IT was a chilly winter evening in Delhi. A physiotherapy intern had gone to watch the movie ‘Life of Pi’ with her friend at PVR Select City Walk in Saket on December 16, 2012. By the time they left the theatre, it was past 9 pm.
They were waiting at the Munirka bus stand to take the next bus home to Dwarka. When an off-duty chartered bus stopped there and offered them a ride, they did not realise it was a private bus. What happened next left the country in shock.
There were six male occupants on the bus, drunk. After covering some distance, the bus took a different route, making the woman and her friend suspicious. The friend tried to inquire and got into a scuffle with the group. They knocked him down using an iron rod, then dragged her to the back of the bus and gang-raped her while the bus travelled all over Delhi. When she protested, they beat her and shoved an iron rod into her private parts. After a while, the couple were thrown out of the moving bus, naked and bleeding. After her death, she was named Nirbhaya—the one without fear.
When the incident happened, Seema Samridhi Kushwaha was a law trainee preparing for the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) exam. She used to stay as a paying guest in Delhi. After the news broke, she saw several bags packed, as her flatmates were called and persuaded by their families to move back home because it was no longer “safe” for women to live in Delhi. But she continued to stay in the city.
“It unnerved me. It reminded me of my childhood when a panchayat was held in my village to decide whether I should be allowed to go to another district to study beyond class 8. That day, I made a promise to myself to fight for Nirbhaya and for all women of this country,” she says.
This story is from the September 11, 2024 edition of Outlook.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the September 11, 2024 edition of Outlook.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
No Singular Self
Sudarshan Shetty's work questions the singularity of identity
Mass Killing
Genocide or not, stop the massacre of Palestinians
Passing on the Gavel
The higher judiciary must locate its own charter in the Constitution. There should not be any ambiguity
India Reads Korea
Books, comics and webtoons by Korean writers and creators-Indian enthusiasts welcome them all
The K-kraze
A chronology of how the Korean cultural wave(s) managed to sweep global audiences
Tapping Everyday Intimacies
Korean filmmaker Hong Sang-soo departs from his outsized national cinema with low-budget, chatty dramedies
Tooth and Nail
The influence of Korean cinema on Bollywood aesthetics isn't matched by engagement with its deeper themes as scene after scene of seemingly vacuous violence testify, shorn of their original context
Beyond Enemy Lines
The recent crop of films on North-South Korea relations reflects a deep-seated yearning for the reunification of Korea
Ramyeon Mogole?
How the Korean aesthetic took over the Indian market and mindspace
Old Ties, Modern Dreams
K-culture in Tamil Nadu is a very serious pursuit for many