New Delhi: Saumya Saxena, a research student pursuing PhD in Legal History from the University of Cambridge, was among the 15 young legal lieutenants who helped Justice JS Verma prepare a 600-page report on laws for sexual crimes in less than a month. The 23-year old scholar was the youngest in the team
Saumya happened to be in India for her fieldwork when the December 16 gang-rape happened. She and the rest of the young team worked 18-20 hours every day to make sure that the report came out on time.
In the write-up below, she shares her experience:15th of December was like any other day. I returned from the nearest DT cinema in Gurgaon after watching 'Life of Pi'. I had made it home, safely.
The next day, on 16th of December, another girl, also 23, watched 'Life of Pi', but she did not make it home. And needless to say, the city was never the same again, this became a tipping point for many of us, whose patience had been repeatedly tested in our everyday lives and finally exhausted on that fateful day.
The protests in Delhi and elsewhere marked a watershed moment not just for the history of Indian feminism, but also in the history of Indian social movements. I saw Democracy walking the streets of Delhi. Usually, social movements find tremendous space in academia. There are viewpoints and counter-viewpoints, and a rich and relevant public debate chased by the media, which keeps the fervour for a while, which is then eventually replaced by other concerns.
This time, we decided to put our hopes in the Verma Committee or the 'JSVC' as the team called it.
On 31st December, I was brain-storming with the committee. My three years of research on gender had suddenly found application. I was being led by three of the most inspiring people I have ever had the fortune of knowing, and working with fellow workaholics was a pleasure and a privilege.
Mornings at the Vigyan Bhawan Annexe entailed hours of discussion and analysis of everything that had a bearing on gender justice. When the official buildings were closing down in the evenings, we shifted to our base camp, Mr Subramanium's office.
Personally, having so far critiqued the deficiencies in the law-society interface in my research, I suddenly found myself on the other side of the table, that is, building a better law-society interface.
To answer the one of the most asked questions - how did it happen in 29 days? Well, because the nation's patience for tolerating crime against women was wearing very, very thin, and so was ours. The sentiment was apparent in the email responses we received.
The case gave us some heart-wrenching moments, but this was the time and opportunity to fix that. Despite dealing with histories of discrimination, uncovering cringe-worthy realities and being forced to acknowledge the deficiencies of our own society, state, its inescapable hierarchies, weak resolve and, the and worst of all, the all-pervading ignorance that existed; there was still an element of "hope" that the committee leaders continued to emphasize, that helped us power through.
There are also some lighter moments in my JSVC diaries. The celebration of my 24th birthday, amid the deadlines, remains a very fond memory. We cut a cake and I left work early around 8.30 pm, which meant almost a half-day off in our calendars.
The report was released on the 23rd of January. As exhilarating as it was, this was not meant to be a conclusion but rather, a well-begun journey, with much distance remaining to be covered.
Saumya Saxena completed MSc from the University of Oxford, specialising in 'Gender And Political-Economy'; MPhil from the University of Cambridge (thesis on 'Personal Law and Gender Justice); she graduated in Political Science from the Hindu College, Delhi University
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