Stalking Was Made a Punishable Crime 3 Years Ago, So How Do Stalkers Continue Despite Police Complaints?December 24, 2016By Divya VijayakumarImage credit: Public Transport by Ahmed Mahin Fayaz via Flickr/CC by 2.0A month ago, a friend wandered into a grocery store where she saw a vaguely familiar man staring at her. She approached him and asked if they knew each other. He said yes, he knew her name, and even rattled off a list of places where he’d seen her before – at track practice, a park close to her home, a bookstore. With growing discomfort, she turned to leave when he called out to her. “It was your birthday two days ago, wasn’t it? Happy birthday.” This last bit of information was not even on social media.While she was shaken by the interaction, many people didn’t consider it something to worry about. After all, they countered, he wasn’t harming her. In fact, he’d even been nice and wished her. While she chose not to go to the police, she felt unsettled for a long time after.On 17th December, Jyothi Kumari, an advocate in her 20s, was on her way to work in Bangalore when she was murdered by Madhu who had been stalking and harassing her for years. He had constantly harassed her when she was younger, following her to college and incessantly telephoning her house. He disappeared for a while when her uncle intervened but two months ago, Jyothi had approached the police saying that Madhu had resurfaced, attacked her when she was in her PG and also stolen her scooter. All that her complaint yielded was a “stern warning”, and no FIR was filed.Jyothi is the latest in a growing number of women who have been not just harassed but murdered by their stalkers – angry, entitled men seeking revenge after their advances were rejected. Many of these crimes also share a pattern of having been committed in public places, often as these women were travelling to or from their place of work. Pinki Devi, a beautician in Gurgaon was stabbed to death by her stalker at a metro station in Delhi in October. S Swathi, an Infosys employee, was hacked to death by her stalker at Chennai’s Nungambakkam railway station in June.With every horrific case, what becomes clear is this — stalking cannot be brushed aside as something casual. Yet there are movies and pop culture that glorify stalking, depicting it as proof that a man’s persistence pays off. Just a few months ago Tamil actor Sivakarthikeyan defended stalking, saying that it does not matter if in a movie the hero’s feelings are not reciprocated initially, if his thoughts are “pure” and he is willing to marry the girl.The Indian Penal Code, thankfully, was amended in 2013 to include stalking as a crime. Section 354 of the IPC deals with attempts to outrage a woman’s modesty: the amendment introduced Clause 354D to specifically address instances of stalking and defines a stalker as any man who follows, contacts, or attempts to contact a woman to foster a personal interaction with her, despite her clear indication of disinterest.Despite this, our police still often do not file an FIR under Clause 354D, but prefer Clause 354A that deals with molestation. But, 354A only covers incidents where a man initiates unwanted physical contact that is explicitly sexual, demands sexual favours, forcefully shows pornography against the will of a woman or makes sexually coloured remarks — things that may or may not happen in a case of stalking.Also Read: महिलाओं पर की जाने वाली टिप्पणीयों का सिलसिला कब खत्म होगा?If my friend had indeed tried to complain to the police about the stalker in the grocery store, how effective would it have been? Journalist Arunima Mazumdar wrote of experiencing something similar when she called the police after being harassed by an old classmate, both online and offline, from 2013 to 2015. Mazumdar was made to wait for hours at the police station before an officer nonchalantly commented that Pradhan hadn’t really “done” anything to her. An FIR was not filed and the stalker was let off after writing an ‘apology’ letter.By law, stalkers can receive bail if being convicted for the crime for the first time – and this sometimes gives the offender an awful opportunity for revenge (bail can be denied only in the case of subsequent convictions for stalking). For instance, Lakshmi, a 32-year-old housewife, was stabbed to death in Delhi, in September by Sanjay Kumar. He had already been arrested for harassing her, but had secured bail. In 2015, Meenakshi, a teenager in Delhi, was also murdered by Jai Prakash despite her family having lodged a complaint against him for stalking – two years before she was murdered.
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Carl Paladino, Trump Ally, Wishes Obama Dead of Mad Cow Disease in ’17 – The New York Times – Stupid and racist is doubly dangerous!
Mr. Paladino, in the interview with The Times, said he was “not politically correct,” though he disputed the notion that his comments were racist. Asked why he wanted to see the first lady live with a gorilla in Africa, he paused for a long time, then said: “What’s wrong with that?”
The CBSE has Done Away with an Entire Section of Crucial History about Caste Struggle in India – The Ladies FingerThe Ladies Finger
We may just be witnessing another bout of forced amnesia about caste atrocities. On Monday, the CBSE announced its decision to remove a section entitled ‘Caste, Conflict and Dress Change’ from its social science curriculum for Class IX students, following an order by the Madras High Court that directed it to remove ‘objectionable content’. The removed section of the NCERT textbook, used by the CBSE and 15 state boards, involves a discussion of the Nadar community, whose men and women were forced to keep their upper bodies uncovered by the National Council of the Pidagaikars, the caste council of the Nairs of the state of Travancore in the early 1800s. This was perceived as a sign of respect towards the ‘upper’ castes, and the Nadars had to pay a mulakkaram or ‘breast tax’ if they chose to cover themselves. In 1822, the practice sparked a series of violent agitations known as Maru Marakkal Samaram, or the Channar Revolt, where women from the Nadar and Ezhava communities demanded the right to wear the same clothing as ‘upper’ caste women. Hostility around the issue continued until 1858 because the Nadar women were unsatisfied with the compromises they were being asked to make – those who were Christian converts were allowed to wear a kuppayam (a jacket-blouse of sorts), but not allowed to wear any apparel in the style of Nair women, who wore an upper cloth around their torsos.
