BENGALURU: ‘Safety for women’ was the rallying cry of the citizens who gathered at the Town Hall on Sunday for the #NirbhayaDishaMe protest. Citing the recent gangrape and murder of a 26-year-old veterinary doctor in Hyderabad, and that Monday will mark seven years since the gruesome Nirbhaya gangrape and murder, the over 300 citizens gathered to raise their voices against rape and sexual assault on women and to make their demands heard.
The protest signified that any woman could be the target of rape and that everyone must stand up for justice. There was a unique Wishing Wall where all the women wrote their demands. The important ones included demand for fast-track courts with dedicated judges, emergency helplines with guaranteed response time, increase in women police force, that is 33% of women in the police force as mandated.
Tara Krishnaswamy, co-founder of Shakti–Political Power to Women and the organiser of the protest, said, “It is citizen protests after the 2012 crime against Nirbhaya/Jyoti and public protests after crime against Bhanwari Devi that rape laws saw changes and the Prevention of Sexual Harassment in the Workplace even got passed.”
Chetan Ahinsa, an actor and social worker, said, “We need justice. The rape culture is spreading in our society and we need to stop it.”
Brinda Adige, Director of Global Concerns, raised the issue of women’s inability to go to the police to file a complaint of rape/sexual assault of any nature citing the policemen’s delay tactics, jurisdiction boundaries and the inability to respond to complaints even to file them. She urged, “Citizens must demand that by law and rightful duty, the police must support the complainant and guarantee that the complaint gets filed at the right place.”
Ruth Manorama, Dalit acitivist, said violence against women cuts across demographics. “Empowering girls is critical but teaching men — sons, fathers, husbands, brothers — to respect women and their choice is even more important,” she said.