Shiban Khaibri
British film maker Leslee Udwin is perhaps right in saying that the documentary on Nirbahya “India’s Daughter” is the “real reflection of what the society thinks”. Though the documentary is banned in the country, the wisdom in imposing the ban appears as cosmetic as the very intention to hide the facts of the prevalence of the malaise in our society. Ever since the change of the guard in the country took place last year almost every incident is sought to be politicized by those who are watching the active political players performing on the ground perhaps wishing to replace them before the usual time of play earmarked for them. Who gave the film maker permission to shoot the documentary in the jail in respect of one of the most horrendous incidents having taken place three years back in the country which made the tenets of humanity look insignificant? How can a platform be given to a convict rapist? How can the convict be given moments to air the “legitimacy” of what and how he committed the crime etc were the barrage of questions raised in the Parliament and when the facts revealed that the same was accorded by the previous government, then all sorts of “objections” with intent to carve out the “connivance” or at least an explicit tacit support from the present government for the screening for commercial purposes was thought of having taken place. Whatever the case, the documentary was banned as it appeared that the film maker had gone back or deviated from the intended permission to shoot the documentary and not make it commercial. The film maker refutes the claim of it having gone commercial as she makes it clear that her intentions remained not to make it commercial and “am still today carrying a massive personal debt in making this film.” Should this documentary warrant not being fit to be screened? Why should it be held away from the society in knowing the levels of depravity and savagery laced with an afflicted mindset that some people in our society carry with them and who treat a woman something like a sport or an object of satiating of bestial lust forgetting her unprecedented roles, the God given virtues of motherhood, sisterhood and daughterhood, kissing away tears and mending broken hearts. In the role of a mother, the woman keeps on thinking all the best about her children even long after they have flown the nest. As a lifelong companion, she not only pledges to always stand through thick and thin by her husband but by all odds translates that pledge into reality every minute, every moment. Does her embodiment deserve to be treated in any way that transgresses the sanctity of her modesty, her freedom, her choice of approval and disproval, her choice of dress or avocation?
Udwin says that “this is a society that treats girls as unequal from the day they are born as unwelcome.” She goes on, ” sweets are distributed in celebration of the birth of the boy only and the girl is a disappointment and from that moment in her life onward, she continues to be discriminated against . Her value is far, far less than that of a boy. Of course, you will end up with a society in which men think they can do what they like with women because they have no worth.” She thus looks into our society through the gapes of the horror of Nirbhaya incident which after it took place in the capital of the country, it got flashed throughout the world, its each and every corner for days together, nay for weeks together when groups and Parties were vying with one another in being projected as more sympathetic to the victim and her family and champion the cause of the “life and security and dignity” of the women in India. Running visuals live of the protests, chain hunger strikes, candle lightings, the placards, the cartoons on the banners, speeches, TV debates and discussions, bouts of news items and ” breakings” followed the macabre act made it sort of alluring for the likes of Leslee to come running to know what type of a stuff the guys would look in appearance and narrative who were behind rather directly involved in the despicable crime. Leslee , therefore, wants to “help the civil society demand at long lost that we deal with this , I believe the greatest unfinished business of our time , the inequality of women , so this is not a commercial enterprise.”
A shake given to the society is imperative in case lessons are drawn in a scenario where in one of the surveys made even after the Nirbhaya case and the law under the IPC sections 375, 376, 376A etc; amended to make it most stringent, of the 2500 respondents 99% had faced sexual harassment in metro trains, markets, educational institutions, workplaces, on social media websites and during morning walks. 70 % of these women never took any action. The way criminals Ranga and Billa were hanged within three years of their committing a horrendous crime like that of Nirbhaya against Geeta and Sanjay Chopra, the sister -brother in 1978 in Delhi under the then existing laws demolishes the theory that stringent laws were a guarantee against the recurrence of such incidents which speaks that post Nirbhaya case, rapes and even gang rapes do take place in the country. Not only that, baby girls are prowled and made victims of tearing and torture about which they have even no idea as to what ordeal they were going through. Therefore, if on our initiative and zeal to protest (but against whom), a foreigner is holding up a mirror before us to let us know how we looked like, why to create so much of a hullabaloo? Prime Minister’s call of “Beti Bachao , Beti Padahao” and his golden advice to mothers to discipline their sons against insensitive and unwarranted behavior with women even have apparently gone unheard in a society which is largely concerned about the rights only and not the duties.
We do not dispute Udwin’s rhetoric about our mindset in respect of preference for a male child and averting the female child or at best she to take birth in our neighbour’s home, if not at an enemy’s. It seems paradoxical, however, that we perform Kanya Poojan at the conclusion of Navratra fasts treating small girl as a form of goddess thereby according the status of divinity to her but every day in this very society, hundreds of girls and women are kidnapped and trafficked, some becoming victims of violence, torture and even honour (read dishonour) killings. How many cases of violence against the women go unreported, could be anyone’s guess. It is again the type of “sanskars” or the gradual practice of a virtual consecrating moral teaching in the son to roll out as a refined useful law abiding citizen of the country rather than a criminal. Not everywhere and round the clock can a Policeman be deployed, at every vulnerable spot, home, street, theatre, workplace, hospital, bazaar, metro, during journeying or where ever. Nor can the attitudinal shift in enforcing a modest dress code by the elders be any guarantee of safety nor the stand of the champions of “liberty” as to “why can’t they visit pubs at any time and move in any dress they like, or move about with boyfriends and celebrate Valentine day and other similar occasions” prove of any avail for them. In all probability it is the mindset that works, it is the moral teaching that benefits. We have to change and change drastically lest we shall as an Indian society be facing apartheid from the “civilized” countries who have started feeling wary of Indians’ “rape culture”. Look what happened in Germany recently when an Indian student was denied internship by a Leipzig University Professor due to “rape problems” in the country, killing of an Indian woman in Australia, a businessman in America, an Indian assaulted by Police again in America plus hate posters pasted on some temples there, notwithstanding.
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