with, West Bengal's demography makes it vulnerable to crime, he says. For one, it has the second-highest population density of all Indian states, behind Bihar, at 1,028 people for every 1,000 sq km.
For another, scheduled castes, tribes and Muslims -- three minorities that are socio-economically weaker than the general population -- constitute 54 per cent of West Bengal’s population, the only state in which this exceeds 50 per cent. Hence, the sheer number of both vulnerable men and women is greater, Ghosh said. The state with the second-highest number of these groups is Uttar Pradesh, with a much lower 40 per cent.
West Bengal's location, in particular the fact that it shares a border with Bangladesh, has proved to be a problem, with the trafficking of women being a long-standing phenomenon, Ghosh said.
Finally, for decades, not merely under the current regime, the state has lacked democratic spaces that are not linked to a political party, he said. "When people try to start forums for discussion or action, a political party immediately jumps in to take control,” Ghosh said. “Even crimes, including rapes, were often reported to the local CPI (M) office, not the police station."
