Why rural sexual violence remains rife in India.

BBC. 21.10.12​

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Dabra is a typical village in India's rural Haryana state.
It has narrow lanes with open drains and small houses built of brick and mud.
Children play in the dirt, while men sit around smoking. Not many outsiders visit this poor farming community.
But outside one of the houses two policemen stand on guard.
Inside, a 16-year-old girl sits in one of the rooms surrounded by women.
She is the reason the police are here.
Six weeks ago, she was out walking on the street when she was abducted by a dozen men.
"They dragged me inside the car and blindfolded me," she says, staring ahead, her voice steady but emotionless.
"They took me by the side of a river. There, seven of them took turns to rape me.
"The others kept watch."
'Overcome with shame'
Her ordeal did not end there. The men filmed the assault on their mobile phones and circulated the images in this deeply conservative society.
"Her father was so overcome with shame and the humiliation that he poisoned himself," the girl's cousin said.
"We rushed him to the hospital but it was too late to save him."
Nine of the alleged attackers have been arrested. But the others are still at large.
Last year, 733 rapes were reported in Haryana. Most such assaults go unreported.
Sexual violence against women takes place all over India. But what stands out in Haryana is the social attitude towards women.
In a region that is just a short drive from Delhi, the modern capital of one of the word's rising powers, men still call the shots.
In the rural district of Jind, a traditional village council meeting is under way.
Inside a large hall, elderly men sit on wooden cots, smoking pipes. There is a not a single woman among them.
And as they have for centuries, they pass judgement - on social mores, on women and on the recent spate of rapes.
"I'll tell you the main reason for these rapes," explains Suresh Koth, one of the elders.
"Just look at what's in the newspapers, on television. Topless women. This is what's corrupting our youth. After all this is India, not Europe."
'Kangaroo courts'
These are comments which cannot be dismissed lightly.
These are the khaps, the all-male village councils that are tremendously powerful both socially and politically.
"They often function like kangaroo courts, creating laws for society, determining what women must do, how people should behave," says rights activist Ranjana Kumari, of the Centre for Social Research.
"And if people don't follow them, they intimidate them and threaten violence, including honour killings."
Khaps are unelected bodies but politicians and governments are wary of taking them on.
They can help to deliver votes during elections, which means they are often indispensable to politicians.
But there is a growing sense of outrage across India at their pronouncements following the recent spate of rapes.
One council elder was reported as saying that girls should be forced to marry young to protect them from rapists. Others routinely blame Western influences.
Many people believe they have no place in a modern, democratic and liberal India. But taking them on is not going to be easy.
Back in Dabra, the impact of what happened a few weeks ago is already apparent.
"The girls in my neighbourhood have stopped going to school," the young rape victim says.
"I am frightened too."

​Philippine politics - it's a family affair. 

