Day 15: Love, Honour and Law: A roundtable on draft legislation on crimes in the name of honour

On December 9, 2022, 15th day of the 2022 Prajnya 16 Days Campaign Against Gender Violence hosted an online roundtable discussion on the draft bill on 'Prevention of Crimes in the Name of Honour' that is being shared by Vincent Raj K. for debate in the Tamil Nadu Assembly. Seeing this as a national issue, a panel of discussants from around India was invited. Shalin Maria Lawrence facilitated the session. You may find a saved copy of the recording here.

"As a person from the marginalised community, the Dalit community, Tamil Nadu has been a welfare state more than a progressive state, in terms of state. And, I talk with data - we have the social and economic indicators.", said Shalin Maria Lawrence, as she opened the discussion. She added that, "If you compare with the honour killings in UP, Madhya Pradesh, or in the northern parts of the Hindi belt of India, the nation does not know the number of honour crimes which happen in Tamil Nadu. For example, the inter-caste marriages is only 1%, or less than 1% in Tamil Nadu. You can call yourself a Periyar land, or a very progressive state, but then, why is your inter-caste percentage very, very less? So, the amount of inter-caste marriages is directly proportional to the violence happening on inter-caste couples."

Kathir Vincent Raj, Evidence:

• "Honour crimes are taking place all over India. Honour killing, honour torture, honour humiliation, mob violence for the sake of arrogance, etc are taking place here. I would like to begin by thinking loudly and raising a question on our usage of the term honour. We call honour crimes as honour crimes because they are committed with an aim to protecting the honour of the family...I think it is time we shake this regressive idea from its roots and rather call it dishonourable."
• "This bill, first and foremost, seeks to offer protection against victimisation in the name of honour. In the instance of such a crime, the bill outlines the extent of punishment to be given to the perpetrators and the compensation and rehabilitation to be given to the survivors. It also details the protective measures to be implemented, apart from detailing the various kinds of victimisation like murder, social and economic boycotts."
• "I am pointing out that not just caste but patriarchy also plays a role in the killing in the name of honour; this draft bill is also about gender justice."

Abirami Jotheeswaran:

• "Coming back to patriarchy, I would like to link it to caste and gender hegemony - how is this impacted? We all know that there is intersectionality in terms of caste and gender. Here, Dalit women are at the bottom. They don't have any rights or privilege, and if they are involved in these activities, then, we have been seeing lot of cases of murders, not just in Tamil Nadu, but all over the country."
• "In reality, (we have to see) how many cases are reported, how many cases are suicide cases, so many cases are made to be an attempt to rape and has been booked under false charges. These are the situations that I would like to point out."
• "I would like to give some suggestions (on the draft bill). One is mental trauma. Whatever the shelter home the woman is accessing, the status of the mind is very, very bad. They (women) cannot trust anyone. When parents become the culprits, then definitely they cannot believe anybody. So the mental trauma - how to handle it, how to counsel them, these aspects have to be covered. Secondly, police inaction. Police is not acting and taking the bribe...When there is negligence in the duty of the police, there should be some punitive measure...And, I would also say that there should be a national authority who are taking up the monitoring and better implementation of these kinds of legislations. So, I would like to focus on these three things."

Suresh V:

• "The role of culture and the role of patriarchy gets intertwined with gender identities. And, how this plays a very, very big role in whether a person can live or now, and how they can live, and how they will have to survive. And that is at the bottom of the issue underlying the larger issue of honour killings."
• "Fundamental to the issue we are talking about is the issue of choice. The choice exhibits itself in multiple ways."
• "We need to look at this law a little bit more carefully in terms of what has worked and what has not worked with regard to SC and ST (POA) Act."

Dr. Manisha Gupte:

• "I just want to say this loud and clear, that a victim can never be theirs. And the rapist can never be ours. But imagine, when rape happens, people take that position. Now imagine when a girl or a boy marries against the wishes of the family."
• "In a country, the mere identity itself can become a point to kill, that itself allows punishment, that itself allows punishment by the police...So we know just the identity can be an issue. So then, what happens when you exercise your choice? To do something further by saying I am associating with someone who is from this identity? So then, we have to go to the basic question of identity...Identity comes as a part of our mobility from a very controlling system where nobody in the family has an identity except the patriarch."

--

Shalin Maria Lawrence (Moderator): Shalin Maria Lawrence is a social activist, Intersectional feminist, writer and orator. Belong to the oppressed community, she has been working towards empowering the Dalit Women and LGBTQ+ since 2012. She has worked with the Transgenders Rights Organization and has won the "Day of compassion" award from the Jane Goodall foundation. She has been working with the Dalit communities of the north Madras region, especially in and around Vyasarpadi where I has helped in the setting up of libraries, conducting campaigns and awareness programs towards Education and child rights from 2015. She has also been working with the Dalit women and children in the Dharavi Region of Mumbai since 2016. She has set up a library and has been conducting awareness workshops on women's rights and leadership and the annihilation of caste. For the last two years, she has been conducting regular workshops and training on violence on women, women rights and women leadership among the rural dalit women in and around Madurai and Chennai. She is a writer in English and Tamil and currently publishes her articles in popular magazines and news websites.

Kathir Vincent Raj (Presenter): Kathir Vincent Raj has been working in the field of human rights for over 25 years. A Dalit himself, his witnessing and experiencing caste based discrimination from his childhood triggered his determination to fight against the caste system and caste based atrocities against Dalits. From an initial career as a writer on the experiences of the socially marginalized, he later shifted to rights based interventions, especially human rights monitoring and legal and advocacy interventions. This work experience and a commitment to Dalit rights eventually led him to initiate an independent organization, Evidence in 2005 to fight against caste discrimination and for social justice and equality.

