March Against Rape

I was at the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) titled ‘Global Innovator’s Conference’ at Washington DC for the past week . The conference was an opportunity for us to learn from countries across the globe about the challenges and the ways they reached out and brought positive change in their world using intelligent strategy and unparalleled compassion. There were people from over 30 countries. 

However my heart was in India and all I wanted to do was to be a part of the movement that shook India last week- the one against the brutal rape of 8-year-old Asifa. It has left a dent in our hearts and left us wounded forever. The gory details of how she was captured, drugged, repeatedly raped and finally murdered, will haunt us for long. Truth be told, no matter how bitter it is – this is not the truth about one girl. We are a nation where 57 per cent of children face some sort of abuse. This is what the statistics from the Ministry of Woman and Child Welfare tells us, way back in the year 2007. 

Over the years, we have done very little in comparison to the epidemic proportions that sexual assault has occurred. We need outcry, we need anger, we need revolt but more than reactionary methods to gory episodes of rape and torture, we need proactive approaches to get to the root of the problem and tackle it. 

We need more schools and colleges speaking about these issues and more importantly we need dismantling of male privilege in our homes and every institution.

This also makes me realise that many of the rapes do not even get reported. Speaking specifically of the LGBT community, I have spoken to several adult survivors of child sexual abuse and each one of them has a unique story terror, of being disempowered and vulnerable. Many are raped just because they were different. They are all grappling with being different in a world that wants us all to be carbon copies of each other. Being different is seen as a good enough reason to exploit their bodies. People from all genders get sexually abused. 

And the women behind the event in Bandra Amphitheater on 15 April know this best. Sapna Bhavnani who has been a part of the play named ‘Nirbhaya’, has consistently stood up for the larger cause of humanity. I would have expected nothing less from her. In everything that she does, there is less of an over-enthusiastic itinerary and more of organic manifestation of the collective creative energies that converge together for change. Pain is a great equaliser. 

People tend to forget the fact that rich, famous and the average people in the street are all one when they are dealing with pain. And the pain of carrying the mutilated body of a young 8-year-old child is something that our shoulders are bearing now. Because there is a bit of Asifa in all of us. And if our own pain would not move us to demand change and justice, nothing else will.

Hai naah?

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