#dnaEdit: Haryana horror

The vulnerability of women in public spaces is again in the spotlight with the video grab of two women spiritedly fighting molesters in a Haryana Roadways bus while the crowd, including the driver and the conductor, raise not a finger to help — a passivity so in sync with an uncaring, voyeuristic society backed in this case by khap panchayats, politicians and even the Chief Minister.

The courage of the two sisters in Rohtak town was a reminder, if any were needed, that public transport is still fraught with danger, that violence against women is taken casually, even flippantly, and that the lessons from what has come to be known as the December 16 incident are yet to be learnt, notwithstanding the grandstanding by all.

That December 16, 2012, a physiotherapy intern was brutally raped in a moving bus and left for dead in a Delhi street. A little less than two years later, Arti, 22, and Puja,19, stepped into another bus on their way to college. What should have been an everyday commute turned into a nightmare as they resisted assault, thrashing the men with one girl even pulling out a belt. All the while, the bus kept moving and everyone watched — except for a pregnant woman who helped them file a police complaint. A video shot of the episode, taken from a mobile, went viral, prompting the police to arrest three men and Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar to announce that the sisters would be felicitated on Republic Day.

It was a sickeningly familiar scenario for the millions of women who step out of home each day to go to office, school and college. Just three months ago in August, two schoolgirls in Rohtak committed suicide because they were being stalked and sexually harassed. Fortunately, Arti and Puja did not suffer the same fate as the Delhi intern or the Rohtak teens but the callous looking away was much the same, finding echo in most of India and particularly in Haryana, the state with the lowest sex ratio in the country, with the khaps encouraging honour killings and issuing diktats on dress and codes of conduct for women and the Chief Minister actively backing them.  
After all, it was Haryana’s new Chief Minister who had said just in October that girls should dress decently to avoid luring boys and that khap rulings prevented rapes. Khattar was also quoted as saying, “If you want freedom, why don’t they just roam around naked? Freedom has to be limited…”

Khattar, a member of India’s ruling BJP, is just one member of a misogynistic breed of politicians giving a fillip to men like the Rohtak trio who think they can get away with anything — remember Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav’s indulgent boys will be boys comment on rape? 

The story of Arti and Puja too would have passed into an unsung chapter of their lives had it not been for social media and public outrage. But there has to be some purpose to it. The gains from the December 16 movement seem all but lost. The culture of impunity continues. There is no accountability — not for Khattar’s statements, not for the driver who should have taken the bus to the police station and not for the many who watched on silently. 

It’s almost beyond belief that the likes of Khattar are the custodians of women’s safety. He must go. And mere labels such as bravehearts are futile. Women should not need to feel brave each time they step into the bus!