The National Commission for Women (NCW) and Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi have been under fire for weighing women victims of molestation and assault in the state on the basis of their ethnicity and economic background. The discriminatory attitude has been condemned by Laxmi Oraon, an adivasi woman who was stripped and kicked in Guwahati during a protest rally on November 24, 2007. She of course sympathized with the July 9 victim of molestation. She says that no one has the right to attack and outrage the modesty of a girl whether or not she had taken a peg or two in a bar. The victim deserves all attention and care but what she is going through now is worse than the trauma of her experience during the assault. Oraon herself was barely 19 when she was stripped in a central location of Guwahati not far from the Assam Secretariat. She claims that the attack on her was more heinous than the incident on July 9. But it was virtually ignored as she was an adivasi and poor. Neither the NCW nor the Chief Minister had come to her rescue. Evarani Piomorki, President of the All Adivasi Women’s Association also slammed the government for its inactivity in the case of Laxmi. All this raises a new issue. Molestation of women is outrageous but that of poor tribal women goes unnoticed.
Meanwhile, the Assam government is out to prove that the July 9 incident was staged by a TV channel. The Editor-in-Chief of the Channel, Atanu Bhuiyan had to quit. But the matter needs a thorough probe. Gogoi cannot give Assam a clean chit by saying that similar incidents take place in other states also.