Ms. Abirami Jotheeswaran (Discussant) has been associated with National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights-NCDHR, New Delhi, India since December 2005. Presently Ms. Abirami Jotheeswaran has been serving as the General Secretary of All India Dalit Mahila Adhikar Manch-NCDHR, New Delhi. She herself hails from Dalit Community, very actively involved and committed towards the empowerment of Dalit community. Abirami is a post graduated in Computer Science from University of Madras. Currently, she is pursuing her final year Law degree. Placing her in the organization, her primary responsibilities is to Plan, Monitor and Execute Programs related to Promotion of Dalit Women Leadership and Addressing Violence against Dalit women and minor girls in 7 States across the country. At the international level Abirami Jotheeswaran participated in World Social Forum 2007 held at Nairobi, Kenya and South Africa in 2007, to raise the Dalit concern in the forums. She raised her concern on the Police atrocities committed against Dalits and Dalit Women in 18th EU-NGO Human Rights Forum 2016, Brussels. Abirami Jotheeswaran, actively raised the issues related to Violence against Dalit women and the impunity subsists in India in the 41st UN HR Council at Geneva in the month of July 2019. Under her leadership, AIDMAM recently published a Status Report 2021 - “Dalit Women Rise for Justice” with the confidence that the report will be useful to the government while taking steps to improve Dalit Women’s condition in India through effective implementation of the existing Acts and policies.

V Suresh (Discussant): V. Suresh is a lawyer, Madras High Court; National General Secretary, People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) one of Indias' oldest and largest national level human rights organisation. Earlier served as Supreme Court appointed Adviser on Food Security for Tamil Nadu. Worked for 7 years as a full time activist with the Kashtakari Sanghatana (in Maharashtra) amongst Warli Adivasi marginal farmers and agricultural labourers. Recently appeared in Kannagi - Murugesan Honour Killing case for murdered Dalit Murugesan's family before the Madras High Court.  On June 6th, 2022, the Madras HC confirmed the conviction of Kannagi's father, brother and other relatives belonging to Caste Hindu community invovled with the killing, though the HC commuted the death penalty of brother to life sentence.

Dr. Manisha Gupte (Discussant): Dr. Manisha Gupte has been part of the women's movement in India since the mid 1970s; She has also been an activist in the health and civil rights movements. She studied Microbiology (MSc) and then, Sociology. Her PhD thesis was on the concept and practices of patriarchal honour, and how it intersects with caste, sexuality, violence and the agency of subordinated women. She co-founded MASUM, a rural women's organisation in 1987, after living in a drought prone rural area for five years, and has been its co-convenor since then. She spent one year (1997-98) in the Dept. of International Health at the Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore as a visiting fellow. She is actively associated with progressive organisations nationally, regionally and internationally as an advisor, board member or trainer (especially on gender, violence, sexuality, CEDAW and ESC rights). She has participated in, and promoted campaigns related to women's health; reproductive, sexual and minority rights; and, violence against women. She has worked on policy issues with the state and central governments in India over the past three decades. She is the Managing Trustee of Medico Friend Circle (MFC), a 40 year old autonomous health professionals’ group in India, and was the coordinator of the '10th International Women and Health Meeting (IWHM)', held in New Delhi in September 2005. She also coordinated the process towards the preparation of 'The Indian Women’s Health Charter'. She has co-edited a book (2102) titled ‘Honour’ and Women’s Rights: South Asian Perspectives. This book includes 15 papers, highlighting complementary feminist positions from seven countries.

Day 13: Tamil Nadu Domestic Violence Support Services: A Mapping

We are pleased to bring you a new Prajnya resource: the Tamil Nadu Directory of Support Services for Violence Victim-Survivors. This data was compiled for a mapping exercise of the Surviving Violence project (http://survivingviolence.org) and has been edited and updated by the Prajnya Team. At present, the directory includes information about five categories of support services for victim-survivors of violence, namely:

1. Swadhar Home

2. Family Counselling Centres

3. One Stop Centres

4. Protection Officers

5. All Women Police Stations

We will continue to add, update and will share a Tamil version soon. In the interim, do use and share the Directory at https://cutt.ly/tnhelpeng Thank you!

Day 12: Ensuring Access to Reproductive Choice: A Workshop || @drumaram_ram @Archytypes @swarraj @sudaroliacr @Shakthi_2016

Prepared with notes from Dr. S. Shakthi.

On the 12th day of the 2022 Prajnya 16 Days Campaign Against Gender Violence, we organised an interactive panel discussion, where Dr. Uma Ram, Dr. Prabha Swaminathan, Dr. Jaishree Gajaraj and Archanaa Sekar discussed issues related to sexual and reproductive health rights from the point of view of health care providers. In partnership with ATNRCOG and IRC India South, the 3-hour long event, Ensuring Access to Reproductive Choice: A Workshop" was conducted at Savera Hotel, Chennai.

The topics addressed in the workshop were Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR), Abortion, Domestic Violence and Intimate Partner Violence. The discussions aimed at focussing on how professionals in the medical field would respond to scenarios on the aforementioned themes. Dr. Uma Ram and Dr. Jaishree Gajaraj opened the workshop by discussing abortion, particularly on how to handle cases that may make the role of the doctor complicated, like cases involving minors, which may be filed under POSCO. They supplemented their discussion with several concrete examples of cases they have witnessed. The doctors, during the workshop, acknowledged that regardless of one's personal belief on topics like SRHR and abortion, it is essential for a medical professional to follow the law. The law, here, explicitly states that abortion is a right, which was emphasised throughout the discussion.

In the next hour, Archanaa Seker looked into the theme of access to contraception. She took the audience through an understanding of the ground reality of accessing contraception - in terms of the material, cultural and economic barriers. She mentioned that it is essential to shift the focus to not just look at individuals dealing with the possibility of getting pregnant, but to also look into what people's sexual practices are, what their reproductive choices are and what the overarching conditions for the same may be. The availability of Emergency Contraceptive Pills (ECPs) was also discussed. This discussion was insightful for doctors as it provided them with an understanding of what happens on-ground.

Additionally, during the course of the session, Dr. Swarna Rajagopalan (Prajnya) provided the audience with an understanding of what domestic violence is - that it goes beyond physical and sexual violence, and can also be economic and emotional violence. Dr. Prabha Swaminathan accompanied this conversation with her insights on how the medical fraternity must respond when a patient who has faced domestic violence approaches you, and reflected on the theme through her experiences as an OBGYN. The speakers also touched upon the need to be mindful of the language that is used while communicating with victims-survivors of domestic violence.

In the last hour, role plays were conducted by seven doctors:

1. A doctor and patient - A case of an unmarried woman wanting an abortion.

2. A doctor and patient - A case of a woman who comes in with two children (one of them is less than a year old), and she is pregnant again. She does not want another child, and does not want her family to know that she is getting an abortion.

