From: prem@cs.montana.edu (M.P.Premkumar)
Subject: Re: More About India
Organization: Dept. of Computer Science, MSU, Bozeman Mt 59717
Distribution: soc.culture.indian
Date: Thu, 8 Oct 1992 17:30:30 GMT

In article <1992Oct8.153510.25269@meaddata.com> udcrusd@meaddata.com (Sylvia D'Cruz) writes:
>
>
>******
>     - India,  Oct. 20, 1991: In tears, a young girl tells a flight attendant
>who asks her why she is crying that she is 10 years old and her father has
>forced her to marry the 60-year-old Saudi Arabian man sitting next to her, YahyaM.H. al-Sagih. He had rejected her older sister as dark and ugly and purchased
>her for the equivalent of $ 240.
>******
>
>Take the above case, it will never show up in the negatives for domestic
>violence, rape or injustices to women, in India. You and me can only guess, 
>as to the number of children like her, there.

How are you so sure madam ? All statistics(be it India or USA or China) are 
only approximates and never are they perfect. And one can be damn sure that
atleast one instance is missing. 

>
>******
>      AMRITSAR,  India October 1, 1992: Harbhajan Singh, a farmer of Chachewali
>hamlet near Amritsar, recounted how his neighbors helped him overpower three 
>insurgents who broke into his home around midnight and brazenly demanded sex 
>with his wife and daughter.
>    Not far from Chachewali is the village of Dugowal, where a group of
>extremists kidnapped the two teenage daughters of a widow and kept them as
>concubines in their hideout, local residents said.
>    When one of the girls became pregnant, she was sent home after three months.
>The other was used as a sex slave for another three months by the militants
>before they shot and killed her, the residents said.
>    In the village of Bhandari, also near Amritsar, religious zealots sought to
>mask their activity by forcibly marrying an 18-year-old girl to one of their
>comrades, then using the bride as a communal sex slave. Two months later the
>girl's body was found dumped on a farm.
>    Similar tales of abduction,  rape  and slavery have been reported from many
>other hamlets.
>******

This is quite possible in any terrorist dominant area. Bosnia is one example.
Whenever there is some kind of struggle there is bound to be injustices. It
is not correct to include such instances in our discussion. I just can't say
based on Bosnia that Yugoslavians treat their children like shit. Can I ?

>Will some of these incidents show up in your statistics ? These are smart dudes
>they do what they want with the women of India, in a legal fashion.
>
>I do not have the time, but I could provide you with lots of different 
>attrocities committed on the children and women of India. The law and order
>situtation in India is pathetic. The support structure for rape victims,
>battered women, widowed women and bride-brunt victims just does not exist.

It does exist and many women are doing a good job doing such things rather
than just complaining and pointing fingers all the time.

>I spent 18 years of my life in India, all in Bombay. Most of the streets in
>Bandra, has more than just one brothel. Do you think the young girls and women
>kept over there, are there of their own free will ? The pimps make sure
>that they never broke out. Some, of the girls were abducted from near by
>schools. Never to be found.....

Same is the case in L.A and N.Y.

>Do you have any statistics for missing children and women in India ? Where
>do you think they have disappeared ?  The number of open files languishing
>in the police departments throught out the country speaks volumes. There
>are millions of cases opened, compared to the ones closed.

Facilities limit our government and the services. 

>On a different note:-
>There is no value for life itself. 40 killed in a train accident, 50 killed
>in torrential rain, 43 die of liquor poisoning, 55 get drowned in marriage
>celebration, 12 die in a cold wave, 10 die of heat stroke and on and on....

What's your point ? People die all over the world due to umpteen reasons.

>How many times day after day, you keep reading, seeing hearing the above ?
>I think we have become, so heartless and selfish that it does not bother or
>touch us anymore ?

You nailed it. Yes people are so selfish that they just see only their own
good and fail to think about others. Any idea why there are so many Indian
intellectuals fleeing India ? They are simply running away from the problems
facing our country and seeking a cushy life for themselves in a foreign 
country.

>I received personal mail from some women, who taught life was better in India.
>The main reason given was their kids are safe there. I agree with that. They
>are relatively safer there today, but it won't be for long. 

The main reasons you have given. What about the other reasons ? Many Indian
girls/women have said life was better in India. And sometimes people realise
life is something more than money and luxury a bit too late.

>I think distance makes us have selective memory. We tend to remember the good
>only. 

The converse is also very true.

>
>-- 
>Sylvia D. D'Cruz                                


Sincerely yours,
M.P.Premkumar
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