National Commission for Women for law to ban Female Genital Mutilation

Team Udayavani, Feb 7, 2017, 11:21 AM IST

New Delhi: The National Commission for Women said it supports the demand for a law to end the practice of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) in India.

On the International Day of Zero Tolerance to Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), the womens panel chairperson received two petitions initiated on Change.org– by Speak Out on FGM and a collective of 33 global organisation which includes Sahiyo.

The petitions say that UN recognises India as a country where FGM is still practised and appeals to the international body to cover Asian countries in campaigns and research on FGM.

These petitions follow a campaign– #EndFGM — started by survivor group Speak Out on FGM on Change.org in 2015 urging the government to frame a law to ban this practice.

The cause has garnered 85,000 signatures.

“Most of these petitions are from women thorough out the country who have undergone this barbaric practice in what is an extremely patriarchal custom that is still followed today.

“NCW has long held the view that genital mutilation is an infringement of an individual human right. We will advocate the need for a law to end this practice,” NCW Chairperson Lalitha Kumaramangalam said.

The ritual is carried out by the Dawoodi Bohra community where young girls are subjected to genital cutting.

Petitioners feel that if the UN recognises India as a country where FGM is practised they will be able to exert pressure on the government to ban it. Eliminating FGM by 2030 is a global target of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.

“The United Nations has declared FGM as a human rights violation and provides support to anti-FGM campaigners around the world. Because of this support many African countries have banned FGM. With the UN recognition (that FGM exists in India), we the Bohra women will be able to make official appeals to the Indian government,” said Masooma Ranalvi of Speak Out on FGM.

According to a study carried out by Sahiyo in 2015 nearly 80 per cent of women from the Dawoodi Bohra community in India had faced genital mutilation.

It demands that the UN look at FGM as more than just a “faraway African problem” and include countries like India, Pakistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Maldives, Brunei, Russia (Dagestan), Bangladesh, and Iran where it is being carried out.

This, says Sahiyo, will help in getting the much needed investment in data collection and research in these countries on the issue.

“According to the United Nations, at least 200 million women in 30 countries have been subjected to Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting (FGM/C),” says Sahiyo in a press statement.

However, these statistics are largely restricted to sub-Saharan Africa and ignore the global scope of the issue, it said.

“To truly end FGM by 2030, we need all affected communities, including those in Asia, to be supported,” it said.

In December 2012, the UN General Assembly adopted a unanimous resolution on the elimination of FGM. Across the world, FGM is being outlawed in many countries. It is banned in over 20 countries in Africa itself.