3. A doctor, a patient and a husband who is abusive - Dealing with domestic violence, especially when the abuser might be in the same room as the patient.

The role plays were done in two segments where one version showed how the doctors must not respond, and all the things that must not be said/done. The other version looked into how the doctors must respond, and the importance of ensuring that their actions are empathetic and supportive.

Day 10: Community Cafe

Rapporteur: Sudaroli Ramasamy

It was Sunday evening when I reached the Better World Shelter for Women with Disabilities at Royapettah. The two things lingering in my mind before I started the conversation with the residents of the shelter home were:

1. The precautions that I need to take care of while I am bringing up the conversation for the Community Cafe. Because I do not want to trigger them at any point of time during the chit-chat.

2. The kind of language I should use in terms of consciously using the words with regard to disability in Tamil.

But once I reached there, they burst my bubbles of thoughts in the air with their bright smiles and giggling with laughter; they made me so comfortable. We sat in a big circle, it was a casual conversation. I started the same with asking them to introduce themselves with their name and one thing they are fond of. They were very enthusiastic and eager to share what they liked - it ranged from their love for malligai poo (jasmine flower) to eating ice cream. After the introduction, they started taking the conversation forward from the status of women in the society to the discrimination they face in public spaces, workspaces, etc. The conversation was around their own experiences in the purview of disabilities and the challenges they face. They were talking about how the people are not empathetic towards them; how it was very challenging when they travel in the bus; how the people do not want to see them when they start a day/ go for an auspicious activity; the layers of religion and gender added to the disability and posed itself as several layers of burden.

They were sharing about the people's attitude to them based on their religion when they were approached for matchmaking for marriage. I was quite enraged when I heard them say - though the bridegroom had a disability, his family would look for the non-SC girl and it did not matter if the girl had a disability or not. The residents were talking about how people took advantage of them under the guise of helping the residents. One visually-impaired girl was describing how a man who helped her earlier, stalked her to the shelter. Sexual abuse and exploitation are not the exclusion here. Each of their experiences speaks about their solidarity in supporting each other in all instances.

 

Dr. Aishwarya Rao, the founder of the organization, was part of the conversation. It was heartwarming to see the friendly relationship between the residents and the founder. They were very casually talking in her presence without any hesitation. She flagged how vulnerable they are in all spaces - public and private. She was very proud of the strong bond of solidarity expressed by the residents.

It was a great experience to learn from them, to know the importance of solidarity, finding the little joys in life and fighting against all odds with a smile.

Day 9: Visual Representations of Gender-Based Violence

On the ninth day of the 2022 Prajnya 16 Days Campaign Against Gender-Based Violence, photographers Vidya Kulkarni and Priyadarshini Ravichandran, aimed to answer the question "What are appropriate ways to represent gender-based violence visually?", in a session facilitated by Dr. Philippa Williams, Queen Mary University of London. Click here to watch a saved video of the discussion.

This discussion is part of the project Surviving Violence: Everyday resilience and gender justice in rural-urban India funded by the British Academy Heritage Dignity and Violence Programme HDV190009. Research partners: Queen Mary University of London, Chaitanya-The Policy Consultancy, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Institute of Development Studies Kolkata, Nari Samata Manch and University of Oxford. 

"If you Google domestic violence images, you will come across images that sensationalise physical violence, depicting bruised and battered women and posing male aggressors to be carrying a belt in their hand...In the brief, we invited photographers to make photos that did not sensationalise violence or show women as battered and bruised victims of violence....The photography and the practice and process behind the photos that has come out of our interaction together, we will be discussing on this panel today.", said Dr. Philippa Williams, introducing the photographers of the discussion, Vidya Kulkarni and Priyadarshini Ravichandran.

Vidya Kulkarni:

• "Photography, as a component, was appealing to me, because we all know the power of visuals and how strongly they communicate, especially in this time when a lot of visuals are consumed, more than the texts. But, though we know the power of visuals, our feminist movements contain mostly women's texts. Therefore this conscience obtained of this project to work with the photographers is really important."
• "Violence, as it is, remains invisible. And, within that, surviving strategies are also invisible. So, to focus on them visually is a really good idea. And, I think, there is a need for more such collaborative efforts and to create gender-sensitive visuals, if you want to offset the stereotypical images around gender in the mainstream and other media."
• "With this understanding - focusing on emotion, and focusing on domestic space, I took the photographs."

• "This photo, I feel that, women are always in the background. What they feel, and what they think is also not in the forefront, and it is in the background. Their happiness and well-being is judged from the outer change, the façade....when you actually are in the field, you work with whatever is in front of you; you create images from that. So, it is not like one has a fixed idea before going to the field. One has to be open to whatever is in front of you, and it is surprising because you can get unexpected results." (photograph on the right)

• "I felt, while reading the stories, that while women go through abuse and violence, they are thinking about the options. It is not that they are mutely at the receiving end. But, they do think, while they carry on their routine, everyday activities." (photograph on the left)
  

Priyadarshini Ravichandran:

• "It was also important for me to hear that their research and writing were about the heavy silence about gendered violence. That, sort of, really initiated this work for me. The conversations really made me understand that, yet again, I just needed to follow where the medium of photography was leading me to, rather than me making very thoughtful choices. So, I took on this challenge to enter something that was relatively unknown to me."
• "All of the stories they shared, their anger, their fears, their empathy and conviction towards the need for challenging patriarchy and deepening the understanding towards intimate violence really shook me. And, it somehow directly connected me to my own inner feminine self and the capacity of this inner self to hear what is unsaid, to see the invisible and feel what is not just my own lived experiences, but of a collective, powerful whole. This really gripped me."
• "My process was to go intuitively to places that communicated what is left and heard, what is mute when very loud, and I let myself be absorbed."

