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More Indians willing to fight for women’s safety
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The serial rapist stalks her for days. Eventually he breaks into her home when she is alone and tries to rape her at knife-point. But she somehow manages to overpower and trap him.
Now, she has to decide what to do. Kill him and bury him in the garden? Or call the police, who are known to be insensitive and where there is a likelihood he will be let off?
The plot is from “Kill the Rapist?” — a new Bollywood thriller which aims to embolden Indian women to report rapes, but also deter potential rapists by making them “shiver with fear before even thinking of rape,” says its Facebook page.
It may be a controversial, but it is all part of a growing conversation in India about violence against women following the fatal gang-rape of a 23-year-old trainee physiotherapist in December. It prompted tens of thousands of urban Indians to take to the streets to protest.
Nine months on, the protesters have disappeared, but the case has left a more lasting impact on Indian society. The judge in the trial of the four men charged with raping and killing the woman is due to deliver his verdict in a New Delhi court today.
A teenager tried separately in the same case was sentenced to three years in juvenile detention last month.
“The December incident shook me to the core,” says Siddhartha Jain, the 39-year-old producer of “Kill the Rapist?”
“I didn’t want this just to be another story that would be forgotten in a year. My film is an excuse to amplify the discussion of women’s security and hopefully bring about some positive changes.”
The increased awareness is not just reflected in cinema. Newspapers and television news stations have stepped up their coverage of gender crimes, social media sites are full of debate and even Bollywood stars and cricketers are joining the discussion in campaigns to promote women’s safety.
Social commentators say the issue — once only debated by activists, feminists and academics — is gaining ground and is being widely discussed by the urban middle classes.
“I think the conversation has changed, there appears to be much more sensitivity toward gender issues now from many quarters,” says Santosh Desai, a columnist and author of “Mother Pious Lady: Making sense of Everyday India.”
“Before it was always a discussion between one small group of people with another small group of people. Now, for the first time, it is coming into the mainstream and the conversation isn’t just dying down after a few days. It is being sustained.”
Police in New Delhi, for example, believe a rise in rape reports is partly due to an increased willingness by victims to come forward. There were 1,036 cases of rape reported in the capital this year to August 15, against 433 cases over the same period last year, according to police data.
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