A rape protestor speaks: Little has changed, let's talk freely about rape

By Sukant Panigrahy

After the incident on 16 December in Delhi, which shook not only the whole nation but also people around the globe, there was complete shock at the cruelty of the incident. We protested, demanded explanations, sought immediate judgements, and some demanded execution of criminals. Regardless of differences among them on what exactly they were demanding, people came on to the streets.

And still, it still kept happening, it never stopped.

Nine months later, the Shakti Mills incident happened in Mumbai. Another girl was brutally gangraped.

In response to the Delhi gangrape, when we set up the Ziddi Hai Hum Facebook page ( https://www.facebook.com/ziddihainhum ), it was meant to be a protest page for youth, a platform to express anything we feel is not right, a place where people can go if they are unable to approach the police or other authorities.

For a month after the Delhi incident, I would spend an hour in Lokhandwala garden, Andheri, at 7.30 pm every day, talking to people about the incident, about the need to think differently.

My idea was that there should be some independent body in each area that children or women can approach if there are any incidents that happen either to them or to somebody they know.

The response was mixed – several young people and kids were responsive, enthusiastic. They inspired me. They would speak about getting into politics or the police or doing something proactive. “Enough of adults running things, we will do things differently, we will take this forward,” they would say.

Senior citizens were the most worried lot – they felt a lifetime had passed and they had not been able to effect any change. But there was hope among the younger ones.

But, as movements often do, this too faded out after some time. I would reach Lokhandwala garden in the evenings after work but people get busy with their own lives and slowly I was not finding volunteers. But our effort was inspiring – the idea was to just reach out to people and talk, promote the idea of there being enough openness that people can gather the courage to report incidents. Unless the issue is addressed, there can never be a solution. And talking about these incidents is the first step to addressing them.

I have a 11-year-old son and I speak to him about various issues. He speaks to me freely, I encourage him to do so and I believe that other parents should do so too.

Going back to the Delhi incident and the verdict, the fact remains that no change whatsoever has happened since, nor will it happen any time soon. Incidents such as the Delhi or Shakti mills incident are not limited to a certain class of people, they happen everywhere. From my interactions with various people and groups, I find there are some factors that each one of us tries to sweep under the carpet, issues we don’t like to discuss freely. Some of these that I have noticed:

1. Declining sex ratio in the country 2. Literacy rates 3. Rate of conviction - It took us 9 months to pronounce the verdict on Delhi incident. Thousands of other cases are still pending. 4. Sexual deprivation in society 5. Late marriages 6. Patriarchal society 7. Power - Various people holding power are accused of these crimes but none of them is punished. Eventually they all go scot-free. So this gives the freedom to other people in power or access to power that they too can go scot-free after these crimes. The example is Asaram Bapu who has been doing these things since years and still no one raised a finger against him. People still pray for him.

The only way forward is to initiate discussion on these topics among youngsters, children, kids to make them aware about the issues. The kids should be taught to be fearless to report these issues to their parents or family members. The adults or seniors should be encouraged to report these kind of crimes to law enforcement authorities who should promptly initiate action against the criminals without any bias or protecting them.

I strongly feel that raising discussion and reporting them is the only logically feasible way to decrease the rate of crime in our society.

(Sukant Panigrahy is an art director who has worked on several Bollywood movies. He has engaged with diverse people attempting to mobilise a new way of thinking about women and violence against women.)