AMAZON WATCH » New Witch Hunt in Ecuador Against Indigenous and Environment Defenders
The Shuar situation about which Acción Ecológica had been sounding the alarm involved the escalation of the conflict between the Shuar community of Nankints, the government, and a Chinese mining conglomerate Explorcobres S.A. (EXSA). The government had granted EXSA rights to mine for copper in the area of San Carlos Panantza, which overlaps with Shuar ancestral territory, without seeking the consent of – let alone properly consulting with – the Shuar, despite the fact that international and Ecuadorian law require such consultation. As the mining project moved forward, the Shuar tried to engage various government entities in dialogue.Those attempts at dialogue were brutally interrupted in August when military and police forces forcibly evicted Shuar families from land the company needed for the mine. After a lack of adequate response from the government, in late November the Shuar attempted to return to those lands and were met with heavy police and military presence, including air assaults. When the vice president of FICSH tried to mediate, he was arrested. Instead of heading calls from regional and national indigenous federations for mediated dialogue, the government continued its heavy-handed approach, and the conflict escalated. Last week those protests turned violent, resulting in several injuries and the death of one policeman. The government then declared a 30-day “state of emergency” – essentially the suspension of rights and due process – and sent in the military, complete with armored tanks. President Rafael Correa wasted no time in taking to the airwaves and Twitter to defame the Shuar, calling them “semi-delinquents” and implying that they’re using extortion for material gain.
Source: AMAZON WATCH » New Witch Hunt in Ecuador Against Indigenous and Environment Defenders
Map of New York City shadows
Shadows cast by buildings affect the feel and flow of a city, and lack of sunlight can change aspects of daily living, such as rent. In a place like New York City, where there are tall buildings ap…
Source: Map of New York City shadows
Israeli judges order grandchildren out of Jerusalem family’s home – How can anyone defend this shameful act?
The Ghaith-Sub Laban family’s six-year legal battle to remain in their home of six decades has come to an end, as the Israeli high court made a final ruling in the family’s eviction case on Wednesday.After Jewish settlers rejected the court’s proposed compromise on Tuesday, the Israeli judges returned a more favorable verdict to the settlers: allowing the Ghaith-Sub Laban family to remain in their home for only 10 more years, and at that point terminating their protected tenancy.Without protected tenancy, the settler organization that owns the building can evict the family.But the court has ordered the descendants of Mustafa Sub Laban and Nora Ghaith, whose mother first moved into their house in the Muslim Quarter of the Old City in East Jerusalem in 1953, to leave their home.Nora and Mustafa currently live in the house with a daughter, two sons, a daughter-in-law and two grandchildren aged 4 and 9.
Source: Israeli judges order grandchildren out of Jerusalem family’s home | The Electronic Intifada
YouTube Stars Say They Were Removed From Delta Flight for Speaking Arabic – The New York Times
Chris Ashford, 47, who was aboard the plane after a layover in London, said that he believed that the woman had “overreacted.”“She heard somebody speaking in Arabic, and assumed the worst,” he said.He added that while he thought Delta acted in the interest of some of its passengers, that “I do think it was heavy-handed, kicking the guy off the plane and then removing his bags.”Rev. Karen Georgia Thompson, 51, was also on the plane. Although she could not judge the airline’s actions as she only witnessed some of the disruption, Ms. Thompson did say that both parties should have been removed.“If you’re going to investigate, how are you going to investigate one side of an altercation?” she said.
Berlin truck crash: 12 dead in ‘apparent terrorist attack’ at Christmas market – live | World news | The Guardian – Three people were injured when a man stormed into a Zurich mosque and opened fire on people at prayer, police said.
Follow the latest updates as ‘suspicious person’ arrested after nine people killed and 45 injured at Berlin’s Breitscheidplatz
and Three people were injured when a man stormed into a Zurich mosque and opened fire on people at prayer, police said.
and
Donald Trump called it a “horrifying terror attack”, blaming “Isis and other Islamist terrorists [who] continually slaughter Christians in their communities and places of worship”.
Arachnologist Rajashree Khalap on Discovering the Sorting Hat Spider that Excited even JK Rowling – The Ladies FingerThe Ladies Finger
Perhaps this is also why the spider has been named after the Sorting Hat. The name Eriovixia gryffindori is both a nod to the Harry Potter series that Khalap says everyone on the team loved, and is also an attempt to involve more people in conversations about the eight-legged creatures. “Popular culture has the potential to do this,” she says — even remarking that Pokémon inspired many researchers she knows to enter the field. JK Rowling even tweeted about spider.
Pinterest Thinks Hiring Female Engineers is Too Hard and Decides to Try Less – The Ladies FingerThe Ladies Finger
Don’t let the “female-friendly” interface fool you. Most the team that runs the firm is male, and overwhelmingly so in the tech and leadership profiles – with men accounting for 79 percentage and 84 percentage of the fields respectively, according to numbers displayed by The Verge last year. It was this context that led the company to employ Candice Morgan at the head of its diversity campaign and publicly announce its internal goals for hiring people from underrepresented and minority categories.









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