New Delhi: The Delhi Government has decided to withdraw a controversial circular that allowed the banned “two-finger test” – a vaginal examination on rape survivors — sources told NDTV. Action will be taken against those who signed the circular, sources said.
Women’s rights activists have objected to this test for years, claiming it leads to judging the woman. In 2013, the Supreme Court held that the test violates the woman’s right to privacy, and asked the government to provide better medical procedures to confirm sexual assault. In 2014, the Union government had banned the test.(Read: New government guidelines ban insensitive ‘two finger’ tests on rape survivors)
But the Delhi government circular — sent on the May 31 — said the test could be allowed under certain conditions and its purpose was not to judge the woman.
The circular said, “To do away with this essential pelvic examination would amount to incomplete assessment of the survivor, which will ultimately result in injustice and low conviction rates.” But it had also added that “informed consent” of the woman should be taken before conducting the test.
Activists and lawyers, who long criticized the existing laws on crimes against women, have held that the so called two-finger test – a vaginal examination to determine if the woman is sexually active – as most shocking, saying it traumatized the woman and helped the perpetrator get away.
During the test, doctors probe the vagina to determine if a hymen is present and try to determine if the vagina is lax — which is taken as evidence that the woman routinely has sex and thus consented to intercourse. Often, the doctor is male.
In January 2013, in the wake of the fatal bus gangrape in Delhi, the Justice Verma committee had asked for strict enforcement of sexual assault laws, faster rape trials and changes to the country’s antiquated penal code. It had also criticized the two-finger vaginal examination.
The following year, the Department of Health Research and the Indian Council of Medical Research formulated a set of guidelines and banned the test, dubbing it unscientific.
