(Repeating Sunday item, no change to text)
By Nita Bhalla
NEW DELHI, Sept 9 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – The serial
rapist stalks her for days. Eventually he breaks into her home
when she is alone and tries to rape her at knife-point. But she
somehow manages to overpower and trap him.
Now, she has to decide what to do. Kill him and bury him in
the garden? Or call the police, who are known to be insensitive
and where there is a likelihood he will be let off?
The plot is from “Kill the Rapist?” – a new Bollywood
thriller which aims to embolden Indian women to report rapes,
but also deter potential rapists by making them “shiver with
fear before even thinking of rape”, says its Facebook page.
It may be a controversial, but it is all part of a growing
conversation in India about violence against women following the
fatal gang-rape of a 23-year-old trainee physiotherapist in
December which prompted tens of thousands of urban Indians to
take to the streets to protest.
Nine months on, the protesters have disappeared, but the
case has left a more lasting impact on Indian society. The judge
in the trial of the four men charged with raping and killing the
woman is due to deliver his verdict in a Delhi court on Tuesday.
A teenager tried separately in the same case was sentenced
to three years in juvenile detention last month.
“The December incident shook me to the core,” says
Siddhartha Jain, the 39-year-old producer of “Kill the Rapist?”
“I didn’t want this just to be another story that would be
forgotten in a year. My film is an excuse to amplify the
discussion of women’s security and hopefully bring about some
positive changes.”
The increased awareness is not just reflected in cinema.
Newspapers and television news stations have stepped up their
coverage of gender crimes, social media sites are full of debate
and even Bollywood stars and cricketers are joining the
discussion in campaigns to promote women’s safety.
Social commentators say the issue – once only really debated
by civil society activists, feminists and academics – is gaining
ground and is being widely discussed by the urban middle
classes.
“I think the conversation has changed, there appears to be
much more sensitivity towards gender issues now from many
quarters,” says Santosh Desai, a columnist and author of “Mother
Pious Lady: Making sense of Everyday India”.
“Before it was always a discussion between one small group
of people with another small group of people. Now, for the first
time, it is coming into the mainstream and the conversation
isn’t just dying down after a few days. It is being sustained.”
“SOCIAL TRIGGER”
This has not translated into women feeling any safer in
India, say activists, but it has helped in breaking the silence
surrounding crimes against women in a deeply patriarchal
country.
Police in New Delhi, for example, believe a rise in rape
reports is partly due to an increased willingness by victims to
come forward. There were 1,036 cases of rape reported in the
capital this year to Aug. 15, against 433 cases over the same
period last year, according to police data.
Much of the growing awareness can be attributed to the
media, which has voraciously covered the December assault and
other such crimes in the last nine months.
“The media played the role of a social trigger on this whole
issue. This case created an overflow of emotions and became the
tipping point for Indian society when it came to the subject of
violence against women,” said Prabhakar Kumar, of the
Delhi-based Centre for Media Studies.
Last month, Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan held true to
a pledge following the Delhi gang-rape, placing his leading
lady’s name before his in the opening credits of his blockbuster
film “Chennai Express” – a statement aimed at promoting the idea
of respect for women in a male-dominated film industry.
Social commentators emphasise that while the heightened
consciousness around women abuse has not really touched the
conservative rural masses that make up 70 percent of India’s 1.2
billion people, it has had an impact in urban areas.
“Since it happened, there have been continual protests over
rape cases in Delhi as well as other parts of the country and
people have come out in greater numbers than ever before,” says
Kavita Krishnan, secretary of the All India Progressive Women’s
Association. “This shows that there is a more sustained interest
in this subject and people want action on such issues.”
From New Delhi to Mumbai, Kolkata and Manipal, India has
witnessed a wave of sporadic protests erupting over rape cases,
forcing authorities to take action.
(Additional reporting by Shyamantha Asokan in NEW DELHI and D.
Jose in THIRUVANANTHAPURAM; Editing by Nick Macfie)