Adding to the discussion, Dr. Swarna Rajagopalan, pointing at the photograph on the right, mentioned that, "this one, for example, I am not sure where she took the photo, but to me, it looks like the outside of a temple - the cloth is silk, all sorts of things are bundled but the bundle is going nowhere. And, you know, the fact that it is such a big package speaks of the burden that survivors are carrying but they have nowhere to go, the package is too heavy, and they are stranded in a place that no one wants to claim. This literally looks like the middle of nowhere" 

About Dr. Philippa Williams: Philippa is a Reader/Associate Professor in Human Geography at Queen Mary University of London, UK. Her research is animated by everyday politics of the state, citizenship, violence/non-violence in India as well as the geopolitics of digital privacy through the case of WhatsApp. She currently leads two main projects “Surviving Violence: Everyday resilience and gender-justice in rural-urban India” www.survivingviolence.org and “The politics of WhatsApp” http://www.whatsapppolitics.org/

Day 8: Stand in Solidarity or Sit in Silence! Poetry Reading

Images  by: Selvaraj 

On the 8th day of the 2022 Prajnya 16 Days Campaign Against Gender Violence, we partnered with Mockingbirds and InKo Centre and organised a poetry reading. This year, we had Srilata K, Kutti Revathi, Aaliyah Banu, Manushi Bharathi and Amrin Khalil reading their poetry.

The poetry reading covered a wide range of themes like body politics, domestic violence, religious identities and rights of transgender persons, to name a few. A few of the poets were also of the firm view that their work does fundamentally stay rooted in the idea that "personal is political".

“You see, Women must fight to be alive

The world isn't a nice place

For a woman, even the air she breathes is luxury

Something that is given to her

Something she will be held accountable for” 

- excerpt from Aaliyah's work, "The Angry Poem"

Kutti Revathi, in her conversation with Saradha U, for the TNM piece noted that, the performers provided the audience with a holistic perspective on the voices of women, with each poetry providing a different perspective, and acknowledging that the efforts made by the poets to put their voices out there is not easy (Saradha, 2022, as cited in The News Minute, 2022)

You may read the elaborate coverage of our event by Saradha U for The News Minute here.

Day 4: Surviving Violence: Everyday Resilience and Gender Justice Webinar

On the 4th day of the 2022 Prajnya 16 Days Campaign Against Gender violence, the 'Surviving Violence: Everyday Resilience and Gender Justice' webinar brought together the findings of a three-state research project on help-seeking experiences of domestic violence victim-survivors. The presentations were made by Girija Godbole, IIT Bombay and Preeti Karmarkar, Nari Samata Manch on Maharashtra; RNandini Ghosh, Supurna Banerjee (Institute of Development Studies Kolkata) on West Bengal; and Swarna Rajagopalan (Chaitanya) on Tamil Nadu. Shakthi S. (Prajnya) facilitated the event. You may find a saved copy of the recording here. 

This panel is part of the research project Surviving Violence: Everyday resilience and gender justice in rural-urban India funded by the British Academy Heritage Dignity and Violence Programme HDV190009. Research partners: Queen Mary University of London, Chaitanya-The Policy Consultancy, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Institute of Development Studies Kolkata, Nari Samiti Manch and University of Oxford.

Findings from Maharashtra: Girija Godbole (IIT Bombay), Preeti Karmarkar (Nari Samata Manch).

• "When we spoke to the survivors, almost 80% of them said that they had suffered all types of violence such as physical, sexual, emotional, verbal and economic. The most common reasons were liquor addiction and/or extramarital affairs of the husband, coupled with suspicion about the wife by the husband."
• "Most survivors said that the first persons they spoke to were typically their parents. For informal mediation, the first attempt is to organise a family meeting to discuss and resolve the issues."
• "In the rural sides, where we have tribal groups, we also saw that two survivors approached the tribal council in their villages. In one case, the survivor consulted the tribal council in her village, but she wasn't happy with the verdict. So, she approached the court. And, the tribal council wasn't very happy about the situation, that she went out of the village. And they put a lot of pressure on her to withdraw the case. She decided to go to a higher level of the tribal council, which is the circle council. There was one member there who was sensible and sensitive and took up her cause, and he tried settling the case. Then, she withdrew the case from the court, and she was satisfied with the verdict."
• "We asked them (survivors), what according to them is domestic violence?...their definition of domestic violence is very well consistent with the definition as given in PWDVA, 2005, that is, they recognise non-physical forms of violence also."
• "One very important suggestion, that came from a lawyer that we interviewed is that, PWDVA matters should be allowed in the family court. At present, they are heard by the Judicial Magistrate First Class."

Findings from Tamil Nadu: Dr. Swarna Rajagopalan (Chaitanya)

• "What emerges from the stories that we primarily heard from survivors but also from community members and service providers in the state, formal and informal, is really that, women are stuck. They are hemmed in by patriarchy, socio-economic inequities and escape hatches and drawbridges and support services that they do not know about, that they cannot access and that, sometimes, simply don't work. But still, the fact that 61 of them sat through the interview and told us their stories makes this also a story of resilience."
• "If the first question of intersectionality is, 'does this form of identity affect the experience of violence, of help-seeking, of access to justice', then the answers in our data, in Tamil Nadu, are not pronounced enough to headline the research"
• "We wanted to know how people coped/lived with violence and most women felt safest in their natal home, and most unsafe in their marital home."

Findings from West Bengal: Dr. Nandini Ghosh, Dr. Supurna Banerjee (Institute of Development Studies Kolkata)

• "We have not found any significant caste differences, but echoing the other two teams, what we have found is that there is never a single form of violence happening. What happens is that there are multiple kinds of violence. The verbal and physical are often taken for granted."
• "Legal aid, which is free, has largely been ineffective. So there has been lack of financial and infrastructural support from the state, and this is what the lawyers tell us. Most of the survivors too reiterated this."
• "While there are laws and institutions to protect survivors of domestic violence, there is an entire gamut, an entire structure (the informal help-seeking) that operates outside of this." 
• "It was evident that domestic violence was embedded in the social hierarchies of power, of dominant heteronormative, caste, class, and gender interests."

About the Speakers:

1. Supurna Banerjee is faculty in Institute of Development Studies Kolkata (IDSK). She researches labour, gender, violence, migration and intersectionality. Her monograph Activism and Agency in India: nurturing Resistance in Tea Plantations was published in 2017. She has published in various peer reviewed journals such as Gender, Work and Organisation, Oral History and JSAD. She has co-authored Limits of Bargaining: Capital, Labour and the State in India Violent Domestic: 𝙇𝙖𝙬, 𝙞𝙩𝙨 𝙋𝙧𝙖𝙘𝙩𝙞𝙘𝙚, 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙎𝙩𝙧𝙖𝙩𝙚𝙜𝙞𝙚𝙨 𝙤𝙛 𝙎𝙪𝙧𝙫𝙞𝙫𝙖𝙡.

