It's not fair, it's not right and it's illegal.

As someone who is proud to be working class I find the class war which is still raging in this country disgusting. The way the Tory government are inflicting punishment on the poor because of belief and ideoly is a disgrace.

It is said though that there is always someone worse off than you; this has never been more true as more horrific reports come out of India.

In December 2012 the world was outraged and demanded action when a young woman was brutally gang raped and ultimately killed on a bus in Delhi. Six men were charged with the attack and eventually four of them, who had allegedly raped at least four other women, received the death sentence for their crimes after the law was changed to allow the penalty, following mass demonstrations.

10 days after the gang rape a three year old girl was raped at play school. Her family were said to be reluctant to report the crime initially because the attackers’ family were rungs above them on the social ladder.

Just a month later the world was rocked again when a 20 year old woman was found guilty of an illicit affair and was sentenced to be gang raped after her family was unable to pay the 25,000 rupees fine originally imposed. The fine was imposed by a kangaroo court. Such courts are usually made of older members of the community, often they are from the wealthier more powerful families.

These punishments are disturbingly common. Often the victim of the gang rape ordeal is not even the person who carried out the “crime”.

There have been previous reports including one of a 45 year old widow who was raped as punishment because her brother had an affair.

In the latest story to emerge Meenakshi Kumari and her 15 year old sister, have been sentenced to be gang raped and then paraded naked around the village with their faces blacked. Their crime is that their brother Ravi had an affair with a girl from a higher caste than his family. His family is from the lowest caste, Dalit, once known as untouchable. As he and the woman from the Jat caste have disappeared the village council, made up entirely of unelected older males found that the sisters should be raped to avenge brother Ravi’s actions. This decision was taken on July 31^st but is only just coming to light.

The older sister has appealed to the supreme court and her Father has complained to the authorities.

Human rights organisation Amnesty international has launched a petition for the Indian authorities to intervene and protect the innocent sisters.

A spokesperson for Amnesty said “unelected village councils such as this are widespread in India. More often than not they are made up of older males from more dominant castes, who prescribe rules for social interaction in villages. Nothing could justify this abhorrent punishment. It’s not fair, it’s not right and it’s against the law”.

You can sign the petition here https://e-activist.com//ea-action/action?ea.client.id=1194&ea.campaign.id=41632

It is not enough for the authorities to simply intervene to save the sisters from their barbaric punishment. The authorities must take real steps to prevent all women from such village courts. It is unacceptable that human beings from a perceived lower caste are punished for falling in love with fellow human beings from higher castes. It is less acceptable that the people of these villages value their women so poorly that they think it is alright to punish them by the worst violations imaginable for actions they are not even responsible for. Help stop further punishment rapes and sign the petition now.