“This is a moment for national catharsis,” said the Chief Justice of India during the first hearing of the suo motu cognisance taken by the Supreme Court of the R.G. Kar Hospital case in Kolkata on August 20, 2024.
This is also a time of national confusion regarding what exactly is this case about. The nation seems to be like a group of blind men trying to explore an elephant. Two of the primary options in this particular case are: (a) a case of rape and murder, and (b) a case of killing of a potential whistle-blower, someone who knew of some wrongdoings in the hospital and might expose them. Beyond these two, there is a plethora of options including, but not limited to, corruption, exploitation, incompetence, hiding or protecting incompetence, finally leading to political slugfest.
The Supreme Court has formed a National Task Force consisting of eminent persons from the field of medicine. It is expected to submit an interim report within three weeks and the final report within two months.
Déjà vu
Have we, as a nation, been here earlier? Some of the major landmark cases in this chronicle of national shame are listed below. How many of these resulted in national catharsis is left for the readers to decide.
Remember Aruna Shanbaug, 25-year-old nurse in King Edward Memorial Hospital in Mumbai, assaulted in 1973, who stayed in a coma for 41, yes, 41 years before passing away in 2015. A petition based on her condition resulted in the Supreme Court allowing passive euthanasia in India in 2011.
Then, in 2012, there was the ‘Nirbhaya’ case in which a 22-year-old physiotherapy intern was subjected to unimaginable atrocities. A high-power committee headed by a former Chief Justice of India was set up, it produced a very valuable report after considering 80,000 suggestions. A Criminal Law (Amendment) Act was promulgated in 2013, several new laws were passed, and six new fast-track courts were set-up to hear rape cases.
The year 2002 brought the Bilkis Bano case as part of the larger mayhem in Gujarat. It took six years for 11 men to be sentenced to life imprisonment for rapes and murders, and a policeman beings convicted of falsifying evidence in 2008. The 11 men convicted of gangrape were released from jail on remission of their sentences, ironically, on Independence Day 2022. As they came out of jail, they were welcomed with sweets and their feet touched in respect.
Out of the over 140 crore Indians, only 11 women and one man were disturbed enough to file four petitions in the Supreme Court challenging the remission. In January 2024, the Supreme Court struck down the remission and ordered the 11 convicts to surrender to the jail within 15 days.
Women wrestlers started their struggle against sexual exploitation in 2023. The saga is still going on, with dramatic developments in the Paris Olympics. The judicial process is moving at its own pace.
These are the major landmarks. How many of us remember (a) the 2017 Unnao Rape case involving a political leader, in which the 17-year-old victim attempted self-immolation outside the residence of the Chief Minister of the state in April 2018, or (b) the 2018 Kathua rape case which involved the abduction, gang rape, and murder of an 8-year-old girl by seven males (six men and a juvenile) in Rasana village near Kathua, in J&K, (c) the 2019 Hyderabad rape case in which four individuals allegedly raped and murdered a 26-year-old veterinary doctor, or (d) the 2020 Hathras rape case in which four upper-caste men allegedly gang-raped a 19-year-old Dalit young woman, and her body forcibly cremated without her family’s consent, or (e) the 2022 Ankita Bhandari case in which the 19-year-old was raped and murdered, and her body was recovered by the State Disaster Response Force of the state from a canal’s barrage?
The list goes on….
Ironically, just the day after the Supreme Court hearing the R.G. Kar Hospital case, the news of the horrific Badlapur case broke revealing utterly unacceptable assaults on four-year-old girls.
This litany will not stop because such acts have implicit and tacit social/political approval, or at least, there is not a very strong and visible disapproval. What else do the frequent and liberal paroles granted to the likes of Ram Rahim Singh and Asa Ram indicate?
Our commentariat has, of course, made a great contribution to the discourse by comparing the rates of rape in various states based on data from the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) and praising states with rates lower than the others but still much higher than zero, implying that some low rates of rape are possibly acceptable.
The crowning, or sad, proof is the so-called Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam, or what for Women’s Reservation Act, was passed as the 128th Constitutional Amendment Bill, 2023, reserving one-third of seats for women in Lok Sabha and State Assemblies, and it was given assent to by the President on September 29, 2023. First seeded in 1989 and first formally introduced in 1996, it was of course hailed as one of the greatest achievements of independent India. What the small print said was not broadcast loudly, that it will actually be implemented only after the next de-limitation exercise! Delimitation required a census to be held before it. The census due in 2021 has not yet been held so far.
This reminds one of what Sahir Ludhianvi wrote for a 1958-film by the name Phir Subah Hogi. Sahir wrote an ode to eternal hope: “Vo subha kabhi to aayegi”, that morning will come. For the women of India the eternity might end in 2029, or it might not.
What can be done?
This is a question to which there is no real or complete response possible but some observations are in order.
