Assam rape victim widely ignored by mainstream media for two weeks

Rapes are a common thing in India and happens in almost every single part of the country but the amount of coverage such types of cases gets widely depends on which region the rape happens. There was a lot of hue and cry when the brutal rape in Kerala took place and rightly so, but what was widely ignored by mainstream media was the rape that took place in Assam around the same time.

In Tinsukia district of Assam, 20 year old Champa Chettri on April 28 failed to return home from her workplace–a beauty parlour. Her family looked for her everywhere and days later local boys saw an object float around the river. Champa was finally found, she had been raped and brutally murdered. After attempts to burn her body failed, the perpetrators dumped her body into the river.Police have arrested two youths for the crime— one Biswajit Chettri and Moinul Ali of Ledo region.

The Northeast is widely regarded as being ignored and even in this aspect, we realize how difficult it is to garner attention from the rest of the country. While people across the country are standing up to get justice for the Kerala victim, our very own Champa has only a few people fighting to get justice for her. Whether it comes to floods, militancy or even the menace of poaching, we in the region are widely neglected. All main media outlets fail to mention what issues plague the region. The only time we are remembered are during polling and elections where all these news channels create poll predictions of what's going to happen in our respective states.

Issues that gain main stream media attention garner not just public support but equally important public outcry. There is only so much we can do from the Northeast to get attention, we need the help of mainstream media to step up and take the initiative to highlight the plights and problems of the region. The Nirbhaya case was the first to garner such public outrage, the brutality of the case really made up open our eyes to the shock of what our country's reality is really like. Since then, there have been so many other rape victims who still yearn for justice.

From the shameful and horrific rape that occurred in Upper Shillong, Meghalaya where the victim was so badly mutilated  that her organs were completely damaged to Champa of Tinsukia, the question of do the people of Northeast matter really comes to mind. We would hope that we also receive the same amount of coverage so as to ensure justice for all.

By Jessica Passah

image: internet