THE Adhaytmik Vishwa Vidyalaya ashram in Rohini in New Delhi is a fortress. The four-storey building houses 200 women and a dozen men, but no one can say for certain. Each window is blocked by thick iron bars and wrapped in blackout sheets. The roof, where the women might dry clothes, is obscured by thick green tarp. Outsiders aren't allowed beyond the lobby, and AVV members don't leave without escorts. The underground parking ensures that even during CBI raids-at least three in nine years-the neighbours would not know.
In a 2018 report filed before the Delhi High Court (DHC), former head of Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) Swati Maliwal said the ashram was a prison. Recent reports to DHC also say that the inspectors "observed/felt that in-group rules were binding on the girls and no one was willing to violate them." AVV is a sub-branch of the doomsday movement Brahma Kumaris (BKs.) The group's followers call themselves the Advance Party or Prajapita Brahma Kumaris (PBKs.) Based in Kampila, Uttar Pradesh, AVV is headed by 82-year-old self-styled godman Virendra Dev Dixit. PBKs believe Dixit is a medium for Brahma Kumari leader Lekhraj Brahma. The AVV website describes him as a "poor Brahmin" who is "performing the task of establishing the Golden Age."
Starting from his home in 1984, then with his child bride Kamla devi, Dixit amassed over 50,000 followers and AVV centres in every city of India. The godman has, however, been embroiled in controversy since 1998 when two girls from the Kampila ashram accused him of rape. The court dropped the cases after the survivors turned hostile. Then, in 2017, based on complaints from neighbours, DCW began investigating the Delhi-based AVV ashrams in Vijay Vihar, Nangloi, Karawal Nagar and Mohan Gardens. What it found shocked the nation.
Sex as Seva
Denne historien er fra August 01, 2024-utgaven av Outlook.
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Denne historien er fra August 01, 2024-utgaven av Outlook.
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Criminal Amnesia
The focus may have now shifted to the Kolkata gang rape case, but questions about the sexual violence in Manipur since May 2023 remain unanswered
To Rape A Wife
Survivors of marital rape face twin hurdles: a lack of legal framework to deal with these cases and the social stigma that comes with reporting them
A City Violated
Public outburst of anger over the rape and murder of a junior doctor in Kolkata has left the Mamata Banerjee government puzzled, worried
The Forest of Loss
From a legal perspective, justice appears to have been served in the 2017 Gudiya rape and murder case at Kotkhai, Himachal Pradesh. But several questions persist
Here, Nobody Speaks of the Wounds
Muhammad Iqbal Shah's 14-year-old cousin was gang-raped and murdered at Handwara town, Kupwara, in 2007. The family is still trudging along the long road to justice
She Must Have Been Afraid
The 2012 Delhi gang rape is reflective of a systematic failure to cleanse the societal malaise
The Burning Woman
UP has the highest rate of crimes against women, and the district of Unnao has seen some of the State's most gruesome cases
Naked (vs.) Justice
On March 14, 2006, Latabai and her son, six, were paraded naked in a village in Solapur. Less than six months later, four members of a Dalit family were paraded naked; mother & daughter were allegedly gang-raped
Songlines of Chambal
How do the residents of Sheikhpur Gudha, Phoolan Devi's village in Uttar Pradesh, remember her: as a survivor, a rebel, a leader?
Don't You Remember My Story?
A child gang rape survivor's 12-year long ordeal in Sikar, Rajasthan shows how calls for punishment of perpetrators don't always mean empathy for the victim