A 28-year-old woman officer of the Indian Air Force (IAF), who was allegedly raped on the Air Force Administrative College campus in Tamil Nadu’s Coimbatore district, has also alleged that she was subjected to an illegal two-finger test, which she has stated has made her to “relive the trauma” just to confirm the sexual assault. She even mentioned in the first information report (FIR) she filed with the Tamil Nadu Police on September 20, that the two-finger test is not supposed to be done for a rape examination and this she found out much later.
The questionable “per vaginal” or the two-finger test includes a doctor inserting two fingers in the vagina of a rape survivor to recognize if the hymen is intact, to inspect the vagina’s size and laxity.
In 2013, the Supreme Court stated that the two-finger test abuses a victim’s right to privacy, and requested that the public authority give much to present a better alternative to affirm rape. A bench of Justice BS Chauhan and Justice FMI Kalifulla said regardless of whether the report of the two-finger test is confirmed, it can’t bring about the ethic of consent on rape victims.
The Bench stated that medical procedures should not be carried out in a manner that constitutes cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment and health should be of paramount consideration while dealing with gender-based violence. The court reportedly also stated that rape survivors are qualified for a lawful response that doesn’t re-damage them or disregard their physical or mental dignity.
This episode has provoked the National Commission for Women (NCW) and they have stated that the doctors have disregarded a Supreme Court ruling along with her right to privacy and dignity.
The commission, responding to a media report said that the National Commission for Women was absolutely baffled and firmly denounced the activity of Indian Air Force doctors leading the restricted two-finger test on the person in question, thereby violating the Supreme Court’s decision and also violating the right to privacy and dignity of the victim.
Chairperson Rekha Sharma has also written to the IAF air chief marshal to take necessary steps and make their doctors follow the government guidelines and the Indian Council of Medical Research in 2014 that termed the two-finger test “unscientific”.
