Priyanka Dubey - 11 Dec

No Nation for Women

No Nation for Women

Priyanka Dubey

For Sita
my mother, the force of nature

Introduction

THE SEED OF THIS BOOK WAS SOWN IN MY CHILDHOOD AND IS enmeshed in my upbringing and formative years. I grew up in a conservative family in a far-from-glitzy town in North India. As a child I struggled to understand my place in the world, the position that women occupied in our society.

Later, as I trained and learnt as a reporter over the years, I found myself particularly drawn towards reportage on issues around gender, social justice and violence. Then the 2012 December gang-rape happened in Delhi. Here I want to mention that I have spent most of my reporting career working for magazines and writing long-form articles. As a result, I had to read books, research papers and other reference material related to the subjects that I was working on. Since most of my reporting was circling around gender and social justice for years, I started looking for books on rapes in India to improve my own understanding of the subject. To my surprise I was not able to find much on the subject. There were a couple of edited anthologies and books on violence against women that took place during the IndiaPakistan partitionbut I could not get my hands on a reportage based non-fiction book that would help me understand the problem of sexual violence in India. That was when I realized that this was an urgent book waiting to be written.

I have always strongly believed that India is a diverse country and you cannot put your finger on any one story and turn it into a sweeping generalized statement about the whole country. Gender crimes against women also have multiple dimensions and facets here. Patriarchy is the nucleus of this problem and all other factors contributing to violence against women manifest themselves around it.

The chapters written in this book attempt to document one slice and one dimension of each of the many aspects of rape and violence against women in India. From this humble and very limited attempt, I hope to present a true and comprehensive picture of the problem of rape and violence against women in India.

I have been a reporter all my life and I have utmost faith in the power of a true report. I have exercised my training as a reporter while verifying facts and to ensure that all aspects of every story find voice in these pages.

The original draft of this book had 15 chapters. After a lot of brainstorming with my editors we decided to drop two chapters. One of these was on the 1991 Kunan Poshpora rape case and the other one was on Indias self-claimed godman Asaramrecently convicted for raping a minor girl.

During the course of finishing the reporting and the writing of this book a large number of published articles had already been made available in the public domain on the above two cases. Hence, we decided to leave out the stories that had been told in the recent past or by the survivors themselves.

India has seen an unprecedented 873 per cent rise in crime against women in the past five decades. The figures are only growing with every passing year. The most recent figures given by the National Crimes Records Bureau (NCRB) of India says that 106 women are raped in India every day. Four out of every 10 of these victims are minor girls. This means more than four girls are raped every hour in the country. This is essentially saying that in less than every 15 minutes, one woman is raped somewhere in India.

While there is no authentic research to establish that this increase in numbers showing the crime against women graph going up every year is primarily because more women are reporting rapethe fact that speaking up against sexual abuse still remains a stigma needs no confirmation. Most women opt out of reporting sexual crimes because of the victim-shaming attitude prevalent in India.

My own journeys across the country have taught me that the roots of this victim-shaming lies in patriarchy. The imposed concept of body purity for women turns into a monster of unbearable shame and stigma in the case of sexual assault. All these concepts of so-called honour, body purity and body pollution have been created and nourished for centuries by this very patriarchal mindset.

Chapter by chapter, different aspects of this deep-seated patriarchy is placed in front of the readersalong with the narratives of women and their families who are fighting centuries-old prejudices. In the process, the reportage also lays bare the nexus of state, caste, religion and politics that works together to support patriarchal biases.

It took me six years, to collect and write these 13 stories. During all these years, I worked mostly on shoe-string budgets, depending heavily on general human goodness and the kindness that friends as well as strangers showered upon me. Sometimes by driving me on their motorbikes in the hinterlands, sometimes by insisting that I spend the night in their homes and sometimes by offering me a meal of dalchawal to eat in the middle of a forest. In that way I see this book as a collective effort of all the people who have helped me in my journey in many big and small ways.

Now as this work is almost ready to see the light of day I feel like a mutant of my old self. Years have passed by. I kept rewinding and listening to the interview tapes sitting in my cheap, rented accommodation in Delhi. Each reporting trip, each recorded voice and each chapter altered something inside me. I kept slipping in and out of the darkness of my own self.

I am full of gratitude towards this bookworking on it provided me with a protective refuge for my own vulnerable self.

My time with the women and their familieswhom I met during the six years of my numerous journeysgave me courage, confidence and infused immeasurable amounts of compassion in me, which kept me going throughout. I am most grateful to all the women who shared their stories with me. While voicing their stories, I found my own voice.

I hope these chapters add to our collective understanding of the crisis of rape in India. Acknowledging and understanding are the first steps towards fighting sexual crimes against women.

PRIYANKA DUBEY

Authors Note

THE NAMES OF ALL VICTIMSALIVE OR DEADHAVE BEEN changed in this book to protect their identities. Also, names of immediate relatives and family members of the victims have been changed for the same reason. In compliance with Indian law, the exact locations of the victims residences have also been altered.

This is a work of nonfiction entirely based on the authors first hand reporting experience of more than six years across Indiaexcept for some of the southern stateswhich could not be covered due to monetary and time constraints.

The chapters written in this book are backed by extensive ground research, field travels to the remote corners of the country and interview tapes of hundreds of people running into hours. The list also includes important documents, including copies of multiple court cases, public interests litigations, first information reports, post-mortem reports, paper clippings, transcripts and different human rights reports. Every fact mentioned in this book has been cross-checked and vetted.

Initial reporting on some storiesreportage that later became a part of this bookwas first published by different media publications.

The author acknowledges direct or indirect contributions of all her editors for encouraging and supporting public interest journalism. She thanks everyone who has been a part of this journey for the same.