Rape takes bigger toll on dalit women: study (Times of India)
"The comparative study between Dalits and non-Dalits showed that Dalits felt anguish to a greater degree of intensity. They often see rape as "something ordained" by virtue of a double disadvantage: being Dalit and woman. "Whenever a Dalit woman is raped, it gets connected to all other sufferings and discriminations. Dalits being in a disadvantaged position and there's no resilience, no bouncing back," says [researcher Rajat] Mitra.
"'The women shared that during the attack, the men seemed to have more pleasure in humiliating their origins and background,' adds Mitra. The report details their almost-ritualistic ostracism after the rape where older Dalit women also attempt to explain rape as 'tradition'.
"In a qualitative assessment, the report says girls are almost prepared to expect assault. It says, 'Allusions to rape by upper castes begin to appear in subtle conversations and often inflate their anxiety and depressive symptoms that begin to mark (rape) as inevitable in the mind of young Dalit girls.'"
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