Delhi Police Deploy Mimes Against Sexual Assault

Courtesy of Gayathri SreedharanA pantomime was show organized by the Delhi police's Parivartan cell in Delhi last month..

How well Delhi's police protect women, particularly from sexual attacks, has become an increasingly politicized issue after the Dec. 16 gang rape of a medical student on a moving bus. Protesters outraged over the crime, and the rise in reported rape cases in the city, have been calling for Delhi's police commissioner, Neeraj Kumar, to step down.

In 2005, the Delhi police created the Parivartan (“Change”) program to increase awareness about women's safety in the nation's capital in response to s everal sexual attacks. India Ink recently took a look at the Parivartan program to learn more about how Delhi's police are trying to fight the problem of violence against women.

From the Ashok Vihar police station in West Delhi, Usha Sanghwan, an inspector, has run Parivartan for the past year. Her job includes sending female constables door to door in slum areas, talking about sexual violence with elders in the community and gathering information on reports of domestic and sexual violence from police-appointed “guardians,” members of the community with clean records who are considered responsible.

Crimes against women are prevalent in West Delhi's slum areas. “It's not safe, even for our girls,” Mrs. Sanghwan said in an interview. “The men in these localities are often under the influence of alcohol or drugs, and can be extremely resistant to our efforts, if not outright violent,” she said.

Every week, constables an d junior officers head out to the lower-income areas of Jahangirpuri, in north Delhi, to talk to residents on issues like sexual violence and substance abuse. Their three-pronged intervention, Mrs. Sanghwan said, includes one-one-one interactions, film screenings on the relevant themes, and pantomimes aimed at children, performed by the Delhi-based mime theater troupe Jagran.

Pantomime day is particularly popular, she said. Every fortnight in a different part of Jahangirpuri, a rickety stage is erected, usually facing blocks of makeshift shacks. A recent performance by Jagran drew a crowd of 200 children, some as young as two years old, others on the fringes of adulthood.

The troupe of four men and two women painted their faces in white with black outlines, with some of them in garish silk costumes. A dholki, or drummer, accompanied them on the side. The comically attired adults were introduced to their impressionable audience by a man standing opposite the drumm er. Dressed plainly, microphone in hand, he was both narrator and watchdog.

The mimes typically perform three skits: the first about a young boy who falls victim to drugs, the second on the dangers women face from physically and verbally violent spouses, and the final one on the trauma of sexual abuse. During the skits, the narrator stops the action to call out questions to the children in the audience: “Should that man have behaved in this disgusting manner?” “Should they have kept quiet?” “Should she have alerted the Delhi Police?”

Plainclothes Delhi police officers who organized the show stood by, trying to blend in with the crowd. “We have been attempting to educate residents here,” a constable, Abhishek Khatri, said as he watched the performance.

Mr. Khatri has been with the Parivartan unit for a little more than a year. “We can't change society, obviously,” he said. But what the program is trying to do is “engage with different m embers of society â€" academics, teachers, social scientists, N.G.O.'s,” he said, about “how to address the menace of violence and abuse.”

“We need them to know that violence and sexual abuse are common, and that there is no shame in reporting a case of assault immediately,” he said.

As he spoke, a colleague was called away to investigate a case of domestic violence in a neighboring block. “It is quite frustrating for us,” Mr. Khatri said, “because there are so many reports of such violent acts, every day.”

“There's only so much that you can do and you can say to the slum-dwellers,” he said. “This kind of systemic violence is very hard for us to fight.”

While we watched the final act of the troupe's performance, a 13-year-old boy started pulling viciously at a little girl's hair while slapping her across the face, for reasons unknown. Mr. Khatri quickly rushed over to break up the altercation, but by then the boy had disappea red. “It takes nothing to start a fight in Delhi, you see,” Mr. Khatri said, grimacing. “We'll be chasing the same boy across state lines tomorrow.”

Parivartan's effectiveness in the slum areas is limited, some police officials acknowledge. Those involved with the program said they have suggested that Parivartan be held in wealthier neighborhoods too, but resident associations there have dismissed the idea.

The impact of these programs “is very slow,” said Suman Nalwa, additional deputy commissioner of the police and head of the women and children's unit, in a recent interview. “People remain in their own social circle, where their beliefs about sexuality, their beliefs about relationships are accentuated,” she said.