Introduction: Layers Of Silence, Layers Of Oppression
The courtroom sat too far from her, knees held against her body, fingers digging deep into her bent arms as if to hold herself together. The voices were but whimperings of the wind, yet she understood. It was not about what had happened but who she was: a Dalit child, a nobody. A body thought to be a vessel for violation without consequence. That night was seared in the memories of her mind: the hands pinning her, the muffled screams unheard, the immense burden of that power crushing her words into oblivion. As the sentencing for her attackers began, she knew no justice could ever be expected for girls like herself. Here, it’s not who you are but whose pain is allowed to matter. How do survivors like her find the strength to scream when the world forces them to shut up? This is the reality of a Dalit girl in Dharmapuri and of many other women in the Southern part of India.
The question of sexual violence perpetrated against women is treated as a pervasive anomaly across India, however, South India complicates the situation further. Caste, class, religion, geography, and systematic discrimination have interwoven to make layers of oppression that truly stand as barriers to the sustenance of any form of justice for many of the survivors. The feudal landlords of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka threaten the safety of women from the disadvantaged socio-economic classes. In Tamil Nadu, survivors remain quiet in fear of public shaming due to the patriarchal system that is prevalent and religious orthodoxy in Kerala facilitates the mistreatment of women. The temple traditions in Karnataka, with their residual devadasi lives, continue to expedite abuse. Corrupt law enforcement and political interference frequently shield perpetrators from prosecution. The slow, biased legal system makes it almost impossible to achieve justice. Media narratives sensationalise rather than support the survivors, while families and communities continue victim-blaming. When caste, class, patriarchy, economic dependence, and institutional failure intersect, how does a South Indian woman find justice in a system designed to silence her?
Caste And Sexual Violence: A Systematic Weapon
The caste system has been intricately linked with oppression; sexual violence is continually perpetrated against Dalit women by men of the dominant castes who perpetrate sexual violence as a means of control. In India, the caste distinctions in the South are mainly Brahmin, Non-Brahmin, and Dalit, with the North adopting a four-varna layered internal hierarchical organisation. The South had strong anti-Brahmin movements that changed socio-political hierarchy and structure, while North India witnessed the battle of several castes fighting to assert influence. However, caste identity in the South is more region and language-specific whereas in the North, it is more religion and society based. The rape of a 15 year old Dalit girl in Tamil Nadu summarises the gory reality of caste-related sexual violence. The attempted rape of a 45-year-old tribal woman, in Telangana's Jainoor Mandal, is an indicator of the vulnerability of tribal women to sexual violence. Instead of quick justice, it led to violent retaliation, which shifted the attention from the survivor itself. The case shows the systemic abandonment that tribal women suffer from delays in law enforcement and from societal indifference to not being able to get justice.
As in the case of Vachathi, 18 women of a tribal community were raped by forest officials and police during a search which exemplifies how state institutions themselves become perpetrators of violence. Justice was delayed for 19 years, and this displays the institutional barriers that Dalit and tribal women have to contend with. These barriers ensure that even after some convictions, meaningful reforms don't take place, allowing the same cycles of abuses to repeat themselves ad nauseam.
Legal Framework: Protection On Paper, Failure In Practice
There are strong laws in India to combat sexual violence, including Section 375 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), Sections 63 to 74 of the new Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989. But legal victories in South India are seldom because of police apathy towards the downcast society stigma. The judicial system often goes by caste biases and fails marginalised women repeatedly.
The 2016 Ariyalur case saw the brutal killing of a Dalit girl owing to the systemic failures in protecting marginalised women of Tamil Nadu. For years, the accused dodged punishment owing to the various legal loopholes. It is yet another harrowing reminder of how violence against marginal women in South India continues to be hastily forgotten in the absence of adequate action and institutional apathy. Religion And Moral Policing: When Culture Enables Violence
In Karnataka, a woman was raped and blackmailed to convert by a Muslim man in front of his wife. The reports allege that the accused had taken intimate photographs to threaten and control her. Religious motives tend to overlap with gender-based violence and underscore the risks involved here when 'religion becomes an instrument for needing subjugation' as yet another level in the systemic failure of justice toward women in South India. In conservative regions, women’s honour and morality are weaponised to control them, further discouraging survivors from seeking justice.
In Kerala, the case of the teenage Christian girl who was allegedly tortured and sexually assaulted and forcibly converted to Islam brings into focus the relationship between religious coercion and gender-based violence. The girl was exploited over a long time under the guise of religious conversion and thus became an easy target of such forms of exploitation aimed at women from minority communities. The case also shows systemic failures to prevent acts of religiously motivated sexual violence and ensure the safety of marginalized women in South India.