2. Nandini Ghosh is Assistant Professor, Institute of devlelopment studies, Kolkata, PhD in Social Sciences, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, 2008. Books Published - Impaired Bodies, Gendered Lives: Everyday Realities of Disabled Women, New Delhi: Primus Publishers, 2016 Books Edited, Caste and Gender in Contemporary India: Power, Privilege and Politics, (Jointly with Supurna Banerjee), New Delhi: Routledge, 2019 Interrogating Disability in India: Theory and Practice, Springer, 2016 Pratyaha: Everyday Lifeworld: Dilemmas, Negotiations and Conflicts, (Jointly with Prasanta Ray), New Delhi: Primus, 2016., Hyderabad.

3. Preeti Karmarkar, Managing Trustee at Nari Samata Manch, she is trained as a Social Scientist and Gender expert, Preeti is associated with Nari Samata Manch since 1998. She has 22 years of experience in social development field in the areas of grassroot mobilization, project development and Management, M&E, policy as well as investigative research and NGO management with national and international exposure. She is an experienced gender trainer and provide consultation for gender integration in programme. She also provides training/consultation for implementation of Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013 and work as external members for renowned organizations. Earlier she has worked at Women’s Studies Centre (University of Pune), YASHADA and BAIF Development Research Foundation

4. Girija Godbole, Ghod Water Fund Lead at The Nature Conservancy and researched over areas of Anthropology, Gender, Natural Resource Management, Communication and uptake and she did her PhD at University of Cambridge, thesis title: “Selling land is the beginning of the end for us”: Understanding rural people’s perspectives on the impacts of increasing land sale in western Maharashtra, India, her publication are Godbole, G. (2014) ‘Revealing and concealing: ethical dilemmas of manoeuvring identity in the field’ in Lunn, J. (Ed.) Fieldwork in the Global South: Ethical Challenges and Dilemmas Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge pp: 85-95, Godbole G. (2006) Mendha (Lekha): A case study on self rule for sustainable natural resource management in Stakeholder Participation in Environmental Governance published by LEAD India, Godbole G. (2006) Building bridges for greener future: Analyzing Maharashtra State Participatory Forest Management Network in Insights from the field: studies in Participatory Forest Management in India, Winrock International India, Godbole G. & Vira B. (March 2004). Towards an alternative politics: People’s movements join the electoral process. InfoChange News & Features, India, Godbole G. (April 2003) Two women & a flying squad, InfoChange News & Features, India, Godbole G. (January, 2003) Free meals make them dependent, so should they go back to eating grass? InfoChange News & Features, India,Godbole G. (2002) Working paper on ‘Joint forest Management and Gender in India’ for Engendering Eden Project of the UK government

Day 1: The GVR 2022 Launch

We are delighted to launch the 2022 Prajnya Gender Violence in India Report (GVR), on the first day of the 2022 Prajnya 16 Days Campaign Against Gender Violence. For the launch of this year's GVR, we had with us, Kausumi Saha (author-curator of the 2022 GVR) and Dr. Saumya Uma (Professor, Jindal Global Law School). The session was moderated by Dr. S. Shakthi. You can watch a saved copy of the recording here.

Kausumi Saha, works as a Researcher and Project Coordinator at Gender at Work. She has a Master's degree in Sociology from the Delhi School of Economics and is currently working towards a second postgraduate degree in Psychology. Her research interests lie in the intersections of media, youth subcultures, gender, identity formation, and mental health. This is Kausumi's third year working on Prajnya's Gender Violence in India report.

• "The 2022 Prajnya Gender Violence in India Report takes stock of the state of gender violence in India using definitions, statistics (where available), and highlights of recent cases of gender-based violence that have appeared in the news."
• "Intersectionality is a framework that recognizes women are not a homogenous category and that they do not experience violence the same way...Keeping that in mind, and in our quest to make the report more intersectional, we have restructured the report very differently this year."
• "Part I of the Report: The Intersections of Gender-Based Violence presents an overview of five markers of identity that are relevant in the Indian context: caste and indigenous identities; queerness; old age; disability; and the experiences of religious minorities"
• "Dalit and Adivasi women face violence from the oppressor caste due to their caste/indigenous status and their gender and within their own community due to their gender identity. This is called double marginalisation. Additionally,
• all kinds of gender-based violence have an element of power attached to them. When we look at violence against Dalit and Adivasi persons, it is a demonstration of power and a weapon to reinforce the existing structural hierarchies."
• "There is also a large amount of symbolic violence that the queer population faced. This is in the form of non-recognition of their queer identities like the usage of wrong pronouns or deadnaming queer individuals."
• "There is little to no research on sexual violence against elderly women due to the shame and the stigma associated with it."
• "Women with disabilities are often financially and socially dependent on others for their survival and the perpetrators of violence are often caregivers, present either at homes or in institutional settings."
• "We have seen that any kind of large-scale communal violence is almost always accompanied by an aspect of sexual violence."

Dr. Saumya Uma, professor at Jindal Global Law School and the Director, Centre for Women's Rights (JGLS) followed Kausumi's presentation with a talk on the report. Prof. (Dr.) Saumya Uma is a Professor at Jindal Global Law School and heads its Centre for Women’s Rights. She has over 28 years’ combined work experience as an academic, law researcher, lawyer, trainer, writer and campaigner on gender, law and human rights. She has served as a research consultant on human rights, with international agencies such as the United Nations Development Fund (UNDP), United Nations Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights (UNOHCHR) and the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ). Additionally, she worked as the National Coordinator of ICC-India: the anti-impunity campaign on International Criminal Court and its relevance to India – from 2000 to 2010. Dr. Uma teaches and researches at the intersection of gender, human rights and the law. In particular, she writes on feminist jurisprudence; international criminal justice and its relevance to India; victim and witness protection; justice and accountability for mass crimes; South Asian women’s movements and the feminist envisioning of justice; human rights law and lawyering; gender-based violence and reparative justice; access to justice; social exclusion and marginalization; clinical legal education; and feminist pedagogy.

