DNA Edit | Women in India, be it rich or poor, remain unsafe

India hangs its head in shame once again as a terrible tapestry of political power and gender harassment unspools in Chandigarh. Late on Friday night last week, Vikas Barala, the inebriated son of Haryana BJP President Subhash Barala and his friend were arrested on charges of stalking a Disc Jockey, who more importantly, is the daughter of a senior IAS officer. At the risk of sounding parochial, it is important to stress the latter qualification of the woman because it is her father’s position in the bureaucracy that forced the police’s hand in registering a FIR. Had the girl’s father been a commoner, the matter would have been quietly swept under the rug.

Incidentally, according to reports, attempts were made to pressurise the police, one reason possibly why charges against the accused were watered down. The victim had to take to Facebook to share her experience of almost “being kidnapped”. “I’m lucky,” she said, “it seems, to not be the daughter of a common man, because what chance would they have against such VIPs? I’m also lucky because I’m not lying raped and murdered in a ditch somewhere.” Her account should shake us to our core. Sharing details of the incident, she wrote, “I find it shocking, that in a place with cameras at every light and cops every 200 metres, these boys thought they could either get into my car, or take me into theirs, just because they’re from an influential background.”

Reportedly, when the woman and her father were in the police station, cops at the site kept receiving phone calls from prominent local leaders coaxing them to scupper the complaint, and the complaint would have been killed had it not been for her bureaucrat father. In a Facebook post, the father said: “As would be expected, the goons are from influential families. We all know most such cases of harassment go unpunished. We know it’s not going to be an easy struggle.”

What is not remiss in this entire incident is the class clout when it comes to accessibility to justice. Millions of underprivileged women face sexual harassment daily without any recourse to institutional justice. Very few of these cases come to fore as calculations of caste, class, religion or power govern whether a complaint is registered by the police. Even if a complaint is registered, the evidence in many cases is compromised by the police, which weakens the case against the perpetrators. However, the investigation in this case must be taken to its logical conclusion. Only then will a strong message be sent. India needs to be safer for her daughters.