Dignity March: A long walk to freedom

Rape has nothing to do with someone's clothes," says Bhanwari Devi, activist from Rajasthan, clad in a yellow sari with a dupatta covering her head. She is perplexed at how one can make this assumption. "People say that women who wear short clothes are the ones who get raped but I am such an old woman wearing a sari. What's wrong with the way I dress? Why was I raped?"

After being gang raped by her higher-caste neighbours in 1992, she still continues her fight for justice. Like Devi, there are a number of survivors of sexual abuse with compelling stories that joined the Rashtriya Garima Abhiyan (RGA), a survivor focused organisation, in their feat to stop victim shaming. Among the dissenters at the Dignity March were Laxmi Agarwal (Stop Acid Attacks), Tisca Chopra and Sudha Chandran, who led the way of the march for women who were trafficked, raped and beaten. What began on December 20 from Sion, Mumbai, will conclude on February 22, 2019. The 65-day-long journey will cover a distance of 10,000km with protesters traveling on foot and by vehicle through 24 districts. "We plan to pick up at least 1,000 people from each district," says Ashif Shaikh of RGA.

The protest stems from an online survey by RGA that revealed 95 per cent of respondents had faced sexual violence but had not reported them for fear of being shamed and stigmatised by society. The march also serves to shift focus to perpetrators. "We want people to come out in numbers unheard of today and report cases of rape and sexual violence. No one is supporting them now and in fact turning the blame on to them [the victims]. We want to break this culture of silence," Shaikh asserts.

From the age of 18, he took up this cause in the Dalit community. "When you live in small communities you realise there is often forced prostitution, which is actually rape, happening everyday. This needs to stop." After experiencing sexual violence in his own life, he strives to rid people of the prejudices. "It is harder to speak about sexual violence when you're a man because most think this [sexual abuse] doesn't happen to us [men]. City folk think this only happens with villagers, while the latter thinks it only happens with city dwellers who wear short clothes," he says. Speaking of enlightening boys and girls at school and college levels, he explains, "Some of us, like Bhanwari Devi will speak in Rajasthani, some will speak in Bengali and other languages but we will translate and rid them of the idea of victim shaming."

After three years of working for RGA and at least 22 years of fighting with the Rajasthani government to put her perpetrators behind bars, Devi says, "The government didn't give me justice and so I'm walking . I invite the government to put me behind bars as I won't be quiet anymore."

Marching For Dignity

• The dissenters will cover a distance of 10,000km from Mumbai to Delhi. Passing through 24 states, the journey is estimated to conclude on February 22.
• The 65-day-long journey started with an eager 5,000 individuals. At least another 1,000 are estimated to join from each district.