Grappling with groping

Our laws should ensure that there is no room for gropers to escape on the pretext of “no skin-to-skin contact", writes Alpana Chowdhury

I was all of 17 and on my way to college. Trying to figure out the schedule of the local trains in Andheri, a suburb of what was then Bombay, I suddenly felt a creepy pat on my back by a guy who brushed past me. Instinctively, I swung my bag of books on to him with all the force I had. The pervert ran for his life, while I heard an encouraging, ‘Shabaash beti’ from behind me. Turning around I saw a dhoti-kurta-clad, elderly, father figure applauding my act of self-defence. “Inko maloom hona chahiye, yeh Bambai hai; UP, Delhi nahin,” he said. Those words stayed with me and I never let anybody get away with dirty pawing in the years thereafter.

So, I found it really shocking to hear Justice Pushpa Ganediwala, of the Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court modifying the order of a Sessions Court that had held a 39-year-old man guilty of sexual assault for groping a 12-year-old-girl. Since he had groped her without removing her clothes (her mother had come upon him before he could do that), Justice Pushpa Ganediwala held that “The act of pressing of the breast of the child, aged 12 years, in the absence of any specific detail as to whether the top was removed or whether he inserted his hand inside the top and pressed her breast, would not fall in the definition of ‘sexual assault’.” Hence, Justice Ganediwala, in all her wisdom, declared the offender guilty, only under Section 354 (intent to outrage the modesty of a woman/girl) of the Indian Penal Code and reduced his sentence to one year, whereas, earlier, the Sessions Court had sentenced him to three years rigorous imprisonment as it had found him guilty under Section 8 of the POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences) Act as well. Fortunately, the Supreme Court stayed Justice Ganediwala’s order.

Acts of outrage

While the courts and lawyers quibble over trivial technicalities of law, and victims put up with insensitive observations in the cold interiors of courtrooms, in everyday life young girls risk facing acts of outrage all the time.

Sraboni Chowdhury, now in her 60s, shares incidents from her youth in Calcutta (Kolkata), while commuting to college. “I had mastered the art of sticking my elbows out when boarding buses to keep molesters at arm’s length. And if I noticed any man making a girl standee uncomfortable with lascivious body language, I would give my seat to her and haul the offender over the coals if he tried doing the same with me.” Not one to tolerate wanton behaviour from those euphemistically called eve-teasers, Sraboni, once, even slapped one of them hard and had to face the ire of his hoodlum friends, but she stood up to them. However, her mother advised her never to repeat her act of retaliation, not knowing to what extent the brutes would go.

Cause for concern

Mothers will always be concerned when their daughters are out of the house. I remember my own trepidation when my three-year-old started schooling and commuting by school bus. A male helper would help the children board and alight. You cannot explain bad touch to a toddler, so I told her that the helper’s hands may be dirty if he has been digging his nose, so not to take his help. The helper may not have had mal-intentions, but I did not want to take any chances. These days,
progressive schools do teach young ones about good and bad touch — a welcome step that should be a part of every school’s curriculum, from the remotest corners of rural India to small and big towns. Some schools teach self-defence, too. Again, this must be made compulsory for every school. While Sraboni and I may have, in cities like Kolkata and Mumbai, managed to protect ourselves, girls in smaller cities, or in rural areas, in more regressive states may not be in a position to do so. Ihitashri Shandalya narrates how, during a short stay in Patna in 1998-99, she and her sister carried an iron rod with them if they stepped out of the house even for groceries, because goondaraj was at its peak then. “Fortunately, the situation is very different now and is not as bad as it was earlier,” she points out. “I travel to my hometown, Madhubani, via Patna, alone, without being armed with rods.”

Apart from the streets, perverts can lurk in the most unlikely of places, pouncing on you in your home, at weddings, or even religious places. I have had friends describing the absolute trauma and humiliation they felt being pinched and grabbed by hooligans, while on school trips to tourist spots like Lodhi Gardens in Delhi or the picturesque Dal Lake in Kashmir. The Alia Bhatt-film Highway, was a powerful depiction of what happens to a child when violated upon in the apparent safety of her home.

What is a mere one, two, or three years of imprisonment for culprits who may have scarred girls for life? And, if courts are to go literally by the letter of the laws, then it is high time to re-frame the laws so that there is no room for gropers to escape on the pretext of “no skin-to-skin contact”. An assault is an assault whether over clothes or without clothes.