Taking suo motu cognisance of media reports of a 28-year old female Air Force officer, who was sexually assaulted, being forced to undergo the banned "two-finger test" by Indian Air Force doctors, the National Commission for Women (NCW) has written to Air Chief Marshal Vivek Ram Chaudhari, asking him to to look into the matter.
The woman, an officer at the Air Force Administrative College in Coimbatore, had alleged she was subjected to "two-finger test" at the Air Force Hospital to ascertain rape, which was banned by the Supreme Court a few years ago.
She also claimed that there were attempts to force her to withdraw the complaint against the accused Flight Lieutenant.
Both the survivor and the accused, hailing from Chhattisgarh, were part of a training course and had attended a party in the officers' mess on the night of September 9. The woman officer, in her complaint, said the incident occurred in the wee hours of the next day. The officer said she was asleep after taking medicine for her leg injury when she was assaulted by the drunk accused, who had narrated the incident to two of her batchmates who recorded the conversation between the trio.
She said when she reported the incident to a wing commander, she was "'advised" her to think about the future including the name and respect of the family, and she decided not to lodge a complaint. However, she was later told by the authorities to either file the complaint or give in writing that the episode was consensual following which she decided to file a complaint.
The woman said she was subjected to the banned test in the at the Air Force Hospital.
In its letter to the Air Chief Marshal, the NCW said that it has “come across a media post wherein it has been reported that a female Air Force officer was subjected to the banned and intrusive two-finger test by the India Air Force doctors who made the victim ‘relive the trauma’ after she had alleged sexual assault.”
Condemning the incident, the NCW asked the Air Chief Marshal "to look into the matter and take necessary steps and to impart necessary knowledge to the Indian Air Force doctors about the prevailing guidelines laid down by the government and the Indian Council of Medical Research in the year 2014 terming the two-finger test as unscientific.”
—With PTI inputs
