US Military and Sexual Assault

Today, the Department of Defense released the fiscal 2012 Annual Report on Sexual Assault in the Military and announcing a series of actions to prevent and respond to sexual assault in the armed forces.

Annually, as required by the Ike Skelton National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2011, the department released Fiscal Year 2012 Annual Report on Sexual Assault in the Military. To date, this is the ninth report DoD has issued.

In fiscal year 2012, there were a total of 3,374 reports of sexual assault involving service members as victims or subjects, an increase from the 3,192 reports received in fiscal 2011. These reports involved offenses ranging from abusive sexual contact to rape.

Read it all here.

India: Another Minor Raped in Bhandara

Close on the heels of rape and murder of three minor girls of a family in Bhandara, a 14-year- old girl was allegedly raped by a teacher on school premises in the district.

Yadav Borkar (46), a government school teacher, allegedly raped the girl in the school premises at Golati village in Lakhandur taluka of Bhandara district two days ago, police said.

After the complaint was filed today, Borkar surrendered before the police and was arrested.

On February 14, three sisters, aged 6, 9 and 11 years, were abducted from Murwadi village of Bhandara district. Two days later, their bodies were found in a well. The post-mortem revealed that the girls were raped and sodomised before they were killed.

Police have made no progress in identifying the girls' abductors though they have questioned hundreds. 

Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde revealed the names of three Maharashtra rape victims in the Rajya Sabha and subsequently retracted his statement. The Rajya Sabha expunged names of the rape victims from Shinde`s statement, but his ministry had already circulated the information to the media.

The three girls' destitute mother has rejected the government’s compensation offer of Rs 10 lakhs and wants the money be used to find the culprits. 

Related:  Child Rape in Afghanistan