In the 2017 Hadiya case from Kerala, a woman’s marriage was annulled because she was believed to have converted and married a Muslim man due to psychological indoctrination and psychological kidnapping, which is another instance that justifiably abrogates women's autonomy for all but sexual abuse cases. Consideration of repression repackaged as morality is used as a justification for violence. For instance, women are battered into silence and condemned for wearing "western clothes", in Chennai. The victims and their lived experiences of abuse are justified by society in the fallacy of the protection of women's honour.
Geography Matters: Urban V. Rural Divide In Access To Justice
A victim’s access to justice for cases of sexual violence is highly influenced by their geographical location. Urban centres offer easier access to legal aid, NGOs, and campaigns for public awareness; on the contrary, the rural districts have immense hurdles confronting women who do not even want to get a complaint registered.
In Hyderabad, history sheeters gang-raped a woman with mental disabilities and police action was highly delayed. Here, the very vulnerability of such disabilities introduces yet another layer of complexity regarding violence against women.
In Pudukottai, a Class II student was kidnapped, raped, and murdered in Tamil Nadu. It picked up attention only because of the huge public outcry. Unless public protests force authorities to respond, rural survivors are usually never mentioned in the media. This highlights how age, alongside geographic and social factors, plays a crucial role in determining whose stories are heard and whose suffering remains invisible.
The Thanjavur rape case exposed widespread clinical failures in the preservation of medical evidence and the police negligence in delaying justice for the girl. The crime occurred in Orathanadu, a largely rural region where systemic gaps in policing, medical infrastructures, and media coverage delay justice. Survivors or victims from rural areas face an extensive range of barriers as opposed to urban centres, where institutional responses to cases usually follow quickly. This shows how geography works with gender and age to further marginalize young girls in rural areas and limit their access to justice.
The Path Ahead: A Call To Action
Sensitisation Training: Officers of the law, medical personnel, and members of the judiciary must have regular and mandatory training on how gender, caste, geography, age, disability, socio-economic status and the media influence the way one accesses justice. This is to foster understanding and fair and judicious handling of cases from the knowledge of intersecting vulnerabilities that survivors face. This could bridge various systemic gaps which would lead towards establishing an informed and empathetic response system by institutions, thus making justice accessible for all.
Fast-Track Courts: Fast-track courts must be broadened to cover sexual violence cases to ensure quick trials of cases with intersectional disabilities such as gender, caste, geography, age, disability, or socioeconomic status. Speedy disposition may help prevent extra delayed times from harming survivors in marginalization, lower backlogs that give room for perpetrators to escape justice, and make timely and equitable legal space available to those experiencing multiple obstructions.
Community Legal Aid: Strengthening grassroots and community-based organizations for the delivery of legal and psychological support, especially to survivors with multiple barriers such as gender, caste, geographic location, age, disability, and socioeconomic marginalisation will make a difference, especially in rural areas where the resources are limited. Survivors, especially from marginalised communities, face systemic barriers in accessing legal aid, from police apathy to judicial delays, since most courts are not easily accessible in developing countries, yet they remain the most probable source of justice for the vulnerable they serve.
Represent the media better: Outcry created around consistent and responsible coverage of sexual violence cases will create pressure on authorities for action and will prevent the systematic erosion of such cases.
Introduction of comprehensive education: In schools and colleges, there should be programs that challenge misogynist and casteist ideologies, including other factors like religious minorities, Indigenous groups, PwD, etc, thereby creating a culture of consent and respect while children are young.
Collective action is where the change begins, and with the unwavering commitment of legal institutions, policymakers, the media, and society at large, these barriers can be dismantled. Until that point, a plethora of structural inequalities mean that countless survivors will remain absent from justice. The question is really: how much longer will they wait?
Conclusion: Breaking The Chains Of Systemic Violence
The intersectionality of sexual violence in South India reveals a tragic reality wherein marginalised women are not just confronted with physical and psychological trauma but are, in most cases, systematically ignored. If inadequate legal frameworks were strong in their execution, those women would nonetheless fail almost categorically at the hands of caste and religious bias operating at every turn of the criminal justice terrain. The state of impunity is strengthened further by collusion; police inaction, medical negligence, and judicial delay ensure that the perpetrators walk free, while survivors are served on a platter with stigma and fear. Such continuity of injustice goes beyond the failure of law enforcement; it resonates with an equally disheartening truth about society's coded prejudices. Immediate structural and cultural redressals are therefore called for in South India to uphold justice and equality.
References
Dravidianists uses casteist abuses to target Hindu singer Sivasri Skandaprasad
Hadiya Marriage Case - Supreme Court Observer
Three sentenced to life imprisonment for gang-rape of Dalit girl in Dharmapuri - The Hindu
https://www.india-seminar.com/2001/500/500%20andre%20beteille.htm
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