Amnesty Calls For Action On Rape And Murder On Women

Another teenage girl has reportedly been gang-raped in northern India as police have launched an investigation into an alleged attack on the mother of another rape victim.

Police said four men attacked a 17-year-old girl in a field in Sarai Meer, Uttar Pradesh, on Wednesday.
One man has been arrested and a manhunt was underway for the other three alleged attackers, according to The Free Press Journal.

In a separate case, three men have been arrested in Uttar Pradesh for reportedly attacking the mother of an alleged rape victim after she refused to withdraw a police complaint.
Superintendent Dinesh Kumar said the men, allegedly including the father of a man accused of the rape on May 11, followed the woman into a field and beat her.
She was in a critical condition in a hospital in Etawah.
The two cases follow the gang rape and murder of teenage sisters whose bodies were discovered hanging from a mango tree in the state.

The gang-rapes have renewed outrage over sexual violence in India

Villagers in Katra found the bodies of the girls, aged 14 and 15, who disappeared from fields they had been using because their homes had no toilet.
Two suspects have been arrested in connection with the girls' rape and murder, and another is being hunted by police. Two police officers have also been arrested over failing to investigate their disappearance.

The case has renewed public outrage over sexual violence in India.
On Friday, Amnesty International called for the impartial investigation of gang rapes, murder and violence against young women of the Dalit caste in India.
Divya Iyer, senior researcher at Amnesty International India, said: "Despite the existence of constitutional safeguards and special laws, Dalits across India - and Dalit women in particular - face multiple levels of discrimination and violence.

"Members of dominant castes are known to use sexual violence against Dalit women and girls as a political tool for punishment, humiliation and assertion of power."
Crimes against Dalit people are often not properly registered or investigated and conviction rates are low, the organisation said.
Amnesty International added that the lack of adequate sanitation facilities across India posed a serious threat to the safety of women and girls.

India tightened its rape laws last year - introducing the death penalty for gang rape - following the fatal gang rape of a 23-year-old woman on a moving bus in New Delhi.
The case sparked nationwide protests.
Indian society is grouped into castes, known as Jati. These include Bhramin, Kshatryia, Viasya, Sudra and a lower caste known as "untouchables" which includes Dalit people.