• "One of my first observations is on the aspect of Kidnapping and Abduction of Women and Girls...If we look at the 2020 and 2021 statistics, we see a significant increase in the Kidnapping and Abduction of Women and Girls, and in the Kidnapping and Abduction of Women to compel her for Marriage.....Partly, this increase (in reported cases) could be due to the increased incidence of kidnapping and abduction, but there may also be cases of more inter-caste and inter-religious marriages or lesbian couples leaving homes which the parents register under complaints of abduction."
• "Despite all the propaganda, resistance and the institutional reluctance to register complaints of domestic violence, there is still a sizeable number that is getting registered...In the covid years, when women were trapped in their homes because of lockdowns and working from home, worldwide, domestic violence increased during those years. So, the 2022 statistics are likely to show this kind of increase."
• "There are forms of cyber-stalking which are not only by strangers but also by partners. I think this is just increasing the violence that takes place. We need to remember that stalking, rape and murder are all quite linked and there are many cases where stalking, when not stopped or prevented, has led to rape and murder."
• "For women who were working from home, colleagues were contacting them through cyberspaces. There were forms of sexual violence at workplaces that call for the expansion of the definition of workplace to include homes as well."
• "We need to look at domestic violence, intimate partner violence, patriarchy, misogyny, Indian masculinity, and the everyday violence that women are facing in relationships. I see and hear of these from my students as well. We think that the younger generation is very liberated in some sense, but they too are in the same trap of patriarchy and misogyny to a large extent."
• "It is important to look at the violence inflicted on transgender women, lesbian women, gender non-confirming individuals, gender non-binary individuals...The kind of shame, stigma and institutional apathy against them is so much more, and yet it is undocumented."
• "There are limitations in the law. The law is slow to catch up and the interpreters of the law are much slower to catch up with what is happening. So, while the law may be a part of the solution, what is really needed is social consciousness and political action."

Prajnya’s Gender Violence in India Report has been taking stock of the state of gender violence in India since 2009. The report is meant to be used as a ready reference for activists, journalists, students, lawyers and anyone with an interest in gender justice. You can access the Prajnya Gender Violence in India Report 2022 here.

Day 8: Making Public Spaces LGBTQI+ Inclusive: A Roundtable

On the 8th day of the Prajnya 16 Days Campaign against Gender Violence, Prajnya, along with Orinam, had a roundtable discussion with members from the LGBTQIA+ community, media persons, policy-makers, and other important stakeholders/practitioners who gave a number of important inputs on making public spaces more LGBTQIA+ inclusive. The session was moderated by Dr. Ramakrishnan (he/they) and had Harish Subramanian (he/him), Ar.Muhilann Murugan (they/them), Natasha (she/they), Raj Cherubal, Sonal Shah, and Shreya, who gave us their perspectives on accessibility and inclusivity in public spaces.

The opening statements of the discussion were on how public spaces in Chennai don't just include beaches and parks but also comprise libraries, public restrooms, museums, government-run healthcare facilities, places of worship as well as transportation facilities. However, for the queer community, these spaces are getting increasingly surveilled and hostile for anyone who does not conform to gender norms. Additionally, when we talk of public spaces, it is essential to talk about shelters as well. There are shelters for those who are homeless; a lot of queer people face homelessness but have very few places to stay. 

"There is intersectionality when it comes to safe spaces. Spaces can be safe. But for whom, and where?"

This powerful opening line resonates with the lived realities of LGBTQIA+ folks. This makes it critical to navigate how spaces can be safe. As a collective, a city or a state, it must stand for something, either through colours and murals, or through history and identity. We all access the same public spaces, but what is 'safe' for one doesn't necessarily translate into 'safe' for another. A city, should hence, allow its citizens to welcome people. It shouldn't be designed to make spaces exclusive, but should instead practice affirmative action like making queer stories a part of the city's history. The city needs queer folks; it needs to give space for communities to gather and talk about things. But also, it shouldn't keep queer folks away from having conversations. An instance that was cited is that hospitals could allow queer people to talk about STDs, STIs or one's sexual health; one need not be queer to know about the same. For this, cities must be inclusive, and that can happen only if there is a queering of cities. The city needs queerness. 

Even small steps will go a long way in making cities queer. A very important way to do that is to work on queer-friendly spaces, especially for toilets. Most public toilets have signages of 'male' and 'female'. How is that gender-inclusive? Why aren't people taking such (important) but small actions to make spaces inclusive? Another way of addressing this issue is by creating spaces for queer folks to discuss safely. Madras has two important beaches - Marina and Besant Nagar. However, in Marina, one cannot stay past 9 PM and the lighting is very poor. It is open throughout the day and night and a sense of 'belonging' is not really present there. Folks have to face the judgment of the police and other people who adhere to cis-heteronormative ideals. In contrast, Besant Nagar is a smaller space with lighting but is not open throughout the day. Marina is important for queer folks, in particular, because homes aren't safe spaces for all. So, there is a dependency on public spaces. Making public spaces queer-friendly is just a small step to make us feel like we aren't invisible; we are heard and we are seen.

But, to navigate through this, it is important to break down what inclusivity in public spaces is all about? Is it just about working on inclusive spaces for queer folks, or for anyone from the marginalised community? When you work on making public spaces accessible for the queer or trans folks, you are not just making spaces accessible for the most marginalised identity, but for everyone else - that is how policies must be seen. It is also a reality that currently there is no visibility for folks from the LGBTQI+ community. Most representations, with a few exceptions, adhere to cis-heteronormative ideals; there is a glorification of brahmin upper-caste histories, with a sequential and simultaneous erasure of queer lives. A few simple ways to pass the mic to queer folks is by making them engage in the processes of development of the city - painting murals, giving them livelihood opportunities, setting up signboards that talk of queer lives, or something as simple as having an LGBTQIA+ flag in public spaces. There needs to be an immediate and increased focus by the government to help queer folks reclaim public spaces through sensitisation of employees as well.

The voices of the queer community were met with an openness to take this dialogue further by various stakeholders who engaged in the roundtable. They stressed how public spaces and its design can be seen as a metaphorical 'colour picture'. There must be initiatives and affirmative action taken by the State to showcase, focus and highlight different arts and music in order to make spaces safe, and spread awareness. While listing the many ways of making spaces safe, accessible, and inclusive can be done at ease, engaging with those in power is a difficult process. One of the reasons for this is that decision-makers often come with heteronormative conditioning; it takes a lot of negotiating to work on inclusive infrastructure that is accessible to all. To add to this is the limitation of lack of literature and research on the accessibility of queer folks to public spaces and public transportation. An important point that was mentioned is that queer folks must be at the centre of these decisions. Whether public spaces can work or not is something that requires inputs from the community. Because this doesn't just increase visibility but also tells us whether the public spaces are working.

