And then there were womens groups everywhere.... a spontaneous thing...noone went around talking, organising....
Stirrings against Oppression
In 1980, on March 8, International Women’s Day, there were marches, demonstrations and meetings in various cities of India, focusing on the issue of rape in the country and injustices in the law relating to rape.
The initiative had been taken earlier in Bombay. Protesting against the Supreme Court’s reversal of the verdict in the Mathura case, a broad-based Forum against Rape was formed. A public meeting was organized on February 25 and a demonstration on March 7. A mass signature campaign was also started, demanding the reopening of the Mathura case.
Before the public meeting a street play concerning the Mathura rape case was performed at some places in Bombay. At the public meeting, songs were sung on women’s liberation and sexual exploitation of women. This was followed by the performance of the street play, a talk on the legal and social aspects of rape, and on medical problems associated with proving rape. A 10-minute play in Hindi was performed, depicting the treatment given to a raped woman when she goes to a police station: how the woman is humiliated and made to feel that ir is she who is guilty. There followed a talk on the social and political use of rape, and then a discussion in which individuals from among the audience participated. There were also demonstration on use of karate and judo for self- defense by women.
By this time, the press had begun to take notice of the agitation against rape. The Mathura case, as an instance, became a household word, since newspapers and magazines printed lead pieces on the issue. The Forum itself sent out its circulars and leaflets to women in different parts of the county asking for co-ordinated action on March 8. A leaflet, “isn’t It Time We Looked Rape in the Face?”, said:
Mathura’s case is only one such instance. To single it out would be to question all rape case judgments, to question the rape law, to begin to wonder why, with unfailing frequency, the convictions are so few, to realize that under the Indian Penal code it is virtually impossible to prove rape. It would draw too much attention to something which for too long we have pretended doesn’t really exist. Isn’t it time we looked rape in the face?
Isn’t it time we accepted that it does occur, all the time, everywhere? Accept that all women are potential victims – be they young or old, attractive or plain. ‘Nice or not nice’ rich or poor? Only if you’re not Mathura, am illiterate farm labourer, the chances are less. The Mathura’s of the country are doubly oppressed, they are women and they belong to an already oppressed section in a nation where justice is the privilege of a few. And the women don’t face the terror of rape as individuals – but as a category. Mass rape, often used as a weapon to demonstrate power. You don’t have to look far for examples have you forgotten what happened to the wives of railway workers during the 1974 railway strike? To the wives of mine workers at Bailadilla in 1977? To Dalit women at Chandigarh, Bhojpuri and Agra? Or Muslim women at Jamshedpur Aligarh and in almost all communal riots? To Mizo and Nepali women at the hands of the Indian army?
But you don’t have to be raped to realize what you’re up against. Don’t you know it already? Doesn’t every woman know it? Watching a film where the graphic rape scene and the encouraging boots and whistles from the audience turns your stomach. Walking down the road, travelling in a bus or a train, trying to ignore remarks, taunts, someone’s hand feeling you up, brushing against you. Did you ask for it? Invite it?
And if tomorrow you’re raped, what will you do? And if you are a man and your sister or daughter or mother is raped what will you do? After you carefully cherisher myths disintegrate around you that rape occurs dawns on you that rape occurs without women “asking for it”. Will you be one of the 800 cases reported in Bombay in on year and have the courage to say “I was raped”? or will you be one of the 8,000 others, for to every reported rape there are 10-12 unreported ones?
In Dalit Street plays were preformed, a morcha was taken out by several women’s organization, and a delegation met Indira Gandhi. In Hyderabad, on March 3 and March 8 there was a meeting and demonstration. In Kolhapur, there was a public meeting, after which a demonstration was taken out to the police station demanding action on a local issue. In Pune, Belgaum and Nagpur there were meetings. Smaller towns were not quiet either. On March 3, the Forum received news about a case of Palghar near Bombay in Thana district of Maharashtra: 25-year old Manjula an adivasi woman from Chahade (a village – 6 km from Palghar) left for Palghar on the morning of February 20. She never came back. Her dead body was found the following day. According to police. Manjula’s body was found naked; her sari was tied around her neck and had been used to strangle her. The place of death bore marks of struggle. Three empty bottles of brandy were found near the body. Medical reports suggested that she had been raped. Palghar women decided to have a morcha. Hundreds marched to the police station demanding justice to Mathura and Manjula. As a follow-up the Bombay CID was called in, and a landlord’s son was arrested.
In Talasri, Thana district again, 1,500 women marched to the Tahsildar’s office and the police station. Adivasi women spoke at these meetings about the burdens and injustices suffered by women. They demanded the reopening of the Mathura case: they condemned police inaction in the Palghar incident: they spoke about rape in their own lives, by policemen, contractors, moneylenders and shopkeepers. Others spoke about the evils of alcoholism which they maintained had been introduced by the moneylenders and landlords. Some spoke on rising prices, the right to work, and the corruption in the employment guarantee scheme.
In the suburbs of Bombay on March 9, there was rape of a minor girl who was going to church in the morning. The community decided to take out a morcha. Thousands of men, women, and children, came out in a silent morcha to the police station. No longer were people willing to keep qiet about rape and the sexual harassment of women.
The National Federation of Indian women held a dharna outside Parliament on March 17. A petition submitted to parliament demanded; (1) reopening of the Mathura case (2) immediate suspension of and disciplinary proceedings against, policemen and officials of the police forces accused of, or charged with, having committed rape: (3) amendments in the rape law: (4) appointment of a national committee by the ministry concerned with representation from women’s group of lawyers, and civil liberties organizations. The committee would investigate the pattern of rape (reported and unreported) in the country, study the functioning of the medical and legal institutions which deal with rape and recommend further changes in the law.
Women’s organizations in Delhi also submitted petitions to the law ministry and to the Supreme Court regarding the Mathura case. A seminar was organized in Delhi where several lawyers and women’s organization participated. A petition demanding the reopening of the Mathura case was also submitted to the Maharashtra government since it had been a party to the case. The state government promptly petitioned the Supreme Court for a review of the case. On March 29, the Supreme Court decided to review the case.
What remains to be seen is whether this loose co-operation and co-ordination remains, whether more and more issues concerning women are taken up, whether long-term work continues and whether more and more women get involved.
March 29, 1980
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