Last week I got a call from someone who informed me about the case of a relative of their house help who has been molested, I requested her to pass the phone to the said house help and enquired. I found out that her granddaughter, a minor, who lives in Byculla with her parents and siblings had been a victim of something bad at the hands of her father. On 19th October, I consulted my seniors on the matter, printed a copy of a government scheme for victims of sexual assault, and drove to Byculla Police Station where I had called the mother of the victim. She was not given a copy of the FIR 10 days after the complaint.

Upon reaching there, she telephoned me and asked me to meet her outside. A visibly nervous woman in her late 30s, covering her head with dupatta but not her face with a mask, was accompanied by a man who she said was her brother. She told me that she does not want to go ahead with anything because that would mean her husband would have to sit in jail and there is nobody to take care of the family, a concern I had read and heard about in parliament speeches about POCSO Act. I tried to explain to her that it would be terrible to have her daughter live with someone who tried to hurt her, she told me that other than the victim she has four other children and that the family has refused to help her during this time. I looked at her brother, the family that should be taking care of her. I was informed that this man is not really a brother but a friend of the husband, the accused, and I realised the possibility of this lady being surrounded by “family” and in-laws who might have talked her into regretting taking any action. She would rather live with a criminal than being abandoned by society, I’m sure she was aware that she may be subjected to domestic violence as soon as the accused gets bail. Before me, stood a woman who had been discouraged from getting an education or financial independence and conditioned to depend on the male head of the family; I cannot expect her to not be scared and feel isolated in this.

She refused to enter the Police Station even with company, so I went to speak to the officers and see what happens. The officers were nice but could not show me the FIR, upon requesting for quite a long time to at least tell me the applicable Sections I was told to meet the Investigation Officer (IO) in the case. A second after meeting the IO, I got a call from this lady asking me again if claiming compensation means that her husband will stay in jail, I did not know what to tell her or how to explain how the system functions, hesitantly I told her not to worry.
The IO, API Mr SK, a cooperative and empathetic man, was sitting with two people I did not give any thought about. He discussed the issue with me but did not share a copy of the FIR with me, he informed me that the victim is now with Bal Kalyan Samiti in Dongri. I was asked to come back the next day. (I got a copy of the FIR the next day which made it clear that the 15-year-old victim had been raped.) One of the two people, after my conversation with API, approached me to ask if I will be able to provide them legal assistance. This man, a doctor, told me that his wife, the lady sitting next to him, an anaesthetic professional, had been raped by her colleagues. I may have looked like someone in control of the situation but I honestly had no idea how to take the sudden hit that this encounter was. I said sorry to the lady and told them that while I am not equipped to help them, I will connect them to NGOs/persons who can. The next day when I had gone back, I found them waiting at the Police Station, they told me that they are stuck in the process of statements and rounds to the police station and courts. This was a lady about my age, she was educated and empowered and everything a modern 21st-century person ideally should be, I am sure her colleagues were too. So obviously education made no difference. 

So what DOES make a difference? What does a person have to be to have the sense to not consciously hurt someone? It blows my mind that we need to tell people to not rape someone and even that doesn’t work. I have been asking myself for the last two days, how much exactly does the society need to evolve to know that you shouldn’t rape people? I can pat my back for speaking up and making noise about it but in my heart I know it is not enough. We are not angry enough, we were not angry enough when the migrant workers walked from one end of the country to the other to get home, when they were hosed with disinfectants like animals, when labour laws were suspended in parts of the country,  and when a rape victim’s dying declaration was ignored but a movie star’s personal chats made to the headlines of newspapers and national television. I feel helpless and take this as a personal defeat. We have failed the educated, the helpless, alike.