Trigger warning: Mentions of rape, gender based violence
Some crimes simply chill our bones. They leave an impact so deep in all of us that it is hard to shake away. Such a gut-wrenching account of the rape and murder of a trainee doctor has shocked my beloved city.
In Kolkata, a 31-year-old postgraduate trainee doctor at the state-run RG Kar Medical College and Hospital went to rest after having worked for 36 hours straight. In the morning, her body was found partially naked, bleeding from her eyes, mouth and private parts.
The Principal of the medical college, Dr Sandip Ghosh, initially attempted to dismiss the case as a suicide. He said, “It was irresponsible of the girl to go to the seminar hall alone at night.” And this truly angered us all.
It filled me with unimaginable rage and disgust. It also pushed me to think of every other instance of sexual assault I have heard or read of someone I knew or did not know. One thing remained constant, no matter what. The conundrum of the perfect victim?
Families, communities, societies, courtrooms, and countries have followed this phenomenon of the ‘perfect victim’ since time immemorial. There seems to be an unwritten rule book somewhere that dictates what a victim should or should not have done to let the assault happen to her or how she should or should not behave once it happens to her. How a victim looks, behaves, or reacts must be deemed credible.
What was she wearing? Where was she? Why was she there? Did she drink or smoke? Did she know the assailant? Did she smile at him? Was she too friendly?
In the face of this horrific tragedy, the victim is being questioned for being at her hospital (her workplace) after a gruelling 36-hour shift.
Workplace! That eerily brings up a flashback of the #MeToo movement for me. I witnessed it as a teenager, and it left me feeling angry, hopeless, and powerless. We have come several years forward from that, yet nothing seems to have changed.
I know we are all angry, and our hearts go out to the family and friends of this young doctor who was brilliant and hardworking, and we want justice for her. However, the shallow cries of capital punishment are not the solution.
We must remember that millions of women feel unsafe in this country every day, in our homes, on the streets, and at our workplaces. The crisis is so humongous and engulfing that this incident is just the tip of the iceberg. So, if we want to go back to our workplaces and our streets feeling a tad bit less scared, we must talk about rape culture.
I am always curious and shocked to see that only grotesque brutality seems to make us angry. We only take to the streets when there is a dead body. We only expect that hanging one person will give us some peace. But trust me when I say this- it will not. Millions of us will wake up tomorrow, constantly feeling scared, hoping that the worst will not happen.
Therefore, once my rage and paranoia subsides a little, I sit quietly with my thoughts to think deeper. What can we do to fix the more significant crisis?
I think of two factors enabling this crisis- institutional/systemic lapses and rape culture.
Institutional/Systemic Lapses
In this case, there were not adequate facilities for on-call rooms, which compelled the doctor to rest in a vacant seminar hall after a 36-hour work shift. Doctors at RG Kar have complained about how anyone could have entered the hospital premises after 9 pm. There were no security systems in place. Soon after her body was found, the Principal hurried to rule it as suicide, called her psychotic and questioned why she was alone at night and did not even register an FIR of rape and murder.
Until there is public outrage and protests, our systems do nothing to protect our women or even investigate fairly once a crime occurs. Our law enforcement does a shoddy job of investigation. Our courts do not expedite matters. Our judges scrutinise the victim’s behaviour and analyse if she is a credible witness. Our politicians blame each other.
Every 16 minutes, one woman is raped in India.
Our institutional and systemic lapses guarantee nothing is done to prevent it or provide justice to the ones harmed. We need a complete overhaul of mechanisms in place to address the crisis, the epidemic of sexual violence in our country.
Rape Culture- Who Do We Believe and Who Do We Blame?
Rape culture is a set of socio-cultural beliefs, practices, actions, and behaviour that perpetuates and enables sexual violence. One that tells us which women we believe in and whom we blame.
A study in Scotland showed that 91% of sexual assault victims knew their attacker- it was a friend, boyfriend, husband, teacher, relative, or neighbour. And this is so important to understand. While we talk about the ‘perfect victim’, there is also something called the ‘perfect perpetrator’.
We somehow feel that a particular profile of men can be perpetrators of sexual violence. This assumption is deeply intertwined with our idea of race, caste, class, religion, and other social identities. As a society, we are convinced that some men are capable of heinous crimes and not others. This leads us to believe that some women must be believed, but not all. However, this is extremely flawed and problematic.
Men who are rich, powerful, educated, men around us, in our homes and schools and workplaces, men who are our friends and families- each one can be a perpetrator. We must keep this in mind when a woman comes forward. We believe her, no matter what. We take her complaints of that sexually explicit joke that, harmless flirting or that one uncomfortable touch seriously. We act on it. We act before we lose more women from the workforce. We act before there is a dead body. Most importantly, we do not question the victim about her actions, behaviour or conduct.
As I write this, I came across a directive/advisory from the Silchar Medical College and Hospital (Govt of Assam) enlisting women to:
not be alone, avoid isolated places, not go out at odd hours, remain alert, be emotionally composed
I am wondering how about a directive that just says:
‘Do not rape. Do not sexually violate a woman!’
Our mothers and families and well-wishers spend all their time and energy telling women they know ways they could avoid sexual violence instead of telling men they know not to violate a woman! That should tell us everything that’s fundamentally wrong with the way we perceive sexual violence and perpetuate rape culture every day!
As women, we have somehow learnt and gotten used to constant worry, suspicion, and fear. We think this is our lived reality, and nothing will change it. Today, as citizens have taken to the streets, it is to say that this needs to stop. Sexual violence is not okay. Women feeling unsafe constantly is not okay. We need to stop passing the buck. We need to act now!
Featured image credit: (PTI Photo/Swapan Mahapatra) (PTI08_12_2024_000370B)(PTI)