| Notes: | "This report was researched and written by Aruna Kashyap, researcher for the Women's Rights Division of Human Rights Watch, with secondary research support from Reena Reddy, intern with the Women's Rights Division, and Chloë Fussell, associate in the Women's Rights Division. The report was edited by Liesl Gerntholtz, director of the Women's Rights Division."--P. 51.
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| Summary: | "Forensic examinations of rape survivors in India are riddled with problems, among them, the continued use of the finger test to gather evidence for investigation and trial. In the finger test, also known as the two-finger test, the doctor notes the presence or absence of the rape survivor's hymen and the size and so-called laxity of the vagina. The test is supposed to assess whether girls and women are 'virgins,' or 'habituated to sexual intercourse.' Yet it does none of this. Unscientific, inhuman, and degrading, the finger test has no forensic value. Furthermore, a woman's past sexual experience has no bearing on whether she consented to the sexual act under investigation. Identifying girls and women as 'habituated to sexual intercourse' perpetuates damaging stereotypes about survivors of rape. Recent Indian legislative changes and binding Supreme Court decisions have helped curtail the use of finger test findings. Yet the results of the finger test continue to inform courtroom proceedings. Dignity on Trial is based on field investigations in Mumbai and Delhi, analysis of High Court judgments across the country, and discussions with experts and activists in India and abroad. It calls upon the Indian government to use the ongoing law reform process to abolish the finger test and to include doctors, police officers, prosecutors, and judges in developing a sensitive and sound national standard for the forensic examination of rape survivors, which respects their rights to therapeutic care, consent, dignity, and the pursuit of justice."--P. [4] of cover.
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