15/08/2024
đŽđł On 14th August, on the eve of Indiaâs independence day, hundreds of thousands of women all over West Bengal and India took to âoccupyingâ the streets late at night to protest sexual assault and violence against women.
The protests started in response to the gruesome r**e and murder of a trainee doctor in Kolkataâs R.G. Kar Medical College & Hospital, and allegations of attempted cover up by powerful institutional forces.
The protestors have asserted womenâs rights to exist freely without the fear of violence in all public spaces and at all hours. Many protests have been organised across different neighbourhoods of Kolkata and even smaller cities and towns across West Bengal and India. This is a change from the general focus on metropoles where these movements have been more prominent previously.
Even as the protests were organised many have pointed to the systemic challenges faced by the majority of women. Public transit would be unavailable at late night for women to commute, which remains a systemic obstacle for womenâs free movement at night. In most protest locations, there would be no public toilets for women to access.
Others pointed out to the existence of âr**e cultureâ in schools, universities, homes, and workplaces. This includes regular hostile remarks at women for their clothes or their bodies, silencing of women when they speak out about their experiences, and general attacks against womenâs rights.
We hope that the movement will sustain beyond the limited media cycles and proliferate into the political culture of India. Only then we can begin the task of dismantling patriarchy and capitalism.
How can women âtake backâ the night? The emergence of capitalism has been made possible through violence against women and forcing them into âdomesticityâ. This violence becomes visible when women are seen transgressing those boundaries by infringing upon the domain of women. The eradication of these structures are increasingly necessary.
The mass upsurge of peopleâs anger against sexual violence has finally erupted onto the streets.
