Speak up Mumbai | Virginity tests of brides: Regressive but prevalent

On January 21, three men from the Kanjarbhat community, attending a wedding in Pune, were thrashed by a mob of 40 people — members of their own community — for standing up against the community’s age-old practice of determining a bride’s virginity on the wedding night.

The three men are part of a WhatsApp group called ‘Stop the V-Ritual’ which they formed to oppose the practice. It has around 60 members, most of them youths, who have attracted ire from leaders of the community for speaking against the ritual which declares a bride ‘kharab maal’ in case she fails to bleed during intercourse.

Indrekar said, “The community members thought we were there to oppose but we had no such intention. The caste panchayat objected to our presence, claimed we were carrying out anti-community activities and attacked us,” said Indrekar.

While the community has been following the practice for several years, the incident has triggered a national debate on whether virginity tests of all kinds should be banned by law.

VOICES

It is sad that we are talking about things like virginity tests in the 21st century. We know that girls can lose their virginity due to several reasons apart from sexual intercourse. Even if they …read more