Beyond Being A Survivor

In 1992 the State Government of Rajasthan launched an anti-child marriage campaign. Employees of the state and members of the Women's Development Project (WDP), a grassroot initiative run by the government, went out to villages to try and educate people about the issue and stop the practice. One female worker from the WDP was met with hostility when she tried to stop a child marriage taking place in an affluent Gujjar family. She lodged a complaint at the local police station and by intervention on the part of the police the marriage was halted for that moment (though it eventually took place the following day).

Angered by her interference in their family affairs, the family got the entire village to turn on the woman. She and her family were tormented and socially boycotted. One evening, around four months after the incident of her lodging the police complaint, five men attacked her and gang raped her. A social worker took her to the police station and registered an FIR, she was then shunted from hospital to hospital to have a rape kit collected, was humiliated and was finally sent home broken and a victim.

Two years later she refused the monetary compensation offered to her by the family of her perpetrators in return for her dropping the charges. Her case went to court, numerous judged were changed and the final one ruled that the five men were not guilty as they were of an upper caste and hence would not stoop to touching, let alone raping her, a woman of a much lower caste. Injustice prevailed. She continued her fight to be heard and for justice to be served.

A woman speaking so openly about rape and the shocking verdict of the district court prompted women’s groups and NGO’s from across the state to take on and fight for her cause. A PIL was filed with the Supreme Court under the collective platform ‘Vishakha’ that aimed to criminalize sexual assault at the workplace. In 1997 a three-judge bench delivered a landmark judgment which outlined the basic constitutes of sexual harassment at the workplace and the guidelines on how to deal with it, these are more commonly known as the Vishakha Guidelines.

Over a decade after the heinous crime against her, she still prays that justice will be served. Her strength, conviction and will to carry on fighting has made her a beacon of hope amongst women in her village and the neighboring ones who seek out her advice. Women’s rights activists across the country invite her to be on panels and journalists still seek her interview.

Bhanwari Devi is a woman who refused to be set aside or silenced and though she may never receive justice, every woman who goes to work every day is assured that the law will protect her against sexual assault at the work place. This is the power of one woman, of a woman who rallied others to help fight with her, of a woman who’s perseverance has influenced policy and other victims to speak up, this is the story of Bhanwari Devi.