Fw: Social Profiling

2011-02-28T22:50:00.001-08:00

Sent: Tuesday, March 01, 2011 12:17 PM

Subject: Social Profiling

Social Profiling: The Root Cause of Racial Discrimination Faced by North Easterners

Crimes On Record against North East People in Delhi and NCR

Unprecedented Racial Discrimination

The Delhi police, Delhi and Union Governments, civil society, and intellectuals have, in general, refused to accept the racial discrimination faced by the people from North East India who are working, studying, and living in Delhi and the National Capital Region (NCR). The refusal and denial to accept the struggles faced by the people from North East India especially by law enforcement authorities has continued for the last five years until the killing of 19 year old Tangkhul girl from Manipur in October 2010 at Murnika by an IIT Ph.D. student. The awakening after this incident lasted hardly a month and was forgotten until everyone was reminded by the Moti Bagh gangrape case of a 30 year old Mizo BPO employee on November 23, 2010 at midnight.

Racial Discrimination on Record

Cases	Total		2009	2010	2005-08	FIR	No FIR
Molestation	29	36%	8	6	15	14	15
Rape	4	5%	1	1	2	4	0
Beating Girls	6	8%	3	1	2	4	2
Beating Boys	22	28%	20	2		4	16
Murder	5	6%	3	1	1	4	1
Attempt Rape	1	1%			1	0	1
Misbehaved	3	4%	1		2	0	3
Non Payment	6	8%	2		4	0	6
Rent Non Refund	2	3%	1		1	0	2
Media	1	1%			1	0	1
Missing Person	1	1%		1		1
Total	80	100%	39	12	29	31	47
Percentage			48.75%	15.00%	36.25%	38.75%	58.75%

Source: ?????

The whole nation cried when Shilpa Shetty in the celebrity show "Big Brother" faced racial abuse in 2007 or when Indians were victimised in Australia recently. But we were silent spectators when it happened to our own people from North East India. Non-acceptance and denial of the racial discrimination that North Easterners face by the law enforcement agencies and government authorities is an additional form of racial discrimination.

Several shocking incidents have happened in the last six years in Delhi and NCR, beginning with the heinous gang rape of a girl from Mizoram in a moving car at Dhuala Kuan in 2005. A verdict of 14 years imprisonment came after four years of litigation.

The North East Support Centre & Helpline was established in 2008 and conducted two pilot studies. The first was done in 2008, based on media reporting of sexual abuse in the national capital, and found almost 50% of cases involved girls from North East India. A second pilot study was conducted in 2009 and revealed 86% of North East people living in the area said that face racial discrimination in various forms including: sexual abuse, physical attacks, vulgar remarks, social profiling, and economic exploitation. These findings were reported in national newspapers and television from which law enforcement agencies and government offices should have understood the plight faced by the people of North East India in Delhi and NCR.

The double blow of racial discrimination came when the law enforcement agencies, particularly the Delhi police and NCR police, refused, denied, or delayed cases filed by victims from North East India. If the police forces would have avoided social profiling in performing their duties, the issue of sexual abuse, racial discrimination, and economic exploitation faced by the people from North East India would have been prevented a long time ago. Due to the discrimination by the law enforcement agencies, racial discrimination is unprecedented today. In 2009, we saw the highest record of violence against the people from North East India in Delhi and NCR. There is nothing to celebrate in 2010.

After much advocacy, the Delhi Police issued a "Zero Tolerance" policy regarding crime against women including the violence faced by the people from North East India. Delhi police at least began consistently registering complaints but we've yet to see if they will honesty handle the cases, punish the perpetrators, and give justice to the victims. A white paper must be written on how police handle the cases pending in police stations related to the racial discrimination faced by North Easterners.

Nature of Racial Discrimination Faced by North East People

The main outcomes of discrimination are sexual abuse, social profiling, and economic exploitation. Whenever and wherever any attack happens to the people of North East India, it is deeply connection with gender-based discrimination and social biases which affect the economic opportunities for the people of North East India living in Delhi and NCR.

A common definition that makes sense in our context is: "Racial discrimination is treating people differently through a process of social division into categories not necessarily related to races." The plight faced by people from North East India is seen in the form of social profiling. It is a crime as per Article 15 of Indian Constitution. "Prohibition of discrimination on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth. (1) The State shall not discriminate against any citizen on grounds only of religion, race, caste, sex, place of birth or any of them."

Blacks suffered apartheid for years and whole world condemned it. The UN has criticised India's caste system and civil society has called it worse than racism. The racism faced by North East India citizens is definitely an outcome of the caste system. To fight racism, one can not ignore the apartheid of casteism which exists among Indian societies.

Whenever sexual abuse or a racial attack happens, the general public often socially profiles people from North East India on the basis of a different culture, a different look, and a different geographical background. Social profiling is against the ethos of India's distinctive of unity in diversity. Social profiling will distance the communities from one another.

Economic exploitation is one of the immediate effects of racial discrimination, particularly for young working boys and girls from North East India. Two sisters who were sexually abused by twenty men in Gandhi Vihar in January 2008 had to close their cyber café through which one of the girls supported her brother and sister who were pursuing further studies. She could not relocate and restart her business in Delhi and went back home. Like her, most of the victims who suffer sexual abuse in their offices have had to quit their jobs.

What are the Root Causes?

We have been asked about the root cause a hundred times. Indeed many people tried to blame North East girls for their lifestyle. Many civil society members and law enforcement agencies have said the girls are too liberal, free, or brought the attack on themselves by their dress. They said this instead of condemning the crime.

Socially profiling people from North East India is the root cause of sexual abuse, social discrimination, and economic exploitation. Social profiling makes North East girls appear vulnerable in the eyes of perpetrators because society will shift the blame to the victims.

The notion of social profiling is wrong and we define it as the opinion formed upon one's appearance or culture, and which treats everyone equal due to biased opinions formed upon some limited experience. Once a community is socially profiled, one's economic, social, educational, and professional status does not matter and everyone is looked down upon socially and racially.

Along with social profiling, a major problem is the mindset of people about North East communities. This mindset says that the people from North East India are strangers, too free in their culture, cheap, will do anything they like, or that you can get them to do wrong things for free. Social profiling is sadly also seen in the attitudes of local police when they insult, deceive, ignore, and deny the complaints of North East victims and even connive with perpetrators in many cases.

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