INDIA, Jun 21 — Hi, I am Varsha. 3 days after I was married, my husband beat me unconscious’.
For an opening PTC, this is perhaps the most shocking line a reporter could come up with.’
Marital rape, according to Varsha, is an ugly reality in the lives of lakhs of Indian women and yet it’s the most unheard issue
H
i, I am Varsha. 3 days after I was married, my husband beat me unconscious’.
For an opening PTC, this is perhaps the most shocking line a reporter could come up with.
But then, Varsha, is not just another reporter sending just another report to fill in the space left in a news bulletin. A correspondent of IndiaUnheard, India’s first ever Community News Service launched by Video Volunteers, Varsha is a woman with a unique experience of life, that of the most violent kind. This experience has given Varsha the most unique perspective to every story she brings, on the issues she knows so well.
And what is her issue? ‘Domestic violence’, she says. ‘I represent those women who are being victimized by Domestic Violence every day of their life. I was born in Maharashtra and now I live in Bihar. But my community is not the one I was born into, but the one I identify with’.
Born in a financially well-to-do family in Pune, 31-year old Varsha had her first brush with cruelty when her father refused to see his newborn daughter, because he wanted a boy child. For eight long months he kept away from the infant.
The neglect continued over the years and as she grew up, Varsha faced discrimination within the family. ‘Every single day of my life, someone always reminded me that I was a girl child, the ‘unwanted’ one. And that someone was from within my own family’, she recalls.
It was sheer grit that kept Varsha going. Fortunately for her, the family didn’t refuse to stop funding her education. So, after getting her university degree, Varsha joined a human rights organization in Pune. Marriage followed soon after. ‘I was happy, finally, to have a job and to be starting a new life, with someone who liked me. The fact that he was a fellow Human Rights activist gave me hopes for my future’.
The hopes were shattered on the 3rd day after her marriage when her activist husband beat her unconscious. How did she react?
‘First I was shocked. Then hurt and scared. For everything I said, for every word of protest I uttered, I got a blow on my face. But then came the day when I asked myself – If I am still there is something wrong. Either I am not speaking out loud enough, or I am thinking of myself as a lone individual. The truth is, there are many others like me. I needed to see myself as one of them.’
It was this realisation that finally brought Varsha to IndiaUnheard – India’s first Community News Service by Video Volunteers. Launched on 3rd May – World Press Freedom day, IndiaUnheard has a team of 31 correspondents from 24 states of India. Like Varsha, each of these correspondents has experienced discrimination, violence and neglect in personal lives and are now committed to bring stories of their communities that have been untouched by mainstream media so far.
Prior to the launch, in March, Varsha attended the training of the program with a broken leg - an accident that occurred in the camp. It was painful, but Varsha was determined to complete her training. ‘I have had fractures several times before’, she said, before adding, ‘Once, during the hearing of my divorce case, I was beaten by my husband right in the court premise and left with several broken ribs and a dislocated. So, injuries do not bother me anymore. In fact after years, I have got an injury which is not the result of a beating’.
Based in Danapur of Bihar, Varsha now is busy shooting her news videos on women who have been victims of sexual violence at home. She plans to work from Danapur and Patna – areas where domestic violence is so common, it has almost become a way of life.
But don’t we now have one of the most stringent laws on domestic violence - Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005?
‘Certainly, we do’, she says, ‘unfortunately though, India still doesn’t have a law against marital rape. That’s because people do not consider sexual assault by husband a crime.’
Marital rape, according to Varsha, is an ugly reality in the lives of lakhs of Indian women and yet it’s the most unheard issue. And as a community correspondent, she has vowed to make that issue heard.
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