http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/raipur/Study-shows-healthcare-providers-ignore-victims-of-gender-based-violence/articleshow/46499533.cms
This article is from The Times of India. I chose it because it is very recent and because it reports on many of the issues that we talked about this week concerning “blaming the victim” for sexual assaults.
The article states that victims of gender-based violence in India are being refused healthcare or receiving minimal or unsatisfactory healthcare because healthcare professionals perceive most cases to be “fake.” This is the case despite the fact that the law makes the healthcare industry as responsible for providing services as the police and judiciary systems. Additionally, healthcare workers are performing humiliating “tests” to determine virginity, and commenting on the past sexual history of the victims. This reminded me of the stories we read about this week concerning sexual assaults on campus as those women were also more or less “dismissed” (by university officials) and subjected to hours of “rape kit” examinations after the incidents (which many women feel are incredibly invasive, humiliating, and traumatizing after a rape or assault). Many of these women were grilled about their behaviors and made to feel as if they were somehow to blame for what happened to them (either by police or university officials). Some of these women were not offered counseling or other healthcare measures that would have possibly made a difference in their recovery.
I was struck by how similar the treatment of these women – from two different countries and two very different cultures – seem to be. Keeping Mills’ seminal work in mind, how is this treatment of women in India not just a “private trouble” as the Indian healthcare system names it, but also a “public issue?” Is it a “public issue” in the U.S. as well? If so, how is our society impacted by the way we treat these victims?