No rising: Where have the capital's protesters gone?

On December 16, the national capital was shaken out of its slumber with the brutal gang rape of a 23-year-old paramedical student. About two months on, one would have expected Dilliwalas to rise in numbers and crusade to put an end to sexual and physical violence against women.

But the Delhi chapter of “One Billion Rising” turned out to be more of a media mela with journalists and participating organisers making up for most of the crowd.

There were the street plays, dances, speeches and songs sung against gender-based violence. But the worldwide campaign in Delhi remained, more or less, a choreographed “event” lacking in spirit and spontaneity, and mass participation. That said the campaign had it’s moments, be it few, of genuine active citizenship.

Megha Chaudhary (24), a branding consultant and a keen social campaigner, was one of the seven girls that organised a flash mob across three venues in the city, including the Parliament Street. Chaudhary said the girls put up an instructional video online to get people to learn and participate in the flash mob.

“A lot of people wondered whether it is appropriate to use dance – which is essentially celebratory – to talk about the issue of violence against women. But the idea is for women to reclaim public spaces,” said Chaudhary.

In a city where women can’t walk alone without worrying about who’d grab them next, dancing with abandon on the streets is surely an idea that questions notions of propriety and “correct” behaviour imposed on women.

Among a melee of media people and NGO workers, there were also few college students who chose to mark Valentine’s Day by celebrating womanhood. Anjumand Fatima, a 22-year-old Delhi University student from Kargil, said she decided to join the campaign as she was fed up of reading the daily dose of news on crimes against women. “I have never experienced sexual or physical violence, but it sickens me to read about such incidents,” she said.

It was important for her to stand up, be counted and do her bit to stop violence against women, Anjumand said. If only the rest of Delhi thought like her.

@MnshaP