NO MORE NIRBHAYA, ABHAYA: DO SOMETHING, DO ONE THING
A letter to my Big Sister
The brutal, vicious, dastardly, criminal, seemingly pre- meditated and fatal Gender Based Violence perpetrated on a young female Doctor-on-Duty in a work context is criminal, as well as ghoulish.?It has challenged once again the belief that we, in India, are a civilized society, the “Devi” in the temple and the slut in the public area, the “Beti and Mother and Behan” in the cloistered, sequestered area and the available prey in public, it has challenged our double- speak, hypocrisy and contradictions between what we quote, what we speak, what we slogan about and how we act.
?Calendars have changed since December 2012 but the conditions have not changed for the female citizens of this country be her an infant or a child, or a teenager or a young professional or an older woman labelled Senior Citizen. ?Once again a day in August 2024, has been bathed in blood and wrapped in criminal intent and behaviour.?
?With this as background a political slug-fest is on, TRP competition is on, on TV screens, naming and shaming fencing is on, and verbal duels are on, on Social Media. We 99% of women of India are watching and wondering “what is all the noise about? We know what the problems are”.?
?The problems are many and many layered. I have many questions more than the problems.?
The legal process for “Nirbhaya” was completed. Was this “justice” after the hanging of the criminals? Was it worth her life??Was it a lesson for future criminals? Hanging of the perpetrators did not prove to be a deterrent.?Instead it turned out to be a prompt for murder after rape and brutality.?No evidence, No case, No sentence. The Juvenile the cruellest is rehabilitated after a sentence. The JJ Act has been amended since.
Apparently NOT in the hospitals, in the training centres, in the schools, in the colleges. ?Doctors are health workers by WHO which also reports that “Globally, 63% of health workers report experiencing any form of violence at the workplace”[1]?
?Consequently, what will be safe decent working conditions for health workers including doctors, technicians and others? ?Are the systems and structures in place to ensure that decent work conditions are available to the health professional?
Prima facie there is a huge absence of recognition of the essential, non-negotiable safety infrastructure and facilities and its maintenance and upkeep.?ILO defines “Decent Work” as excerpted below and there are convention that countries have ratified and report on it. “Decent work sums up the aspirations of people in their working lives. It involves opportunities for work that is productive and delivers a fair income, security in the workplace and social protection for all, better prospects for personal development and social integration, freedom for people to express their concerns, organize and participate in the decisions that affect their lives and equality of opportunity and treatment for all women and men.”[2]
As a state policy we are constructing toilets across the length and breadth of the country but where are the toilets for women and men health workers and patients in the hospitals, especially the public hospitals, in the National Capital and in the state capitals. CCTV cameras at state expense have made entire residential areas into surveillance zones but there is scant maintenance in the places most needed in hospitals, nursing homes and other places of public traffic, coming and going.?
From the tribal village to the rural areas, to the coastal village to the jhuggis and middle class homes in urban areas special arrangements are made for visitors or new members joining the family.
Similarly, why is this arrangement for resting places, a bed, equipped work stations not planned when recruiting female health workers of all classifications????What are the gate keeping systems and mechanisms in places of public interactions?
We have the paraphernalia with budgeted costs of a Ministry, a Commission at the Central and State levels, what is their role besides being the Devis and the cloistered Betis and Behans in the public institutions waiting for signals to act and speak!!?It is time to review and audit their functioning and outputs leave alone outcomes and impacts.
It seems the law treats offenders with legal infraction differently when it comes to the nature of crimes. Persons who are under investigation for financial misdemeanour, major and minor, are in custody. And persons with cases of violence brutality against a CITIZEN or CITIZENS of the country are in legislative bodies making the very same laws that they have violated.?Which crime is more heinous?
The conditions that prevail especially for girls make it unlikely, does not seem to go beyond slogans and rhetoric. ?The actions of the state organs and the partisan responses indicate otherwise.?Is there a willingness and honesty to take the numerous steps to “bachao” the young women as citizens and equal rights holders who are willing to go the miles to discharge their duties after they have competed their “padhayee”?
Yes it has been diluted, distorted and corrupted. ?Metaphorically speaking the moral compass does neither point north or north east or North West anymore. ?It is going haywire rapidly. The rapidly changing society due to technology, digitization, people migration, state policies, changing family systems and relations, institutional breakdown have loosened the organic contracts. The lack of accountability of the public systems is percolating down to the lower organizations.
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The relationship between the mobile screen and the owner of the mobile is more intimate than between siblings, parents and children. The mobile screen brings the much frowned upon sexual and pornographic content on one touch and flick of the finger. This is an area for psycho social study. But a factor in the erosion of the social, family control and oversight. ?
The knee jerk reaction of women should not work night shifts was irresponsible, was not thought through and seemed like using this tragedy as a way to give away the grounds gained after decades of?struggle and strategizing.
The rest are the attitudes, capacities and capabilities of the personnel of the law and order and investigation agencies.
?Not give up!!
?Not step back!!
