SHAKTI STORIES

Interviewer:     You dealt with some of the most infamous criminals and Indian history. [Yakob Menon and Ajmal Kasab]. Could you tell me a little bit about your experience with those cases?

 

Meeran Borwankar:    Actually what happened was when initially I joined police; I wasn't dealing with this high grade criminals. So over a process of say, 20 years, I learned the ropes of policing. And somehow Crime Investigation used to interest me and I worked on it and I thought it's

 my forte now. So when I got posted as chief of crime branch mobile that's the first time and I dealt with the organized crime like [Chotarajen]. So I told you I am by nature I'm adventurous. So when it came to conducting raids, I would always leave I also had this concept that IPS has to lead even if it's a mid time raid. It’s an odd place but I felt that IPS has to lead. Since I had also developed good investigation skills so when it was organized criminals, you have to work hard on your documentation which I worked on. As well Kasab and Yakub Menon I came in touch with only when I was a prison chief and both had been given sentence, death sentence.

 

Interviewer:     So you mentioned organized crime, right and the movie Mardaani was based off your life and that obviously is about organized crime in child sex trafficking. Was that ever a part of your career and if so what did … what was your role in it?

 

Meeran Borwankar: It's not in my life, it's one episode. When I became Police Commissioner of Pune, this was the first time in Maharashtra they were giving Commissioner to a lady officer. Now I had a little introspection on what exactly can I contribute the most or considering my gender? Pune has an area called [Buduhapit] which is known for flesh/sex trade. So I decided that at least I will make it zero tolerance for trafficking of minors. See, by the time I became Commissioner that phase of idealism had given way to realistic expectations from myself, from my staff, from the community. So I thought I cannot stop human trafficking per se. I had already dealt with it in crime branch movement. So I thought, since I can't stop it totally at least I can see that miners are not trading when I am wearing the uniform of commissioner of police.

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Interviewer:     So about the child sex trafficking in the in the trailer of your movie it says that India is the world's hub for child sex trafficking right? Why is that and what factors in India have led to it being such a big hub for child sex trafficking?

 

Meeran Borwankar:   Besides criminals and accused in these cases being mentally deranged, disturbed, there are lots of superstitions. Like in urban areas, people feel if you have sex with the minor you will be cured of HIV/AIDS. Yes.

 

Interviewer:     Really?

 

Meeran Borwankar:    Yes. So many such factors and superstition that if you have … if you have sex with a minor the child born to you next time will be male child. These kinds of superstition prevail. Then I don't do people who are totally what would you call them? I mean the cases psychopaths. That could be two, three main reasons for it.

 

Interviewer:     So you mentioned that you were the head of the Mumbai Crime Branch. Right? And other than child sex trafficking obviously that's a really big issue but what kind of crimes have you seen? What factors of leading to the rise in crime against women and girls in India? And did you ever do it like address it in your work?

 

Meeran Borwankar:    Yeah, like I told you wherever I go, I tried to find out what can be my individual contribution. So that has been one sensitizing our own police force. I remember once that I was superintended of police which is a district chief of [???] [0:09:03] district in Maharashtra and I had invited Tata Institute of Social Sciences Faculty to sensitize my police officers about the issues of women. And to my utter distress midway through the conference one of my senior officers got up and said, “Man, why are you making an issue out of it? If my daughter comes late at home, and I slap here, what's wrong, if a husband also slap her once in a while?”

 

Interviewer:     Oh my God.

 

Meeran Borwankar: So he was not justifying wife beating per se, but he was saying that there is nothing wrong if in his mind, his girl child is going stray for him coming late is stray. So he doesn't mind slapping her. He doesn't mind her husband also doing the same. So it's a fact that India is a patriarchy where men whether in uniform or out of uniform feel women are their property. So I thought sensitization of my officers is very essential.

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Interviewer:     So you think that … do you think that victim blaming in the police is really like hurting the cause of women?

 

Meeran Borwankar:    There is a gap between … see policeman many of them are from rural areas. So they're not able to understand the emancipated women girls their thought process. So in their own minds, they feel they're advising so when I have talked to my officers. They said no we were not rude we were just advising them for your their own safety. What are you doing nine o'clock in CCD? Why are you dancing celebrating on the road go home and celebrate. So there's a gap between the thinking of a policeman and the thinking of a modern young girl.

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Interviewer:     Right and I mean now that you have retired you mentioned that you are dedicating your retirement to mentoring village and the town girls what kind of challenges do you think they face and what kind of help do they need?