BBC. 24.10.12
By Kate McGeown BBC News, Manila

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Politicians in the Philippines have been filing their candidacies for next year's elections - and there are some familiar names. Very familiar. In fact, it's hard to avoid the impression that politics here is a form of family business.
Imelda Marcos and Joseph Estrada are two of the best-known names in the Philippines.
Both have been ousted from the presidential palace - Mrs Marcos as the wife of President Ferdinand Marcos, and Mr Estrada when he himself was president.
Both have also faced lengthy trials for corruption.
But neither is a quitter. Imelda is already a congresswoman, and at 83-years-old she's putting herself forward for another three-year stint. She's not the only Marcos back in government - her son is a senator and her daughter a provincial governor.
At 75, Joseph Estrada is hoping to become Manila's mayor. His son is running for the Senate - to join a half-brother who's already there.
Brothers, wives, uncles, children - Philippine politics is dominated by certain families. And evidently, even if one of them is very publicly deposed, they're not out of power for very long.
"It may be the 21st Century, but in reality this is still a very feudal society," says political analyst Marites Vitug.
Family ties in the 2013 election
Estrada Marcos
Joseph Estrada, Philippines president from 1998 to 2001, is hoping to become mayor of Manila. Up to now his family has been more closely linked with smaller San Juan. Estrada was its mayor from 1969 to 1986. His eldest son, Jinggoy Ejercito Estrada, was mayor from 1992 to 2001, followed by another son, J V Ejercito from 2001 to 2010.  Imelda Marcos is hoping to retain the Ilocos Norte second district seat she has held since 2010. It has been held for the last 20 years by either her son, Ferdinand Marcos Jr (also known as Bongbong), or her daughter Maria Imelda Marcos (known as Imee), with the exception of three years (1995-98) when it was held by her late husband's uncle, Simeon Valdez.
In 2010, JV Ejercito was elected to represent San Juan in Congress, while his mother - Estrada's former mistress, Guia Gomez - was elected to replace him as mayor. In the 2013 election, J V Ejercito is hoping to leave Congress for the Senate. Guia Gomez is running for re-election as mayor, and Estrada's niece Jana is running for the San Juan congressional seat.  Imelda's daughter Imee, meanwhile, is hoping to be re-elected as governor of Ilocos Norte. She took over the job in 2010 from her first cousin, Michael M Keon, who in turn took it over from Imee's brother, Ferdinand Jr, who held it from 1998 to 2007 - the same nine-year period when she represented Ilocos Norte's second district in Congress.
If JV Evercito enters the Senate, he will join his half brother Jinggoy Ejercito, a senator since 2004. Estrada also has a nephew in politics - E R Ejercito, governor of the province of Laguna since 2010. For nine years before that he was mayor of the town of Pagsanjan. His wife, Maita Sanchez, replaced him as mayor in 2010. Both are seeking re-election.  Ferdinand Jr was also governor of Ilocos Norte from 1983 to 1986, when the Marcos brand became toxic. His aunt, Elizabeth Marcos Keon, had done the job for 12 years before that. Ferdinand Jr began a six-year term as a Senator in 2010. His mother wants him to become president in 2016 - succeeding where she failed in 1992 and 1998.
It's not just families from the past who keep appearing on the ballot, either - new dynasties are forming too. The famous Philippine boxer Manny Pacquiao won a Congress seat three years ago, and now his wife and brother are running for positions alongside him.
Of course political dynasties are not confined to the Philippines. India has its Nehrus and Gandhis, Pakistan its Bhuttos, even the US has had the Kennedys and the Bushes.
But the trend is particularly evident here, despite what Filipinos insist is a vibrant democracy.
Part of the problem is that Filipinos need a lot of money to campaign for votes - and wealth is concentrated among certain families.
Manny Villar is one of the few senators who's not from a well-known name - in fact he says was born in a squatter camp and once sold shrimps in a market.
But by the time he ran for political office, he'd already made his millions in business - and he says that private money is essential to any election campaign.
Yet even he believes money isn't as good as family connections - the reason he gives for his failed presidential bid in 2010.
"You can go far, but I don't think you can be president without being from one of those families," he says.
Bam Aquino, a cousin of President Benigno Aquino, acknowledges that his relatives are a great help in his current run for the Senate. At just 35, it's difficult to see how else he could have a chance of winning.
But he insists there are other ways of getting known too - fame, even infamy, can be a substitute for family ties.
Many movie stars and talk show hosts seem to find their way into politics - and, as two current senators have discovered, launching a failed coup also seems to launch a political career.
Bam Aquino acknowledges that the system isn't ideal, but says he doesn't see why that means he shouldn't run.
"I was six years old when my uncle [the current president's father, Ninoy Aquino] was shot. It changed my life. I saw Filipinos coming together, wanting democracy. Because of that I've always wanted to be in politics."
"If people like me are willing to serve, we shouldn't just stay by the sidelines. All good people need to engage. Why should we wait?'
He raises an interesting point. How much damage is actually done if politics is in the hands of a few big families, as long as they run the country well?
According to Marites Vitug, a great deal of damage. "It seriously limits the growth of other people who aren't as rich," she says.
"And it stifles politics. These people have vested interests - to perpetuate things the way they are, for themselves."
"I can accept it if a doctor has a family business, and passes it on his son, but being in the Senate should not be a family business."
If this is the situation nationally, it's even worse in local politics, where one family often has a complete monopoly on power - passing posts around their relatives so they effectively rule the whole area.
In an extreme example of the damage this can cause, members of the Ampatuan clan - the most powerful family in Maguindanao province - are alleged to have killed 57 people in 2009, purely because of their anger at a rival who dared to challenge their stranglehold on power.
So can this system ever change? According to Senator Villar, the key is to bring people out of poverty, and provide better education.
"When we develop economically, the influence of these family dynasties will go down significantly."
Bam Aquino thinks that political parties first need to be more mature and stable - at the moment candidates frequently flit from one party to another. Then they will be able to nominate candidates "whatever their last names are", he says.
Marites Vitug agrees with both of these suggestions - adding that there should also be a law to limit the number of politicians from each family.
There's clearly a growing public appetite for change. A local newspaper columnist, Solita Monsod, recently suggested that Filipinos "pledge not to vote for anyone whose surname is the same as, and/or who is related to, an incumbent public official".
And when Interior Secretary Jess Robredo died in a plane crash a few months ago, there was widespread public mourning for a politician seen as one of the exceptions - a man who rose up the ranks not because of fame, fortune or family, but because he was good at his job.
But the Philippine public isn't entirely consistent in the campaign against political dynasties.
In response to intense public demand, Jesse Robredo's widow has just announced that she's running for office.