Haryana rapes reflect skewed sex ratio: Child rights panel

New Delhi : The spate of rapes in Haryana is a reflection of the adverse sex ratio in the state as well as the way the female sex is treated in society, the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) said Tuesday and demanded severe punishment for the rapists.

“Gender discrimination and caste discrimination is reflected in the adverse sex ratio in Haryana. It is reflected in the way girls are treated,” Shanta Sinha, NCPCR chairperson, told a TV channel.

“There has to be a concerted action by civil society and the government at the highest level to see that such violence on girls is not perpetrated,” she added.

Sinha spoke as Congress chief Sonia Gandhi visited the family of a teenaged Dalit girl in Jind, Haryana, who killed herself after a gangrape – the 12th such incident in the state in a month. Gandhi demanded the “severest punishment” for the rapists.

Sinha echoed the Congress chief in demanding “severe punishment” for the perpetrators. “The NCPCR is taking cognizance (of the spate of rapes) and we have sought a report,” she added.

The Jind victim belonged to a poor, Dalit family. The 16-year-old was allegedly raped by two youths from her neighbourhood Saturday, after which she doused herself with kerosene and set herself ablaze. She died at the Post-Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences (PGIMS) at Rohtak.