04 February 2013

Violence against women in India and elsewhere


This video presents the newly-launched campaign by the Archdiocese of Bombay to raise awareness and initiate change in the attitude toward and the treatment of women in India, in the aftermath of a horrific gang-rape of a young woman in December last year.
This video and report were posted by UCANews on 28 January. A diya is an oil lamp, usually made from clay, widely used in India, especially during certain religious festivals.
Nature seems to provide 103 - 108 boys to 100 girls at birth. The video gives figures for three locations in India:
Delhi: 866 girls / 1,000 boys;
Haryana: 877 girls / 1,000 boys;
Chanidgarh: 818 girls / 1,000 boys. 
It is thought that sex-selection abortion and the killing of newborn girls are factors in skewing the natural proportion between males and females in India and in some other countries.
The '37,000,000 Diyas' campaign of the Archdiocese of Bombay - it retains the old name for 'Mumbai' - is for the excess of 37,000,000 males over females in India in 2011.
However, violence towards women and children is universal but seems to be made worse where there isn't a natural proportion between males and females.
A now deceased Columban priest once told me that years ago a young Protestant man here in the Philippines preparing to marry a Catholic girl told him that his Catholic male friends had advised him, 'Beat her up a few times and you'll have no problems'. I've no idea how prevalent this attitude is here or elsewhere. But it is very wrong.

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