The audience raised a number of perspectives, experiences, and opinions on the discussion. They highlighted how the decision-makers often view the end-users to be an upper-caste, upper-class man, while other groups have to adjust. This can be overcome only if one listens to the community and builds a coalition with the end-users and the local government. Because, on paper, quite a few policies with their global and fancy terminologies appear inclusive, but if there is no implementation plan in place, the fancy terms mean nothing. The discussion circled back on the importance and necessity to make public spaces inclusive for the marginalised. 

The discussion closed with what was considered a top priority to make public spaces accessible, safe and inclusive. For this, it is essential to break down what we understand as inclusive space. How do we make people know that queer folks are not invisible? There is a common notion that LGBTQIA+ folks are sexual deviants and only talk about sex work. These problematic notions exist because of the erasure of queer lives. We must also push for conversations on queerness and on raising visibility. It is also essential to understand that marginalisation and violence are systemic, with intersections of caste, class, gender, sexual orientation, romantic orientation, to name a few.

Day 10: Everyday Sexism: Instagram Live

 In conversation with Prajnya volunteer Shweta Sharma, we had Maryam Nayaz, our programme associate and Niroopini Muralidharan, our campaign volunteer discuss the everydayness of sexism that all women and gender minorities are subjected to because of their gender identity. You can watch the saved recording of the Instagram Live here!

"Since our birth, we are subjected to sexism. Sexism starts before the girl is born, like female foeticide for instance."

The discussion began with how girls are not allowed to pursue higher education opportunities because she has to go to another house after a point. Women never belong to one place; the house she grows up in isn't hers, and neither is the house she resides in after marriage. Shweta broadened on this topic and asked "which, then, is her house?". She also discussed her experiences with men who believe they have greater power and autonomy over women that it justifies "asking for favours" if women wish to take huge leaps in life. Shweta stressed that she believes men should not try taking advantage of women because they think they are 'weak'.

The discussion moved to how, despite receiving higher education, the end goal always is to get the daughter married. So, parents keep pushing for the daughters to join places like VLCC to work on their "physical beauty". At the end of the day, marriage goes hand-in-hand with looks, beauty and physical features. Additionally, the bride's side of the family is even willing to "pay money" in the form of dowry to get their daughter married. 

The participants of the Instagram live also discussed their experiences and spoke of how gender norms box us into how we must act and behave in the society; there is no space for gender beyond the binary. Maryam added to the discussion on how the brunt of sexism is borne by women and gender minorities because we seem to live in a "man's world". The discussion also spoke of sexism against women working in informal sectors, especially in the domestic sphere, where men sexually exploit them. The intersections of caste and class further add to the marginalisation.

 Shweta concluded the discussions by mentioning that the presence of NGOs and CSOs that work in the field of rights has given her immense strength. The importance of sex education, discussing good-touch and bad-touch, and consent was also spoken about.

The one-hour long discussion gave the audience a lot of insight on how conversations like these (where we discuss the injustices, microaggressions and sexist attitudes we face on a daily basis) can help instil a sense of solidarity and togetherness - that we aren't alone and we aren't in the wrong.

Day 9: Safe Workplaces: A Status of Compliance Survey Report launch

The Safe Workplaces: A Status of Compliance Survey Report was launched on 4th December, 2021 on the 9th Day of the Prajnya 16 Days Campaign against Gender Violence. It is formulated with the focus sectors being IT, ITES, BPO, KPO, R&D. The report compiled by Prajnya has helped in giving one a better sense of understanding with respect to what constitutes a safe workplace, the compliance support undertaken by the focus sectors, and its impact. The survey for the report was undertaken by Prajnya volunteers Priithy Appandarajan and Subhashini Raju, with assistance from Ojasvi Vyas and Maryam Nayaz. Here's a sneak peek report that highlights the realities of workplaces. Click here to read more!

On December 3, the authors of the report presented its main findings to a small group. 

"Prajnya’s work in the area of creating safe workplaces begins with compliance support but forms part of its foundational commitment to gender equality and human rights—including the rights to life, to dignified work, and to equality, which both the Vishakha Guidelines of 1997 and the 2013 Act acknowledge as being at the heart of this issue."

• "Policy: 93% of companies had workplace sexual harassment prevention policies, and most of them introduced these at the point of induction. Almost everyone used multiple ways of communicating the policy to employees, including posters and reminders."
• "Reporting Requirement: Awareness about reporting requirements was relatively low, with 33% unsure about them. Those who said they had reported as required appear to have chosen contradictory options when asked what they reported, and breaches of confidentiality seem common. "
• "Asked about innovations they were proud of, most respondents pointed not towards compliance specifics but elements in the creation of an inclusive, equal organizational culture. "
• "We had included contradictory choices with regard to how complaints are listed in a report—the number and details; anonymized complaints with just receipt and closure information, and reporting with identifying details. Not only is it alarming that six out of the 14 who responded substantively to this question [elements included in the report] said that they included identifying details in the public report, but it is also alarming that half of them picked all three. This shows a lack of understanding, and perhaps design flaws in our survey, but also that companies can be casual about a breach of confidentiality." 

The report also outlines awareness on Company Policy on Workplace Sexual Harassment Prevention and Redressal, functioning of the Internal Committee, Complaint procedures, awareness training, reporting requirement, as well as workplace culture and awareness. 

Day 7: The Challenges of Gender Violence Research: A Panel

The data on gender violence, both qualitative and quantitative, are still hard to come by. This is because such data is hard to collect; that is to say, research on sexual and gender-based violence is a challenging undertaking. A panel of experienced researchers and practitioners from fields as diverse as anthropology, geography, law, and politics discuss those challenges. 

Today, we had with us Dr. Philippa Williams (Queen Mary University of London); Dr. Shazia Choudhry (Oxford University); Dr. Preeti Karmarkar (Nari Samata Manch); Dr. Girija Godbole (IIT Mumbai); Dr. Ruchira Goswami (National University of Juridical Sciences); Dr. Nandini Ghosh (Institute of Development Studies, Kolkata).

