Rape culture persists in India, as Delhi documentary banned
The gang rape of a 23-year-old physiotherapy intern by six men in a Delhi bus on December 2012 caused global shock, massive countrywide protests in India, and prompted judicial reforms to deal with rape culture. Now, the banning of a documentary featuring the perpetrators has sparked renewed outrage, as statistics show that rape culture and impunity persist.
India’s Daughter, a new documentary directed by British actress and film producer Leslee Udwin, was banned in the country, as filmmakers were accused of violating ‘permission conditions’, and not showing their footage to prison officials. The film features conversations with convicted rapists, one of whom blamed the victim of the Delhi incident in a BBC interview.
“The horrifying details of the rape had led me to expect deranged monsters. Psychopaths. The truth was far more chilling. These were ordinary, apparently normal and certainly unremarkable men.”
In contrast to #IndiasDaughter, Daughters of Mother India, a recent documentary by Vibha Bakshi, dealing with the same subject matter, interviews officials, activists, civil society members and a five year old rape survivor, but not the convicted rapists.
Judicial reforms introduced after the incident included new legislation, which includes life and death sentences for convicted rapists, and tougher penalties for related crimes, like stalking and acid attacks, as well as the establishment of fast-track courts to prosecute cases of sexual violence.
However, despite an improvement in public discourse and the processing of cases, critics argue that the legal system remains slow to prosecute them.
“Even though the laws are there, many people feel they can get away with anything, an attitude that some of our politicians have gone out their way to encourage.”
Rape culture remains systemic in India, and politicians are seen as morally complicit. A member of India’s Nationalist Congress Party caused a stir in January 2014, when she blamed body language and attire for rape.
Reactions to the ban were swift, with critics focusing on the perceived hypocrisy of censoring a conversation over an ongoing societal plight.
However, the framing common in both documentaries also met with fierce criticism by activists.
“Hailing Indian women as “India’s daughters” is something India’s patriarchs have always done. Why does a global campaign against gender violence do the same?”
According to India’s National Crime Records Bureau, 93 women are being raped in the country every day, and the caseload of reported rapes has increased, from 24,923 in 2012 to 33,707 in 2013. Web-based taxi services were banned in the country in late 2014, after a rape case involving an Uber driver caused another outrage.
