War for gender justice takes centrestage

At a time when tomorrow’s architects are shaping a better society — one that moves forward and talks about gender neutrality, a concept where distinctive roles for either of the sexes that cause discrimination are blurred—regressive forces seek to disrupt this balanced fabric and provoke feuds across gender lines.

By the hour this piece goes in print, the mass molestation and stalking on the posh streets of Bengaluru and its rerun in Delhi on the New Year Eve have already happened followed with the sexist remarks of a certain political leader and a minister on the victims, drawing flak from all quarters. But only two days preceding December 31 2016, a reputed Delhi-based Bengali theatre group Shapno Ekhon staged two back-to-back plays on sexual violence against women on December 28 and 29 respectively at Kolkata’s Jogesh Mime Academy.

By his own admission, the director Shomik Ray is unable to stop showcasing the plays — Galpo Shesher Poreand Manohar Kahaniya — as they never cease to lose their significance in the current-day context.

The law shall always take its own course, but the need of the moment is how to react to such offences and what can everyone at every level do to assuage the problem. Like charity, harassment too begins at home where an innocent male/female child appallingly falls prey to the cruel hands of its own relations, guardians and caregivers from a formative age. Left defenceless and unsettled by an unprepared assault, the child automatically withdraws from society at large and this may in turn leave an adverse effect on its overall personality-development and can eve ruin its life. More harsh facts are in store when the child grows up. If a difficult adolescence or teenage period wasn’t enough to deal with, then be ready to confront sexual abuses in offices or at workplaces by your male colleagues and superior bosses who need no plea to ogle at you or your skirt-size. Marital rape is another matter of grave concern and sad but true, even senior citizens are not spared by the miscreants. Well, all this were presented in nuggets in the first play Galpo Shesher Pore to drive home the point. And what can we say about the experiences in public transport? An everyday affair or an isolated incident! Until and unless it heavily breathes down our own necks, we’ll never really be affected or bothered, isn’t it?

It is said that a minute’s devoted prayer is no less powerful than shouting out slogans, painting and pasting posters on the walls plus walking in candlelight vigil to indicate those signs of mobilising a force to launch an effective movement against all anti-social elements. So taking even a small baby steps is important to right the wrongs. That’s what the first day’s performance strongly promulgates.

“I believe, pen and theatre can arouse minds and voice a strong opinion across the board,” asserts Ray. Child and women rights activist Sraboni Sarkar, who works with the children and women at grassroots levels for their upliftment in the underdeveloped sections of society, read out the NCPR’s (National Commission for Protection of Child Rights) report, issued in 2015 before the first drama was performed on stage. The alarming statistics reveal a pathetic picture of a society that still grapples with an unequal sex-ratio. After every 15 minutes, a woman gets raped in India, a child gets lost at an interval of eight minutes (often they land in trafficking rackets) and one out of every four children doesn’t go to school to receive education which is its birthright. The dismal stories emanating from the red-light areas even record cases of forced prostitution or flesh-trade (in case of minors too!) which is so disgustedly common.

Galpo Shesher Pore also pays homage to the 23-year-old paramedic student was brutally gangraped in a moving bus in the capital owing to which she passed away a 13-day excruciating battle for life on December 29.

The second piece titled Manohar Kahaniya reprised the 2012 Park Street rape case of the doughty survivor Suzette Jordan through a blow-by-blow account along with its follow-ups, till she dies of a fatal disease in 2015.

The moving story narrates how from a nameless entity, Jordan became a gritty figure to reckon with.

Social entrepreneur Santosree Chowdhury, who works in the sector of domestic violence, had provided a rock-solid support with an emotional succour to Jordan during her hard fight for justice. In fact, she was also present at the auditorium to watch the performance.

 “This was a very different audience and quite an amazing experience for all of us... For three years we have been staging this particular play and have also presented it in both Hindi as well as English earlier on,” shared Ray before signing out.