Centre asks SC to issue directions to stop female genital mutilation

Satya Prakash

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, April 20

Supporting petitions against female genital mutilation, the Centre on Friday requested the Supreme Court to intervene and issue directions to stop the practice.

 Attorney General KK Venugopal told a Bench headed by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra that the practice is a crime under existing laws attracting imprisonment of seven years.

The top court – was hearing a PIL seeking to declare the practice of ‘Khatna’ mainly prevalent in Dawoodi Bohra community illegal and unconstitutional.

Senior counsel Anand Grover supported the Centre, saying “people (Muslim women) are suffering”. States of Kerala and Telangana had initiated an investigation against it, he told the Bench.

Justice Chandrachud – one of the three judges on the Bench talked about ‘A Pinch of Skin’ – a documentary on the practice of female genital mutilation of women in the Dawoodi Borah community.

The top court – which had on May 8 issued notices to the Centre and governments of Maharashtra, Gujarat and Rajasthan on the PIL seeking a ban on age-old practice of female genital mutilation followed by Dawoodi Bohra Muslims – posted the matter for further hearing July 9 after issuing notices to Kerala and Telangana.

The court had last year asked the Centre and the three states to spell out their stand on the controversial practice which many activists term as violation of fundamental rights of women. The followers of this sect mainly reside in Maharashtra, Gujarat and Rajasthan. 

Petitioner Sunita Tiwari – an advocate – demanded a law against female circumcision on the ground that it violated child rights of Bohra Muslim girls. 

Twari said it causes pain during menstruation and sexual intercourse, loss of libido and even pain during urination. “It can be categorised as violence against women,” she added. 

Popularly known as ‘khatna’, female genital mutilation involves cutting off the clitoral head, which Many Bohras believe makes women lead a life of infidelity. It’s generally done at a young age by midwives in unhygienic conditions. 

According to World Health Organisation, it often leads to repeated infections, cysts, infertility, childbirth complications requiring repeated surgeries. The UN General Assembly had in 2012 adopted a unanimous resolution on elimination of this practice. The National Commission for Women too supported ban on the practice. 

The judicial cognizance of the problem comes at a time when the court is seized of petitions filed by Muslim women seeking to declare triple talaq illegal. The NDA government has supported the demand of Muslim women against triple talaq – often used by Muslim men at their whims.

"The practice...also amounts to causing inequality between the sexes and constitutes discrimination against women...It amounts to serious violation of the rights of children as even minors have a right of security of person, right to privacy, bodily integrity and the freedom from cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment,” the petition read.