India has a persistent, dread problem in extinguishing the fires of the Hindu caste system, despite making caste discrimination and oppression illegal by law at this point in the country's existence. As things stand now, India is set to overtake China as the country whose population is the most immense in the world; between them now, the two countries together represent one-third of the world's entire population.

As ancient civilizations go, they are both still evolving. China's territorial avarice is not shared by India; historically in the relatively recent past India agreed to partition itself to allow Pakistan to come into existence. Pakistan, for its part, resisted the wish of Bangladeshis to take some of its territory for a nationhood of their own. While China is forever on the prowl to enlarge its already-vast territory; its occupation of Tibet just one of its many international illegal acquisitions.

China has made great strides in reducing poverty, and so has India. But India's problem of caste inequality is one that Han Chinese don't have to suffer. Nor are women's human rights abused in China as Indian women's are [the one-child policy aside, which harms the entire population]; the violence afflicting Indian women represents a shameful reality in Indian society as fundamentalist Hindus seek to continue their oppression of women, particularly those of the former 'untouchable' caste, now called Dalit. While the national government defends women's right to equality, the vast Indian countryside remains rife with predators raping and killing women and girls.

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Meenakshi Kumari, 23-year-old and her 15-year-old sister

In a village in the Baghpat district outside of Delhi, a young man fell in love with a girl from the Jat caste, higher than the young man's Dalit caste; the proverbial 'untouchables' who traditionally were permitted to work at only menially degrading jobs that no one else would take. The young Jat woman had been married off in the traditional manner to someone whom the family had chosen but she escaped the marriage and eloped with the young Dalit.

This outrageous defiance of tradition would not be  tolerated, and a village council decided on a form of punishment deemed suitable to the crime. The council determined that the young man's two  sisters, one 15 the other 23, would be raped repeatedly and paraded naked through the village; their humiliated disgrace just punishment for their brother's unspeakable rejection of societal convention.

The Dalit family fled their village, seeking haven elsewhere. Their home was ransacked. Another brother of the two sisters informed Amnesty that the Jat caste were powerful members of the village council, and were determined to have their revenge: "The Jat decision is final. The police said anyone can be murdered now."

"Rape is a revolting crime, not a punishment It's no wonder this disgusting 'sentence' has provoked global outrage."
"These Khap courts routinely order vile sexually violent punishments against women. India's supreme court has rightly declared such orders illegal."
"The government of Uttar Pradesh has an urgent duty to keep this family safe. There must also be a proper independent investigation into these barbaric and illegal orders which apparently continue to be issued by the khap panchayat courts."
Rachel Alcock, UK urgent action co-ordinator, Amnesty International

Amnesty International has launched a petition calling on India's authorities to immediately intervene to protect the two sisters and their family.