{"id":6911,"date":"2016-05-10T03:04:47","date_gmt":"2016-05-09T21:34:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=6911"},"modified":"2016-05-10T03:04:47","modified_gmt":"2016-05-09T21:34:47","slug":"chhattisgarh-womens-commission-chief-kiranmayee-nayak-female-leaders-belittle-other-women","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?p=6911","title":{"rendered":"Chhattisgarh Women\u2019s Commission Chief Says Women File for Rape after a Break-Up. Why Do Our Female Leaders Belittle Other Women?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

T<\/span>he chief of a state women\u2019s commission is the last person you would expect to be making regressive statements regarding rape cases in the country. Yet that is exactly what happened when Chhattisgarh’s women\u2019s commission chief, Kiranmayee Nayak, suggested that women make false allegations of rape because they\u2019re upset over break-ups. \u201cIn most of the cases, girls have a consensual relationship, a live-in setup and then file an FIR (First Information Report) for rape after separation,\u201d she said during a public hearing on harassment in Chhattisgarh on Friday, according to reports.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nayak\u2019s comments not only place undue emphasis on false allegations but also undermine the more pressing issue of underreporting of sexual crimes. Data shows that only around eight per cent of rape claims<\/a> (in more than one country) are false. In contrast, a mere six per cent of all sexual assaults against women were reported to the police in India in 2014.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By trivialising the rapes that are reported to authorities, Nayak also infantilised women and suggested that they\u2019re unable to make rational decisions about their sexuality, partners, and lives overall. It\u2019s a notion that also finds footing in various patriarchal myths, including the latest campaign against \u201clove jihad\u201d pushed by right-wing radicals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is perhaps most heart-breaking and ironic about the incident is that Nayak, herself a woman, is the head of a commission dedicated to \u201cempowering\u201d the women of Chhattisgarh and \u201cending discrimination\u201d against them. If the leaders of such organisations are unable to practice the equality they preach or base their opinions on science and data, who are they really helping?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like Nayak, National Commission for Women chairperson Rekha Sharma found herself embroiled in a similar controversy earlier this year. After receiving backlash for meeting with Maharashtra governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari over the \u201clove jihad\u201d conspiracy theory, Sharma was criticised by Twitter users over her old misogynistic tweets.

Wholly ignoring the political ideals of a woman and instead focusing only on her gender does an injustice to the feminist cause.<\/blockquote>
\u201cWish this khap panchayat man\u2019s faimily (sic) go through \u2018simple\u2019 rape and then will ask him what to do,\u201d tweeted Sharma in 2012. Soon after the old tweets resurfaced and went viral, Sharma made her Twitter account private and appeared to delete a number of such posts. Maybe expecting faces of the current conservative, Hindu nationalist government and the grand old party of India alike to espouse new-age intersectional feminist values is too politically na\u00efve on our part.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even minister for textiles and women and child development Smriti Irani has been scrutinised for brandishing \u201ccut-throat patriarchal politics that pits women against each other\u201d in editorial columns<\/a>, much to the chagrin of her and the ruling party that seeks to position itself as a saviour of women with campaigns like \u201cBeti Bachao, Beti Padhao\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wholly ignoring the political ideals of a woman and instead focusing only on her gender does an injustice to the feminist cause. What India needs is more sensitive women leaders, and therefore critiquing problematic statements of women like Nayak, Sharma, and Irani is necessary, especially when they wield a degree of power to influence the lives of ordinary women. We can also defend them against sexist attacks and ensure they aren\u2019t discriminated against simply because they\u2019re women. In an era of confrontational partisanship, it\u2019s worth remembering that it is possible to criticise our leaders while expressing solidarity with them at the same time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kiranmayee Nayak is the head of a commission dedicated to \u201cempowering\u201d the women of Chhattisgarh and \u201cending discrimination\u201d against them. If she is unable to practice what she preaches, who is she really helping?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":423,"featured_media":6912,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[170],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6911","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gender"],"yoast_head":"\nChhattisgarh Women\u2019s Commission Chief Says Women File for Rape after a Break-Up. Why Do Our Female Leaders Belittle Other Women?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Kiranmayee Nayak is the head of a commission dedicated to \u201cempowering\u201d the women of Chhattisgarh and \u201cending discrimination\u201d against them. 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