Tragic rape in India: Violence against women must stop

[ 2013.1. 7 ]

CARE International shares the anger and grief of our sisters and brothers in India over the recent and widely reported brutal rape and death of a 23 year old woman in India. We join the hundreds of thousands of Indians calling for justice in this case and addressing the deeper underlying causes of abuse and injustice. We support their efforts to seize this moment to build on and strengthen strong policies, procedures and mechanisms in India to change the long standing and deep seated ways of thinking that make daily acts of violence and discrimination against women and girls acceptable.

For millions of women around the world violence, discrimination, and restrictions of their basic freedoms are a daily reality. We believe that ending such acts is not only the right thing to do it is also critical to the effort to eliminate extreme poverty and build a safer, better world for us all.

Societies cannot prosper when half of their people are not allowed to fulfill their potential as human beings and fully contribute to their development. We at CARE recommit ourselves to working with our partners around the world to better enable women and girls - and indeed all poor and marginalized people - to realize their basic human rights, equity and equality, and play their full roles in improving their lives and those of their families and communities.

In India CARE focuses on the empowerment of women and girls particularly from low caste and tribal communities because not only are they disproportionately affected by poverty and discrimination; but in a patriarchal society, they suffer from multiple deprivations in the realization of their rights and entitlements. In all of its programs CARE India works to eliminate the behaviors which perpetrate gender based violence and inequality. Empowerment of women and girls, then, is both an end in itself as well as an indispensable milestone in achieving a just and equitable society.