The 2016 New Year’s Eve in Bengaluru made the words ‘mass molestation’ mainstream. It made women and men across ages and classes stand up and say ‘enough is enough’. That’s how the #IWillGoOut collective describes itself as well
India woke up to 2017 with yet another case of New Year’s Eve sexual harassment, and it wasn’t just any other. This one from Bengaluru made the words ‘mass molestation’ mainstream. It was perhaps the final nail in the coffin, one that made women and men across ages and classes stand up and say ‘enough is enough’. That’s how the #IWillGoOut collective describes itself as well. “A group of individuals, sharing similar views of outrage against mounting cases of sexual harassment against women, decided to form a collective,” it said in a statement.
It began as a message thread on Facebook, says Sruthi Kutty, who was at the helm of the gathering in Mumbai. “I was added by a friend in Pune and multiple women from a lot of cities were being added too. We realised that instead of organising one event in a particular city, we should have it in multiple cities simultaneously because this is something that everyone faces and it would create a nationwide impact.”
Although the movement began on Facebook, they didn’t want it to be limited only to people with access to social media. “We were concerned about breaking that barrier but Jaago Re and One Billion Rising, both organisations with a great grass-root connect came on board,” said Kutty.
The impact that the collective hopes to make with the movement is to bring out the fact that it’s an issue faced by women everywhere irrespective of where they come from. “When it comes to politics of gender, it’s the same everywhere,” says Kutty. “There is too much normalisation of sexual violence, especially street sexual harassment. There is an attitude that ‘you only got touched, not raped’, and suddenly it hit us that we’re regressing instead of progressing.”
Woman Power
It was an uncanny coincidence that January 21 happened to be the date for the multi-city #IWillGoOut protests in India, on a day when women across the globe are taking part in marches against US President Donald Trump.
“We were actually planning to do it a week earlier as we didn’t want it to be so close to Republic Day due to security and permission reasons but because there were so many cities involved we had to wait. But I’m glad we waited. Although we have nothing to do with the marches happening across the world, we are of course, in solidarity with every women’s movement happening out there.”
Sruthi Kutty
Although the turnout at Mumbai’s Veer Kotwal Garden in Dadar was a handful of about 100 odd people, Kutty is optimistic about the initiative picking up speed from here. “This is just the beginning of a very long struggle. Today is about making a statement and taking it forward. We are trying to establish relationships with women so that we can have a bigger collective and create a safe space where women can talk about such issues because many are still met with disbelief and judgement.”
The atmosphere was passionate, pulsing and contagious. Chants of ‘Day or night, I will go out. Dress or sari, I will go out’ and ‘Main bhi baahar jaaungi’ in Hindi, English and Marathi filled the air in Mumbai and Delhi. The capital witnessed a turnout of about 300 men and women who marched a mile’s distance from Barakhamba Road to Jantar Mantar. Feminist activist, Kamla Bhasin penned a song for the occasion, lyrics of which inspired many who were gathered. People engaged in dialogue and discussions about the problem, its severity and the need for it to be addressed. Women were encouraged to fill forms and name streets and areas they avoided visiting because they were unsafe. Shilpa Phadke, author, Why Loiter, highlighted how being restricted at home is also a form of violence.
When women say ‘I can’t go out, I have no choice so I am staying at home,’ is also a form of violence.
Shilpa Phadke
There is an urgent need for people to understand how restricted movement affects women and their growth in life, said Kutty. “Doesn’t it trickle down to my choice of job, then?”
The protest was populated by the urban youth but there were several ex-pats and parents who had come out in support of a safer society for their children. A 17-year-old student, Kavisha Khanna, was one such passionate voice at the protest. “India needs a revolution to change things, I don’t think it’s going to happen any other way,” she said
“It’s a movement that needs attention from all sections of society,” said Anjali Monteiro, a 61-year-old professor at TISS, Mumbai, and took part in the protest. “It’s an important cause but the mobilisation is more middle class right now. It requires many people from different sections of society to be involved. Safety and the right to be in public places is every woman’s right across class.”
Thirty-seven-year-old Karan Bajaj was at the protest to support a safer society for his daughters. “As a man, I feel embarrassed to be exposed to the shocking and shameful things that men are doing. I have two daughters and it feels dangerous to be raising two young girls in such an environment.”
[Originally published by DNA in January 2017]
