I was groped as people watched

New Delhi: I was walking back from Malviya Nagar to my home at Neeti Bagh at around 7.30 pm. I was somewhere near the Golden Dragon restaurant and I noticed a liquor store nearby. I suddenly sensed that a man who was at the liquor shop had started following me. I took a sharp intake of breath, quickened my pace and started walking briskly, leaving him far behind. In a few minutes, I relaxed again and started walking at my usual pace. Suddenly, I felt someone run next to me. The person crossed me by a few metres and stopped. I realised he was the same man. Shocked and worried, I pretended that I was not scared and continued walking slowly. I moved towards the pavement as there seemed to be more people there.

He was walking very slowly so I was forced to cross him. Just as I was crossing him, he grabbed me from the back, groped me around my breasts and tried to put his hand into my pants. As he was doing that, he tried to drag me behind a bunch of trees. For a few seconds, I couldn’t react. I was too numb, too shaken with the sheer shock that a random man on the street was violating me in full public view. Then I suddenly found my voice and began to scream loudly. Once I began shouting, he started running. He went to his car, parked at a distance, and drove off.

While I was being molested, there were two men walking towards us. They were at some distance but clearly saw the whole episode. But they just looked right through me even as I was screaming myself hoarse in the middle of the street.

My first reaction was disgust and anger. Then I was just lost. I just started walking back home feeling flushed. Suddenly I noticed a PCR van parked near Saibaba Dham. I went up to them and realised there was no woman constable in the van. I told them what had happened to me. The police officer’s first question was what I was doing alone on the roads at this time of the night.  He then asked me if my parents knew where I was. When I told him I lived nearby, he shrugged his shoulders and said, “Yahaan pe log daru peeke ghumte hai, aapko savdhan rehna chaiye” (There are drunkards in this area. You should be more careful). He asked me no constructive questions, just passed a few judgments and then said that he couldn’t do anything because I hadn’t noted down the car licence plate of the offender. I left feeling disgusted and helpless.

I told some friends about this who asked me to carry pepper spray, others said they would drop me home. But no one could tell me how I could get justice for being violated in this manner. And that’s the tragedy – not only of my life, but every woman in this country. We are constantly learning newer way to keep ourselves safe, but have somewhere in our hearts accepted that we don’t have control over our bodies. We don’t need to be more careful, we don’t need to be “more clothed”, we don’t need male escorts. We just need the men to change.

The victim is a 23-year-old Masters student in Social Design from Ambedkar University.

(As told to Sushmita Ghosh)