In the wake of Jisha’s rape and horrific murder, a number of people have questioned the necessity of identifying her as Dalit woman.
Jisha, a 31-year-old law student, was killed on April 28 after being raped. Her body was found in her house, with multiple wounds. Her attackers are still at large, police have questioned several people, but no arrests have been made.
The details of the case, the brutality in particular, have prompted comparisons with Jyoti Singh, who was gangraped and murdered in Delhi in 2012. It wasn’t too long before people began raising questions about the difference in the media response and public outrage to the two rape and murder cases.
On May 4, Vagabomb had published a piece titled “Does Urban, Upper-Caste India Care as Much about Jisha as It Did for Jyoti?”, addressing the public response to Jisha and Jyoti Singh. A look at the comments shows a number of them objected to Jisha being identified as a Dalit woman. In response to this, Vagabomb came up with a response:
"To this, we would like to say: ANY crime against a Dalit person that does not get the same attention as a crime against an upper-caste person is a caste issue. If we are unable to see this, it is because we're sitting in a position of privilege. Our caste gave us this privilege long before we were even born."
Read the full response here.