The audience focussed on questions pertaining to defining violence in accordance with the survivor's notion, the absence/presence of family, navigating through consent, and on the usage of trigger words. You may find the recording on our Facebook page or our Youtube Channel.

Dr. Philippa Williams spoke first on the challenges of gender violence research. She covered briefly the critical aspects of the same by compiling it under 5 key sub-headings.

• Know your research context.
• What's the research problem, what questions do you want to answer?
• What methods can you use to answer your research question? 
• How will you collect, analyze and write up your data?
• What will you do with the research, how can it benefit different groups?

Dr. Shazia Choudhry, our next speaker, focussed on the research ethics framework. Under this, she covered the importance of confidentiality, risk assessment, and safeguarding oneself.

• 
  "Recognising that you may experience secondary trauma as a result of this trauma, is important. A quick way of dealing with that is to participate in a quick debriefing with your team where you talk about what came out of that abuse, and if necessary consider individual counseling."
• "It is also important to end the interview on a note that emphasizes a woman's strengths, to try to minimize distress....you have to remember that they have never had someone say that this is unacceptable, whatever has happened is not right and no one should be treated that way; to say that shows you have been heard, seen and you have made some contribution."
• "If you are not going to add anything to the literature, why put the women through those interviews? And, if you are doing the research, it has to be done in an ethical way. It can be empowering for women to participate in the interviews. It is important and really, really difficult for the respondents to trust you. So, it is essential to approach the survivor in an ethical way."

Our next speaker, Dr. Preeti Karmarkar, looked into the Do's and Dont's while interacting with survivors, especially those who have undergone violence and on navigating difficult questions.

Some of the Do's that she gave the audience a perspective on covered explaining the purpose, ensuring the survivor is comfortable and assuring confidentiality. The Dont's looked into topics of interruption, judgemental statements, and offensive tones, to name a few.

• "Talking about trauma is again a trauma. If the interviewee gets tired, ensure you take a small break with snacks and tea. Keep tissue papers ready."
• "What if the respondent refuses to talk, or weeps during the process? We need to be calm and give them enough space to get comfortable...if the respondent refuses to talk, accept their emotional disturbance, assure them of confidentiality, clarify her doubts and accept her decision [to proceed or not proceed with the interview]."
• "Survivors see privacy in terms of their safety. That is their concern. Rather than [viewing it as] privacy, it is about their safety."

Our fourth speaker, Dr. Girija Godbole, spoke about looking after oneself as a researcher and dealing with difficult questions.

• "Researching sensitive topics can be traumatic for the researchers and the researched participants."
• "We also need to remember that the relationship [between the researcher and the participant] is inherently artificial and it is basically to get high-quality usable data and relationship is temporary in nature..... how much ever training or guidance one gets before the research, it cannot prepare us for all the eventualities."
• "It is also important to remember that we know domestic violence is a serious domestic problem. But knowing something and confronting something with data is different, so the impact will be different."
• She also suggested a few ways for the researchers to work on their emotions. This included having a regular, structured, critical reflection that helps one understand their position as a researcher. She said, "it is important to maintain relational boundaries and is useful for the existing researcher relationship." She also highlighted journaling or diary keeping to be a useful way to look at the research in a detached manner to a certain extent and this can help one develop a deeper understanding of the incident and the emotional impact of the same.

Dr. Ruchira Goswami spoke next and highlighted the legal aspect of the research on Gender violence and data collection.

• "Legal research, even if it is around social and economic issues, research is largely based on case laws, legal commentaries, etc. That's why in India, socio-legal research where you go in the field and conduct qualitative research is less done. Within that, in sensitive areas, researching on violence against women is extremely difficult. This is because it might trigger trauma in the respondent. But, doing it in a legal research framework, I think, is more challenging."
• "The case laws of higher courts are available [AIR or supreme court]. But if one wants to conduct research on domestic violence victims in trial court....you will see case laws are not updated electronically for all trial courts in all the states. Therefore it will be very difficult to conduct research on any of these sensitive issues in trial courts."
• "Sometimes, you have to take out the real critical part of it, make it sound a little less critical, and say little nice things. When you are critiquing the administrative system and the judicial system, the possibilities of facing the ire of the state is very high."
• "A lot of legal research is conducted using case laws, etc, and much less on what survivors are facing. But, perhaps there is no research, and I will be happy to stand corrected, on the lives of survivors post-trial."
• "Socio-legal research focuses more on illegalities, bottlenecks in the system....there is much less research on how respondents make sense of the system, a process we call hermeneutics....those kinds of work are just beginning to happen in India, but we need more and more work in sensitive areas around violence against women which will talk about longitudinal research and move beyond illegalities and bottlenecks in the system."
• "We should keep in mind what the additional ethical safeguards are when we are talking to children, we must keep that in mind. But having a parent during the interviewee is problematic because that would definitely influence the responses of the child....we have to, as interviewers, figure out if this is going to make the life of the child far more difficult. One way is to go through organizations and institutions that work with children directly, and speak to them on whether it is okay to speak to children."

Our last speaker, Dr. Nandini Ghosh, gave us a perspective on the barriers that exist in conducting gender violence research.

• "Feminist scholars, despite the lack of funding, have devised innovating ways of highlighting gender violence research, the public, and the private forms and how this violence is impacting lives of women across the country."
• "There is a problem of state-funded research which is that it is bound by time; you have one year to complete the research or three months to finish a report, which doesn't help explore the extent of gender violence that women might be facing."
• "The kind of permissions and protocols that you are required to follow when you undertake the research is a problem. When you want to do legal research or domestic violence research, we want to talk to the stakeholders who are responsible for rolling out acts and legislation. We want to approach them but we find ourselves coming up with barriers by the organization and by the individual, and they ask us to get permission from the state....there is a kind of avoidance of what the findings are gonna reveal of state of implementation of policies, programmes, etc."
• "What is clearly evident is that there is no spirit of collaboration.....there is also the tendency to say we have done enough and there is nothing more we can do.....there is a refusal to acknowledge their own shortcomings and there is a reluctance to take remedial action." 

You can watch the panel video here.