?Not to yield ground gained in the school, workplace, shop floor, in the sports field, in uniformed services, in the aircraft even in the space ship.
?Refocus on implementing the transformative laws that are in place as a consequence of decades of struggles.
?Monitor, Audit and Review the implementation of laws. Hold organizations, including Ministries and Commissions, accountable for action and inaction.?Prioritize the auditing according to the parameters laid down in the 2013 Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition, and Redressal) Act. Seek technical and budgetary help of the multilateral and bi lateral bodies who share the basic commitment to the Right to safety, security and livelihoods and decent work conditions. ?Pick up the Organizations that have the highest number of employees, at this moment the health, medical organizations.???
?Not to name and shame the survivors! ?Engage with the new emerging people’s digital media which is spreading fast and has a larger reach out. The content would include among other topics sensitivity while reporting, the laws that relate to the workplace, what is a work place in this fluid no-location format. ??
?Catch the perps and make sure justice is administered in 30-45 days.?
?Clear the backlog of all sexual violation cases in a agreed upon time frame. Make special courts with trained magistrates and law workers.
?Continue working with the legislative, justice, legal and law enforcement systems and agencies. Work needs to be done with each and every Institution and its organizations.
The lives of these young women from UK, Bengal, Delhi, Telangana and others must not go in vain. We will pull ourselves to our full heights, stand on our past experiences and go for another round of work at all levels to ensure the realization of promises made, by our own fore-parents, ?in the Constitution for all Indians.
For us as participant actors the task of nation building and social transformation is not linear, it has been and will ?be one step forward and three step backwards, since it challenges the existing power equations and fine balances. ?We have trained many and when the time comes we shall hand over the baton. This relay for change will be sui genris and continue.
?And keep away from the ongoing slug-fest between marionettes of political parties. The political systems needs a re-look by citizens.
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Director at Context India
6 个月A third comment, we should also not forget the millions of poor women (especially dalits and adivasi) in the slums and villages, who have no recourse to either POSH or the legal system is beyond their reach. We need to work for them too...
Director at Context India
6 个月Second post in continuation, on the societal front, we need to seriously look at how to smash patriarchy fully, I know a tough call, but needs to be done. We can start at the home front, but we need to also change our text books which at school from primary to the highest levels. We still have primary text books which show the boy as strong and girl as weak and man as bread winner and women as housekeeper etc. I believe it must start there. At home front the preference for boy child and the extra focus of boys is also an area of concern. All of us, not just girls/women, need to start exposing work spaces where the POSH is either not there or is just used to show they have it, but works totally in favour of the perpetrator - the men and bosses. I have seen this also in many NGO's and called it out, but even the donor agencies who speak on all these did not take action even after 12-15 years they continue to fund that organisation - so this speaks of double standards at all levels, I gave this example of NGO because we assume that it would be better in this sector, so you can imagine what it is in the for profit sector. So, we have a lot to do, but we need to keep doing and exposing and fighting for the rights of all humans.
Director at Context India
6 个月Well said, in my view, there are two levels that need focus, one is at the societal level and the other governance level. You cover many aspects of the governance level, here there is a need for police reforms/sensitisation and divorcing the police from political pressure. We need to expand our judiciary to handle the cases and here too we need sensitisation as their patriarchal work and mind set often does not give results for the survivor girls and women. The conviction rates are abysmally low. Third, the way we treat the convicts after their conviction also is a point in view which comes in the political arena, we know of the recent instances of these so not elaborating. And there are many more... ...continued in next post on the societal aspects
Independent Consultant Social Inclusion & Development
6 个月contd.. My comments on your reaction and for you to consider: ?You have raised questions as to why the laws have not been effective? Perhaps the answer to that lies in the fact that people are not ‘legally literate’; and do not know how to make use of them. But while this needs to be rectified by various organizations by making legal awareness and translating the legal rights and laws into a language (& in their dialect or speech culture) by which they become aware of the laws that exist in law books. This is a socio-political exercise. How many organizations are doing this? And to transform attitudes and culture is a difficult work to do. It needs to be done, how ever long and effort it may need. ?At the same time, another factor at work is that, since 2012, the faith in law enforcement and legal institutions, which was already low, has declined further. And add to that that many of the lawmakers themselves have cases of sexual molestation, including rape, leads to low credibility of law enforcing institutions and hope for justice. *In this kind of situation, only a socio-cultural change could work, by attacking the base of the pyramid (which women’s organizations talk about) which permits such a culture to prevail."
Independent Consultant Social Inclusion & Development
6 个月The conversation has begun. With appreciation I post an excerpt from a response from a friend: "1. Your write up expresses your anguish (& rightly so) at what has happened; and it expresses a variety of emotions at what has happened and why it has happened. 2. You have rightly expressed that there is a need to examine why the laws and its amendments after Nirbhaya incident, has not worked or deterred in the occurrence of such incidents. 3. The questions which you have raised are valid. Perhaps the answers to them you yourself may be able to give in due course of time. Continued in the next comment... ??