Women’s panel seeks police probe into virginity test episode

Commission chief Vijaya Rahatkar said that she has asked Nashik police commissioner to make an in-depth inquiry into the alleged incident and submit a report.

The women’s panel intervened following reports that a husband decided to divorce his wife after she failed the ‘virginity test’. Last month, the girl, who hails from Ahmednagar district and is preparing to join police force, married a 25-year-old man from Nashik.

This was his second marriage. Both belong to the ‘Kanajarbhat’ community which has two sects —Dera Sachha and Khandpith. Placing a high value on virginity in women, members of the caste panchayat wait outside after the wedding, while the couple has intercourse on a plain white cloth. This is supposedly a ‘test’ to prove that the woman is a virgin. The husband said that the woman had not bled after intercourse and rejected her as his wife. 

The marriage was summarily invalidated, despite the girl’s pleas that she was, in fact, a virgin and that her lack of bleeding could be due to the vigorous exercise she went through in preparation for the police force. The next day, she and her mother tried to file a police complaint. But her father intervened, locked them in the house and took away the girl’s mobile phone.

Krishna Chandgude, activist of the Maharashtra Andhashraddha Nirmoolan Samiti, said he went to the house and spoke to the girl and her parents and tried to convince her father to file a police complaint, but the latter was afraid of the caste panchayat. “The girl has said that if her husband comes to take her back, she is ready to live with him,” Rahatkar added.