Much before the sexual assault, the perpetrators had begun lobbying with other upper-caste members in the village to isolate Bhanwari and her husband. The two were threatened many times since the day Bhanwari informed the police about the wedding. Lying ravaged and almost annihilated in the fields, a disconsolate Bhanwari took an unlikely and courageous decision. She decided against silence; she decided to report rape. In , when the rape happened, Bhanwari had no clue that her wait for closure would be endless.
I want to know what she thought about the social stigma that would come with the crime. It was the summer of The events of that summer changed her life forever. What unfolded after changed the lives of millions of working Indian women.
Sexual harassment was a taboo topic. No one talked about it. When Bhanwari Devi tried to lodge a formal complaint, she was humiliated by the police. Her FIR could be filed many days later under pressure from women groups in Jaipur. Three years later, all the accused were acquitted by a Jaipur court.
The judgement was challenged in the Rajasthan High Court. A quarter century and many topsy-turvy developments later, a final verdict is still awaited. Over the years she has asked this question repeatedly. Her searing quest to seek justice for herself, of course, set off the process that made workplace harassment an irrevocable part of the mainstream discourse. The saathins were required to inform the police in case anyone forcibly tried to marry off children.
The result: in , the Supreme Court laid down formal guidelines for dealing with sexual harassment at the workplace. These came to be known as the Vishakha Guidelines. Two of the accused have already died. This is just one grave side of her struggle. On the other side is her life and family that slowly fell apart. I ask Bhanwari about her age.
I enquire about her girlhood. The only childhood memory she has of herself is that of a child bride.
How young was she when she got married? Bhanwari came to Bhateri after her marriage. Her husband, too, might have been around Four generations in a village means deep, unbreakable bonds between families. But rape can change everything, as she came to know slowly and sordidly.
She still lives in the same village as her rapists; their house just a few metres from hers. Jaipur News. The Indian Express website has been rated GREEN for its credibility and trustworthiness by Newsguard, a global service that rates news sources for their journalistic standards. Tags: Bhanwari Devi. Delhi news live: Capital records two Covid deaths, 62 new cases; positivity rate up at 0. Bengaluru news Live: Karnataka logs new Covid cases, 2 deaths 6 hours ago. Best of Express Cities Delhiites advised to limit outdoor activities as air quality nears emergency levels Army to grant Permanent Commission to women officers post SC warning Entertainment Special Ops 1.
Technology FlexBike review: The smart ride to fitness. For a time, there seemed to be some hope for justice. But in November when the Jaipurtrial court issued its order, it acquitted the five accused on the grounds that men from different castes could not be involved in rape, that two of the accused, over 60 years old, were too old to be involved in the act, and that it was impossible for rape to happen if her husband was present.
The acquittal set off another round of protests in Rajasthan, spreading as far as Delhi. As women rights activists made their way to Bhateri, worried for her safety, Devi shooed them away, asking them to focus on justice. She filed an appeal against the judgment in the Rajasthan high court in Twenty-six years since, the case has yet to be taken up in earnest.
Their argument was that Devi was an employee of the Rajasthan government discharging her duties, and suffered the assault in the workplace, with laws wholly inadequate in dealing with the crime.
Devi may have lost her own battle. Forty-five kilometres from Jaipur, and 10km off the Agra-Delhi National Highway, Bhateri is a cluster of 1, residents. The Bairwas, a Dalit community, have a considerable population, but Gujjars and Meenas live here too, and exert considerable influence. The Kumhars are a small minority. Everyone either farms, or works in Jaipur. The nearest health centre is in Lawan, 5km away, or at Banskho, 15km away.
In the years after the gang rape, Devi became a national icon. The money she received from Rao, she gave to her brothers, who arranged a Kumhar Mahapanchayat, designed to end her boycott. Twenty-nine years later, in the courtyard of her government aid funded home, Devi has not an ounce of regret at the act that started it all. The child was nine months old. Nine months. There is perhaps another reason that Devi has kept going, despite personal tribulations. She has seen Bhateri, particularly in its attitudes towards caste and women, change before her eyes.
There is no higher education in Bhateri yet, the closest institutions in Dausa or Jaipur, but one battle at a time. Not a single girl used to go to school in my days but today you can see for yourself how things have changed.
Devi believes her struggle has found slow acceptance within the community, the outrage and attention sparked by her case putting a spotlight on the issue of caste and child marriage in Rajasthan, prompting government intervention and a focus on education. In his home close by, sarpanch Vedraj Bairwa says the village administration now actively looks out to prevent any child marriages. Like many others, he says he was not in the village 29 years ago, and was in Delhi for work. People began to fear the administration.
Awareness has spread, and if parents want to force them, they resist.
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