Friday Stories of Hope: Help for Rape Survivors in India

In a report published March 18, 2011, on IndiaRealtime:
India’s health minister, Ghulam Nabi Azad, has written to federal government hospitals instructing doctors not to conduct vaginal exams –known as “finger tests”- when examining rape victims without their consent.

The report says of the finger test, “In effect, it is a procedure that without informed consent would amount to sexual assault.”
This is a small part of a larger effort to change the way rape victims are examined in Indian hospitals. The effort will seek to give women in India who have been raped a sense of dignity, something that is usually ignored by doctors.

The attention shown by India’s health minister to rape survivors is a positive step towards legal measures that can be taken to honor the dignity of all women of India.

Go HERE to see the full news article.