‘We will fight for you, Kolkata sister’

When a young woman was gang-raped and left to die on the streets of New Delhi in 2012, a shocked and enraged India vowed that her death would not be in vain, that she would be avenged by not letting this happen to “anyone else”.

The raped and murdered woman doctor in Kolkata’s RG Kar Hospital is that “anyone else.”

In India, men continue to rape women with impunity. In a corrupt, dishonest system, they know they can normally bribe their way out of it.

This said, the Kolkata rape-murder case is about much more than correcting systemic corruption in India, or about demanding institutional accountability for what was done to a doctor that night, who happened to be a woman.

It’s puzzling that the Supreme Court of India, even as it takes “suo moto” cognisance of this case, regards it primarily as a matter of doctors’ safety, and not of women’s safety.

The rape-murder at RG Kar is about what was done to a woman that night, who happened to be a doctor. A woman’s safety is her right, and it’s about much more than installing CCTV cameras and high-tech security systems in hospitals or other work environments. After all, think about the lakhs of women in India who’re raped in non-institutional places, in public spaces, or in domestic settings—including their own homes.

Rape is primarily about power, predation and dominion: Men who rape women do so to feel powerful, in control and superior. That’s why they often rape in gangs and choose soft targets--girl children or, as in the RG Kar case, a young woman in deep sleep.

Put another way, there exists a huge disparity of power between men and women across almost all spheres of life in India. Men rape to perpetuate this power imbalance—to demean and to oppress their female victims. And they often get away with it because of a patriarchal power structure--that largely understands, supports, condones, and shield its own kind--at the expense of the other.

It’s fallacious to couch rape—any rape—as primarily a matter of protecting women. For it leads to scare-mongering and controlling women, and to scaling back hard-won women’s rights and liberties. And to exhorting women to talk, dress and behave ‘appropriately’ so that they do no ‘invite trouble’ from men. And to blaming them for not staying at home--for being ‘too ambitious’. And to shaming them for not being ‘smart and strong enough’ to detect danger and defend themselves against their assaulters--with pepper sprays or martial arts or ‘one tight slap’ or even guns and revolvers!

Equally, to couch rape primarily as a matter of ‘swiftly and severely’ punishing the perpetrators is not enough. The Kolkata rape case is about much more than the proper implementation of existing laws and policies to deal with sexual violence, or about making newer and stronger ones that are ‘anti-rape’. Those in power know this. But they play to the gallery, pass the buck, and serve their own self-interested agenda, rather than bring justice to the raped and killed woman per se.

So, how can justice truly be served to a woman who’s been raped and killed? What is justice, especially if finding and punishing the rapists isn’t all there is to it? If deterring future perpetrators with the fear of the law isn’t all there is to it?

If justice is about more than retribution, if it’s about how we value people and things, then the first step is to appreciate that the blame and shame is also somewhat our own—even as it’s of the actual perpetrators. For ours is a society that routinely subordinates women and makes them to settle for less. It’s a culture that regularly privileges men to the detriment of women.

Men enjoy this privilege and advantage and won’t give it up easily, or on their own—despite the lip-service. For gender justice to prevail, power must be seized and redistributed, because it won’t be proffered just like that.

That’s why real justice for the dead doctor is for women from all walks of life, and non-political affiliations, to continue protesting across India--to come out in her support, and to keep demanding deep social change.

And, as that gets done, it’s for women to embody the deep social change they demand. Women win when women take care of each other. Justice triumphs when women unite and stand up for each other; when women empower other women instead of competing against each other; and when they raise boys/men who regard women as different but equal, and not the other.

This article is authored by Nandita Patel, writer and public policy analyst, Mumbai.