After the Bharat Bandh on the 21st of August, Maharashtra will observe a strike of its own on the 24th. Both the Bandhs, however, have been called for different reasons. The nationwide Bharat Bandh was held in opposition to the Supreme Court’s ruling regarding the removal of creamy layer within Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes reservations. The Maharashtra Bandh strike has been called as a protest against the sexual assault cases that have surfaced in a school in Badlapur of Thane district.
The Badlapur Case
In Badlapur, of Thane, in Maharashtra, the case of two school going girls being sexually assaulted and raped has come up. The victims were aged 3 and 4. The accused was the school janitor who had only been recently appointed without any background checks. According to some reports, the victims were assaulted and harassed multiple times over the 15 days when the new janitor had been appointed. The janitor had unrestricted access to all areas within the school premises such as the playgrounds, classrooms and also the washrooms. The washrooms in the school are located at an isolated place, further away from the classrooms and also do not have any CCTV cameras installed. This, perhaps, helped the accused in assaulting the victims.
Badlapur, and the entire district of Thane, was furious when this case came to light. They have taken to the streets and staged multiple protests expressing their anger and despair towards the situation. Multiple slogans have been raised including “If schools are not safe, what is the point of Right to Education?” The school administration were lackadaisical in their approach towards investigating the issue and kept making excuses for the girls’ torn hymen and other physical signs of assault on the victims. This is just one of the many cases of sexual assault that have come up since the Kolkata rape-murder case has been in popular discourse.
Maharashtra Bandh
As a protest against the sexual assault cases erupting in large numbers throughout the country, the strike has been called. Uddhav Thackerey, leader of the Sena UBT, has declared that the purpose of the strike is to bring attention to the issue of sexual harassment and women’s safety. The bandh aims to prompt the government into taking stricter legal action against such cases.
Public transport will likely function as normal since there has been no explicit signs of support from the Maharashtra government for the Bandh. Emergency services such as hospitals, ambulances and OPDs are expected to function normally too. Banks will not be operational as it is the fourth Saturday of the month. There is no news about the operational status of educational institutions and recreational places such as markets as of now.