As is clear from the above, we do not seem to be capable of anything other than going through periodic “moments of catharsis”. We seem to have got used to living with this national shame where half of our citizens live in constant fear. Despite the varied claims of women’s place in various religious pantheons and whataboutery of what is the status of women in other countries of the world, we, as a nation, ought to hang our head in shame.
But, again, what can be done? The Supreme Court has “formed the view that a national consensus must be evolved – after due consultation with all stake-holders – on the urgent need to formulate protocols governing the issues which this order has highlighted.” With due deference to the highest court and removing the niceties of language, what is possibly meant is a consensus within the political establishment because no other stakeholder is immune to political manoeuvrings.
The value of consensus, particularly political, is much too well known to need comment. What this means is that the women of India will have to keep waiting for eternity for the political class to do anything for them, and this includes women who are in politics.
So, the response to “What can be done?” possibly lies in learning from others. This is where the Suffragettes’ Movement in the United Kingdom provides a clue. It was the movement that gave women in the UK the right to vote. Without going into too much detail, it must be said that the Movement actually started in 1865 when it was decided a memorandum signed by 100 women would be submitted to the British Parliament. As the memorandum went around, 1,499 signatures were collected and the memorandum was presented to the Parliament in 1866. Two further petitions were presented to the Parliament in May 1867 and an amendment to the 1867 law pertaining to voting to give women the same political rights as men, was also proposed but was defeated by 196 votes to 73.
A Manchester Women’s Suffrage Committee was also formed in 1867 to work with the Independent Labour Party (ILP) to secure votes for women, but, although the local ILP were very supportive, nationally the party refused to make women’s suffrage a priority. In 1897, the Manchester Women’s Suffrage committee merged with the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies (NUWSS) but some members became impatient with the ILP and the staid campaign methods of NUWSS and instead decided to take more positive action. They met at the home of one of them on October 10, 1903, and formed a new society called Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU). One of the founders wrote:
“We voted to call our new society the Women’s Social and Political Union, partly to emphasise its democracy, and partly to define its object as political rather than propagandist. We resolved to limit our membership exclusively to women, to keep ourselves absolutely free from party affiliation, and to be satisfied with nothing but action on our question. ‘Deeds, not words’ was to be our permanent motto” (Italics added).
This is the heart of the lesson for the women of India: Membership limited exclusively for women, staying absolutely free from (political) party affiliation, and not to be satisfied with anything except (real) action.
To complete the story of the Suffargettes’ Movement, the WPSU engaged in civil disobedience and direct action. Their actions were even referred to as militant. When arrested and presented in courts, they refused to pay fines and preferred to go to jail. When in jail, they demanded the status of political prisoners, and when that was not granted, they went on hunger strikes when they were force-fed. Some who were force-fed suffered short-term damage to the circulatory system, digestive system, and nervous system, and long-term damage to physical and mental health. Some even contracted diseases such as pleurisy or pneumonia as a result of misplaced tube. One of the women was reported to have been forcibly-fed 292 times during five years from 1909 to 1914. Those who had gone on hunger strike in prison received a Hunger Strike Medal from the WSPU on their release.
During the World War I from 1914 to 1918, the Suffragettes suspended their movement and contributed to the war effort.
Post the war, public opinion changed and women over the age of 30 years who met minimum property qualifications were allowed to vote in 1918. Finally, the voting franchise was extended to all women over the age of 21 in 1928, granting women the vote on the same terms as men.
In sum, starting from 1865, the movement finally succeeded in 1928, after a total of 53 years, with one major turn in between, in 1903, when the women decided to take it upon themselves, leaving the men and the political parties behind, and focusing on real action and not words or symbolic action.
Light at the end of a tunnel
There is a saying in Hindi which translates to “One cannot go to heaven without first dying oneself.” Men, and politicians (women included) will not share the power that they enjoy. Exactly how it will or can be done will also have to be decided by women themselves. Any offers for assistance or help particularly from politicians, their agents, and men should be kept as far away as possible.
They have been waiting for thousands of years or at least 75 years. The wait will go on even further but if an organised and active struggle is on, however small, there will be a light at the end of the tunnel, however long the tunnel may be.
Let me end this piece with two quotes. One is by the famous women anthropologist, Margaret Mead, who said, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”
The second quote is from the Hindi poet, Pushyamitra Upadhyay, from a poem he wrote in 2012, after the Nirbhaya case. The opening line of the poem is “सुनो द्रौपदी! शस्त्र उठालो अब गोविंद ना आएंगे…” which, in free translation, means “Listen Draupadi, pick up arms, now Govind (Krishna) will not come…” This refers to the sequence in Mahabharat when Duryodhana is attempting to disrobe Draupadi and Krishna comes to her rescue by making her saree of an infinite length. The poet exhorts Draupadi that she should pick up arms to protect herself and Krishna is not going to come to her help in this day and age.
This is what the women of India should do today.
Jagdeep S. Chhokar is a concerned citizen.
