It’s the last column for 2014. I look back in anger – Badaun, the school in Bangalore, Uber, Flipkart’s delivery boy, and so many more stories. Statistics say 93 women are raped every day in India. Not to mention the countless others assaulted, humiliated, disrespected, disregarded, killed.
But you’ll be surprised to know that I look ahead with hope. Because the same statistics also show a gradual increase in the number of rapes reported in India – from around 25,000 in 2012 to around 34,000 in 2013. When you pick up the papers each morning, it appears as if rapes have suddenly increased, like a contagion. But this spurt is also due to the fact that more and more women are coming forward to report rape because they have begun to believe that they will be heard, that they will get justice, that they won’t be shamed. And mainstream media is picking up the stories more diligently. It’s a small but sweet shoot of hope.
These tiny green shoots can be seen sprouting in so many places – the number of men who now fight for women’s rights, the number of husbands who are stay-at-home dads, the number of organisations, shelters, and rights groups that fight the good fight, the offices that adjust work routines, the couples who share housework, the wives who leave abusive marriages, the girls who refuse to pay dowry, the boys who refuse to take it.
And then, of course, there are all those amazing women who take the fight just that one step further. Here are three such stories.
A tiny village in Mizoram. A woman called G. Lalthanzami whose husband was viciously abusive. Lalthanzami was not only brave enough to walk out with her small son, she found a way to teach herself English and computer skills. She also raised funds, and today runs a safe home for other survivors of domestic violence.
Bulandhshahar, UP. Television footage shows B. Chandrakala, District Magistrate, a young woman with straight black hair, tearing into Municipality officers and PWD engineers because a newly laid sewage line already lies broken. She shouts in Hindi: ‘Shame on you! This is public money. The loss will be taken from your salaries’. This takes no small courage. Chandrakala has already been transferred as DM, Mathura because she stood up against corruption there too.
Diamond centre Surat in Gujarat. Young Beena Rao, inspired by her father, is greedy for glitter of a different kind. She started teaching two or three slum children at home. Today, she runs Prayas, a free coaching institute that teaches over 1,000 slum students at eight coaching centres through 34 volunteers. The effort is financed by Beena and supported with donations.
There are hundreds such stories, hundreds of small victories that shout out that women won’t be so easily crushed into silence and subjugation anymore. And that’s what fills me with hope.
