Members of various women's groups in the Tema municipality are to go on a peace walk in Tema and Ashaiman to sensitise public opinion that rapists must be castrated.
About 100 representatives of 25 women's groups took the decision at a meeting organized in Tema on Friday by the Industrial Settlers Women Development Association (ISWODA), an NGO that seeks the welfare of women in industrial settlements. The decision to go on the demonstration was mainly prompted by a recent case at Ashaiman in which a 12-year-girl who was brutally raped by a driver of Gellog Limited, a private transport company in Tema, is now reported to have contracted AIDS. The driver absconded after the police granted him bail.
Miss Akua Adjeiwaa, President of ISWODA, said after the peace walk, the association would organize a special forum and invite men's groups to discuss the issue of how best to curtail rape in the country. She said it was time for women to voice out against violence meted against them. She said that most women's societies have become social clubs where funerals and parties have become their main concern. She cited cases where babies are now being carried away from their cots and raped. These are issues, she said, go beyond imagination and that it was time for women to tackle them once and for all.
In their contributions, one woman felt that castration would not solve the problem since women "can use their hands to do wonderful things". Others said rapists must be kept in custody beyond the 48 hours stipulated in the 1992 Constitution to enable the police to conduct full investigations. The women also examined women's own contribution to this social canker and identified neglect and maltreatment of girls by their parents or guardians, which compel them to fall on men who entice them with gifts.
Mr. N.A. Agboloso, suggested that if a 50-year-old man rapes a 10-year-old girl, the man should be jailed for 60 years, that is, his age and that of the girl put together.
