A Step towards Change: Fighting for Justice Together

Providing solid support through their presence and rallying around a rape victim and her family by ensuring legal advice and services, the SHGs join the fight for justice in an inherently unequal social set up.

It was an unusual morning in Kundwa village in Barhi block. There was anger and astonishment on everybody’s faces. A huge crowd surrounded Kaushalya’s (all names changed) house. The family members were in total dismay. Ten-year-old Munni was sitting in the corner of a dark room. She was pale and could not control the tears that rolled down her face. Her mother Kaushalya was unable to speak to the little girl and could not stop crying. Her daughter had been raped.

T his has become a recurrent scene in many of the villages where we work today. At this tender age when a girl should enjoy her life to the fullest, she is often scarred for rest of her life. Section 375 of Indian Penal Code defines rape (from the Latin rapio, meaning to carry off, to overcome) as unlawful intercourse done by a man with a woman without her valid consent. Rape cannot be treated just as another incident because apart from physical injury and shame, the victim’s soul carries with it a lifelong scar. After 1983, there have been many amendments to the rape laws, which actually define the conditions and circumstances under which the crime could be committed; these fall under Section 376 IPC, and draw severe punishment in special circumstances.

In most instances, incidents of rape are either suppressed by the relatives of the victim for fear of shameful consequences or they are not actually voiced by the victim herself. As a result, not even 25 per cent of such cases are reported to the police, leave alone bringing the rapists to justice under the law! As citizens, we are responsible for educating ourselves and others, to fight against such heinous crimes that destroy the lives of young girls, who do not get the chance to enjoy their childhood and adolescence.