A Change.org petition started by a group of women from Jammu and Kashmir on the Kathua rape case has mobilised the support of over 15 lakh Indian citizens and has become the biggest ever Change.org petition in India.
The petition started by a collective called Women’s Initiative for Justice for Kathua is addressed to Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti and asks for fair and fast tracked investigations by the Crime Branch to ensure justice for the victim.
The petition, which has been widely tweeted by film and television celebrities like Hansal Mehta, Vir Das and Rajeev Khandelwal, expresses anguish over the politicisation and communalisation of an incident where a child has been subject to sexual exploitation, sexual brutality and murder.
The group of women who are signatories on the petition include Anuradha Bhasin, Executive Editor Kashmir Times, Nighat Shafi Pandit, Founder-Chairperson of HELP Foundation, Neerja Mattoo, Writer and Educationist, Shehla Rashid Shora, activist, Nitasha Kaul, Academic, Pawan Bali, Senior journalist, Mandeep Reen, Advocate J&K High Court, Nyla Ali Khan, Writer, Qurat-ul-Ain, Educationist, Mantasha Binti Rashid, Fulbright Fellow, Marvi Slathia, Research Scholar at JNU, Nusrat Andrabi, Educationist, Dr Syeda Afshana, Columnist, Ezabir Ali, Women Rights Activist.
Senior journalist Anuradha Bhasin, who is one of the signatories of the petition said, “The Kathua rape and murder case is one of the most grotesque cases of our times and is symbolic for the many ugly truths it lays bare. For three months, the child’s killing did not spark the kind of outrage that Jammu witnessed when the region joined rest of the nation in seeking justice for the Delhi bus gang rape in 2012.
“The child’s murder did not seem to bother anyone. Far worse, it trapped people into binaries of ‘us’ and ‘them’, and constructed a flawed narrative of victimhood of the perpetrators. I hope the huge public mobilisation we are seeing now – on ground, through this petition onchange.org and on other social media platforms – will put an end to the end to the horrifying politicization and communalization of the crime; and stop the harassment to the victim’s family.”
Talking to Kashmir Post, activist Shehla Rashid Shora, said,
“This is not only the biggest-ever Indian petition on Change.org but it is bigger by four to give times from the previous biggest such Indian petition.”
She said the petition had been started on early March and had already crossed the 16-lakh mark.
Shora said the petition about an eight-year-old Gujjar girl’s case started by a group of women was addressed to the first woman chief minister of Jammu Kashmir and keeping these things in mind, the government should ensure speedy trial into the case.
She said the crowd funding started for the victim had already collected over Rs 36 lakh.
She said this was way more than the money collected “in the name of” Shambhulal Regar, who hacked and burnt a Muslim migrant labourer, Muhammad Afrazul to death and circulated a video of the murder.
A total of 516 people from across India had transferred Rs 3 lakh to an account in the name of Regar’s wife, Sita after Regar killed Afrazul.
“This is our silver lining. The fact such a huge number of people have signed this petition goes on to show that there is more hope than hate. Getting together and making ourselves heard is the biggest challenge for pro-justice voices today. We also managed to raise, through a crowdfunding campaign, a huge amount of money for the victim’s family to assist them in their fight for justice. These statistics are strong statements against those who want to divide us along religious lines,” Shora said.
Nida Hasan, Campaigns Director, Change.org says, “This is the biggest petition we have seen on Change.org India ever. We are living in a very fractured world and the fact that beyond this one big petition, over 500 petitions have been started in a span of just a few days clearly shows that this incident has shaken the conscience of the country, and is bringing people together in unprecedented ways.”
Hope Beats Hate:Kathua rape-murder case petition biggest-ever Indian petition on Change.org
