This week, an image and a brief video clip of a uniformed Indian Railway Protection Force constable with a sleeping baby strapped to her chest has made the rounds online and in headlines. Constable Reena was on duty, patrolling the New Delhi Railway Station. She had been asked to return to work despite being on leave in order to manage the crowds at the station: a stampede on February 15, attributed to conflicting announcements regarding a special pilgrimage train to Prayagraj for the Mahakumbh, had resulted in 18 deaths. RPF India posted the clip on February 17 with the following caption: “She serves, she nurtures, she does it all — A mother, a warrior, standing tall… Constable Reena from 16BN/RPSF performing her duties while carrying her child, representing the countless mothers who balance the call of duty with motherhood every day.”
These valorising sentiments were predictably echoed in the initial public response to the footage. Praise was lavished on the constable and the Force, and the latter garnered the positive PR that the video and image were no doubt intended to. Questions about negligence or incompetence on the part of the authorities, or unsafe working conditions and unfair labour practices, were held at bay at least for a bit while people swooned in admiration, taking their cue from the caption. In India: unknown numbers of people die from stampedes, from diseases, from infrastructural leniency and from poverty. All one has to do is invoke the sacrosanct trope of the self-sacrificing mother and all is forgiven (by the by-and-large unaffected, of course).
It will not be lost on most observers that this particular pedestalising of a person being forced to do her job occurs at the same time that vitriol is being heaped on the Hindi film ‘Mrs’, a remake of the Malayalam film ‘The Great Indian Kitchen’, about the insidious nature of patriarchal domesticity. The vitriol comes mostly from conservative men, who will hopefully soon begin to make good on their threats to boycott marriage altogether.
Not unrelated — when it comes to the glorifying of certain kinds of acceptable behaviour by women — is the narrative framing of a Class 10 student in Gujarat who was sexually assaulted by her teacher days after receiving applause for her Republic Day speech on the “Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao” government scheme for girls’ education. At least one English-language media report, probably following the tenor of regional press, has focused on the student’s resilience and readiness to face the Board examinations later this month. This is a highly disturbing approach, and has the effect of minimising the egregiousness of the crime. Moreover, the case involves a minor, and details including her ambitions and her family structure have been reported, which may present a privacy leak. It also promotes the myth of a perfect survivor. In this context, that would be a girl who just keeps achieving and doesn’t bring shame to her family, society or country. Trauma often has long-term implications. The attempt to spin an inspiring story out of a serious crime so soon after it happened is more than tone-deaf. Tokenising women’s stories is the erasure of real women.