The ‘Reclaim the Night’ movement, that started in Kolkata, was primarily triggered by a comment casually made by the former principal of the R.G.Kar Medical College and Hospital at Kolkata. After the heinous rape and murder of a doctor and PG student of the same medical college, he indicated that it was ‘irresponsible’ of the victim ‘to have been alone at night’.
On August 14, after 11 at night, under the banner of ‘Rat dakhol karo’ or ‘Reclaim the Night,’ we found women gig workers walking hand in hand with nurses, teachers with homemakers, ASHA workers were walking with doctors, transwomen with cis women. The convenors of the movement gave a second call for a Women-Trans-Queer March. Four to five thousand women, trans and queer people participated on August 17. People defied the police and RAF, who were reluctant to let them carry on the rally, and made it to R.G.Kar.
This proves that the spirit is still high and people are prepared to take part in a continuous gender justice movement that carries no party banner and is not designed or led by male leadership.
Having said that, the talking point now should be whether the movement aims at reacting to one singular incident of gender injustice through marches, rallies and sit-in protests alone, or if it has greater vision?
Alapan Bandyopadhyay, the chief secretary of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in his statement dated August 17 expressed the government’s desire to ensure ‘women’s safety’ through 17 measures. A government order regarding the same was issued on the very next day.
It has skipped no one’s attention that the chief opposition party in West Bengal is Bharatiya Janata Party. The BJP’s movement has a one-point agenda: the resignation of the CM. Their slogan is: Ek dafa, dabi ek/ Mukhomantri’r padotyag (‘There is only one demand, the CM should resign’).
The ‘Reclaim the Night’ platform staunchly believes that the BJP is ideologically more patriarchal and Manuvadi than any other party and therefore can never be an ally to any gender movement. The gender collectives of West Bengal firmly disown the BJP’s endeavour to encash on this movement for their own benefit. The BJP’s leaders have a history of perpetrating or being mute bystanders to rapes at Gujarat, Kathua, Unnao and Hathras. They have championed rape as a weapon to proclaim their win over the Muslim and Dalit communities. They have set the rapists of Bilkis Bano free. So we must do whatever we can to resist BJP from taking any advantage of the situation.
As of the present Trinamool Congress government in Bengal, we consider them accountable for the lack of safety that women-tran-queer people feel in general. We must address this government and all the governments to come and hold them accountable, as all of them, i.e all the parties, are equally negligent about gender-related issues.
As we are talking of accountability of the state government, we must assess the 17-point measures that the state government has proposed about ‘women safety’. First, the government proposed a mobile app named ‘Rater Sathi’, which is aimed at catering to various needs of women at work. To our great dismay, we find that there is no measure to ensure the safety of trans and queer people, who have been there in this movement along with the women of West Bengal.
The rhetoric of directives emphasises more on ‘protection of women’ via CCTV, police personnel and security guards, which seem to us to have been sprung more out of a saviour complex and less out of a thorough understanding of gender politics. We admit the need of the police to ensure the safety of citizens. But we will resist any kind of state surveillance on the workplace and educational campuses in the guise of security measures. Whether too much police employment in hospitals and campuses will harm the spontaneous doctor-patient, student-teacher, inter-student relationships is also debatable. They are stressing on helplines, but we had helplines before.
By ‘safe room’, the state government has meant a room with CCTV, where women will take rest. Is it possible to install CCTV in a women’s personal space, where she will sleep at night or take rest? There were CCTVs in R.G. Kar as well. We were informed via the media that in spite of CCTV being there, footage was not clear. Whom do we hold responsible for that?
Above all, in one of the government’s directives, the hospital authorities are requested to minimise night duties for female doctors. This is just the opposite of what the Reclaim the Night Movement demanded. We demanded safety even at night. What would happen to a female patient who may need a female doctor? What would happen to the nurses? The government has mentioned that female and male security personnels will be employed in equal numbers. What about those female security guards? What about ASHA workers who have to rush at night if a pregnant woman is suffering from labour pain? It reminds one of similar incidents, such as how women’s evening schools have been shut down in UP. We are against such patriarchal practices.
Moreover, what will happen to IT workers, call centre workers and all other women who work at night? Even a woman who is out at night not for work but for a visit to restaurants, theatres and libraries should be safe.
The 17-point directive, therefore, seems incomplete and insincere. So what do we demand?
First and foremost, we want fair trial and stringent punishment of those who committed the crime and exemplary punishment for those who tried to cover it up.
Next, we want 24×7 government-run public transport so that women can travel safely. Our demand charter includes the need for 24×7 toilets for women and trans/queer people. We are asking for public crèches for the babies of working women who do not earn much and can not hire nannies.
Apart from that, we suggest that the government build up teams who will look into the requirements of women working in various sectors.
But, the most important demand from our end to the government is that it should arrange for a gender audit as soon as possible, as during this movement we are getting reports that the Vishakha Guidelines, that was set to ensure the safety of working women against sexual violence, is hardly implemented. Forget about Local Complaint Committees, even there is no Internal Complaint Committees in various sectors.
We are all ears for suggestions from sisters across India. Let the gender movement that has started rolling not fizzle out but live long.
Satabdi Das is an author, gender rights activist, and one of the convenors of the ‘Reclaim the Night, Reclaim the Rights’ movement.