 

Meeran Borwankar:    You can’t believe it, if I go … I went recently to the interior of Maharashtra districts. Now in a crowd for my talk they have assembled 802,000 youngsters. They'll have 100 girls, but not a single question will be asked by a girl. Despite my saying that first five questions I will take only from girls. But later on when they meet me individually, they would say we have lots of questions to ask. But they don't even feel confident enough to get up and ask. Whenever I asked the organizers they say the fact that 100 girls turned up itself is a celebration. So the girls in small town of Maharashtra, they are seeing lots of TV channels. They know where the world is going, where the women are going. But they don't confident that this is the world they belong to or they can belong to. I try my level best because I am a small town person so that I can relate to them. I tell lots of personal stories, how my English was so bad, how I also had a complex I used to cycle five kilometers one way to reach my school. I'm from ordinary schools. We did not have any furniture used to sit on the floor and study it was in the medium. If I can reach this position it's definitely achievable. So these kinds of positive messages I tried to give.

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Interviewer:     And you mentioned making a difference. So has a lot of your work also been against gender based crimes? What is the main focus of your career?

 

Meeran Borwankar:   My main focus for all these, see I felt I can lead but people are unsure they're apprehensive and they're not very sure whether a woman can lead. So what happened was when I went to Maharashtra the state government would not make me a district police chief. They were not comfortable the leadership there. So my point was that if my batch mates can lead a district, why can't I? So I won’t say gender was my focus, my focus was that leadership agenda neutral and if I'm competent, if I'm putting documentation if I can stand up for it law and order issue. Why should I not lead just because I happen to be woman? So throughout this even in fact Crime Branch Mumbai also they find how can a woman deal with organized crime? So I have challenged this male domination of leadership and the messages which one constantly gets in India that women can be good subordinates but not good leaders.

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So my 37 years was that not only can we lead in a competent manner but in a very natural way, I don't have to make any extra effort. So this also shared with girls that mother in the family is a leader. She's catering to their emergency; she's catering to medical issues, health issues, financial issues. So that same leadership quality I am taking to another level, but it comes naturally to us for this time to us so this fight in Maharashtra. You see, women naturally have a lot of management experience. We manage our homes, our children, our household budgets, so those skills have already been developed.

 

Interviewer:     That's a wonderful way of correlating the domestic with the professional. But it is so true because it's so taken for granted the leadership role as a mother and homemaker it's a management role. Looking after the children and the house well is a management role.

 

Meeran Borwankar: Certainly it relates to management. I see such leadership.

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Interviewer: Can you tell me a bit more about the conditions of sex trafficking victims in India?

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Meeran Borwankar:    Yes. I have worked with so many trafficking NGOs. It takes minimum three months for the girls to realize that the police is their friend. They think initially the pimps are their friends. Yes it's very difficult to break that that we are here to rescue you. We’re here to help you the pimps so called, Auntie, mama or kaka they have been exploiting you.

 

Interviewer:     Then if they think that the pimps are their friends then who are their enemies, the clients?

 

Meeran Borwankar: No they reconcile to their fate. In India the network is so huge, and pimp may not be the first person who has lured them into prostitution. It's a big chain and many women are involved in this human trafficking as a huge component of women traffickers. They will bring the young girls so the younger may think this X woman was my enemy but she has given me to Y man who forced me into it but he's giving me daily money. Many of them have children, children go to school so over a period of time they reconcile. And police who which comes certainly and breaks that routine, it’s like the famous story that when you open the cage the bird refuses to get out come out. The bird got so used to the cage.

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Interviewer:     So you mentioned that there's a chain that's the chain of exploitation. Where does the chain start? Is it that these people are… these girls are voluntarily going to the pimps or are they just being kidnapped and sent?

 

Meeran Borwankar:   I have not come across a single case of a girl voluntarily going. But I’ll tell you what happens is I tell you two, three concrete examples. One, two girls were raped. And some of the rapists were also government servants. They were of the railway station and they ply the railway different railway. So one girl had a stepmother. She was unhappy. Second girl thought that this going to Mumbai is a big thing in my life. So once they got out and they were raped. They thought they have no other option but to get into prostitution. Many girls I have come across I told you the parents are sold them. I have come across very many girls were new for employment. That we will give you housemaid’s job. This is I would be I would say the maximum exploitation is luring for the job and then putting them into prostitution.

 

Interviewer:     Oh my God. And so is this very much a rural girl phenomenon or does it also happen to urban and suburban girls?

 

Meeran Borwankar: I would say maximum children, then suburban, and then urban.