Voices from the Indian Feminist Movement
Yogita Bhayana
Hospitals in Delhi alone each get at least 5 child rape victims every day. And yet, conviction rates are low, and rape culture rules. Yogita Bhayana is one woman who is trying to fight it, and defend child victims of rape and abuse. She is a former air stewardess, who gave up her successful career in Kingfisher airlines to pursue social development and justice. She was a frontliner on the Nirbhaya rape case, a horrific gang rape of a 23-year-old girl in New Delhi in 2013. In fact, she convinced the victim’s mother and family to spearhead the movement that was drawing attention to women’s safety, which gave it national media coverage. Now, she works at the grassroots with gender sensitization and aiding child rape victims.
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Under Indian law, anyone who rapes a minor is sentenced to death and/or life imprisonment. But, as is often the case in India, implementation is poor. I ask her how law enforcement authorities, especially the police, handle the cases. She responds with conviction: “[The police] are all a bunch of jokers, and they won’t do anything unless you stand on their head, or unless they have pressure from the media!” Additionally, many police officers are from conservative states, like Punjab and Haryana, so they often carry their patriarchal stigmas into the workplace. Often, they are unable to handle rape cases with sufficient sensitivity or efficiency. Yogita’s solution? Gender sensitization. “They think women are commodities”, she states. “I can fight rape cases until the victim is 12 years of age …but when they are teenagers, the police say ‘ma’am, she
[The police] are all a bunch of jokers, and they won’t do anything unless you stand on their head, or unless they have pressure from the media!”
must have done it consensually, why are you getting into it’.” When law enforcement is unwilling to consider a complaint as rape, after the victim turns 13, fighting the case in court becomes very difficult.
Another issue, according to Yogita, is evidence collection and forensics. “One of the most basic problems is the basic infrastructure of forensic labs. We only have one in North India, in Rohini. And if you send the sample now, you’ll get the report in three years!” she exclaims. Collection is so poor that “these people [in the hospitals] are collecting evidence in polythene bags without wearing gloves. How will they match the DNA samples? The accused will get away, right?” One cannot prove a case without evidence, and when evidence is so poorly handled, cases will almost certainly get dropped or dismissed.
I wonder if there is any hope to get victims justice, or to solve the problem once and for all. She returns to her original point: “Changing adult mindsets is very difficult. I’m talking about changing children’s mindsets. If you teach [gender sensitization] in schools, at least ten years down the line, you’ll be sorted.”