The groups lashed out at the lackadaisical
approach of police and insensitive comments of Chief Minister Akhilesh
Yadav, after the two girls were found hanging from a tree.
The Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) condemned the role of police officers in shielding the accused.
"There
can be no hope of preventing or minimizing rape if our law enforcers
are apathetic to it. A message must be sent that this kind of
criminality will not be tolerated, particularly against minors, by
ensuring that all the penal provisions on gang rape and murder are
invoked, including the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act,
2012," a statement said.
As per reports, when the parents of the
girls approached police to file a complaint, the officials refused to do
so and sent them away, asking them not to worry.
Ruchira Gupta,
founder and president of NGO Apne Aap Women Worldwide, echoed similar
sentiments and stressed the need to hold police accountable.
"To
stop rape, we need police to be held accountable. As long as police are
part of the problem, poor, low caste women have nowhere to turn to for
justice from men who rape them, buy and sell them," Gupta said in a
statement.
"Even police believe that poor low caste women should
be sexually available. There is an urgent need for police reforms and
urgent need for section 166 A to challenge India's rape culture," she
said, referring to the section in the Indian Penal Code that deals with a
public official disobeying the law.
The groups feel police revamping is necessary.
"Unless
there is a full examination of the chain of command and police is not
revamped from top to toe, these tragedies will continue to occur," said
CHRI director Maja Daruwala in a statement.
NGO ActionAid hailed
Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi's quick response
seeking a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation and setting up of
a rape crisis cell.
"We welcome the speedy and sensitive
response from Maneka Gandhi who has promised that a 'rape crisis cell'
will be set up which has been a long standing demand of women's rights
groups," Sehjo Singh, ActionAid India's programme and policy director,
said in a statement.
Expressing concern on the low rate of
conviction, Singh said, "The extremely low conviction rates send out a
signal to perpetrators that they are free to act with impunity and can
deter women from reporting rape and other crimes of sexual violence."..
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