This oral statement by ARROW and WeSpeakOut was broadcasted at the UPR outcome of India during the 52nd Session of the Human Rights Council on March 27th, 2023. Watch a video of the intervention here.

Thank You, Chair.

My name is Masooma Ranalvi and I am making this statement on behalf of WeSpeakOut and the Asian-Pacific Resource and Research Centre for Women (ARROW).

We welcome the recommendations received by India to address violence against women and girls and prohibit harmful and discriminatory practices, especially Costa Rica’s recommendation to “legally adopt the World Health Organization definition of female genital mutilation, criminalize it by law, and establish a national action plan to eradicate the practice”. Female genital mutilation or cutting remains a critical issue affecting women’s and girls’ rights and is known to be practiced in India by the Bohra community as well as other communities like the Sunni community in Kerala. Though there is no official, nation-wide data on the practice in India, an independent study released in 2018 by WeSpeakOut largely included participants from the Bohra community and found that 75% of all daughters of the study sample were cut.

The practice of female genital mutilation is aimed at suppressing female sexuality and sexual desire and has severe implications on women and girls’ bodily integrity and bodily autonomy; and also violates their constitutional rights to equality, non-discrimination and privacy. However, there is no specific law against female genital mutilation in India and neither is its definition recognised by the Indian legal lexicon.

We call on the Government of India to:

• Collect national prevalence data on female genital mutilation to strengthen its evidence base.
• Urgently develop a fully costed, evidence-based, national action plan to end female genital mutilation with a focus on community-based programming.
• Enact legislation prohibiting all forms of female genital mutilation, including when carried out by health professionals.
• Work in partnership with community-based organisations and activists to support awareness and education campaigns.