Living in shame
By Nanki Hans
THE report of a quake victim from Gujarat having been raped by three men of her village, even as her life lay in ruins, shook the collective conscience of our countrymen. The story appeared on page one of almost all dailies. As usual, there have been no follow-up reports — another forgotten tale of human trauma and gender-specific crime.

Rendezvous with Bakshish Kaur
By Teena Singh
THE arrival of judges, one by one, in speeding ambassadors on the spotless tarmac with jamadars running to open their car doors and escorting them through the exclusive doorway is quite a royal experience. Gajadhar is the last one left when in comes the car no. 13. Alighting from it is the only woman judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, Justice Bakshish Kaur.

Living in shame
By Nanki Hans

THE report of a quake victim from Gujarat having been raped by three men of her village, even as her life lay in ruins, shook the collective conscience of our countrymen. The story appeared on page one of almost all dailies. As usual, there have been no follow-up reports — another forgotten tale of human trauma and gender-specific crime.

Governments have disregarded women’s right to life and safety in favour of more "pressing" issues. No other injustice has received so little attention, what to talk of action. Stunning silence surrounds the fears and anguish of women raped. With no community and legal aid forthcoming, in India a rape victim is stigmatised.

She even ceases to be perceived as human. According to sociologists, the term stigma is used to refer to an attribute that is deeply discrediting. In the Indian context, loss of virginity in case of an unmarried girl or sex with a man other than the husband in case of a married woman. By definition, says sociologist Erving Goffman, we believe that the person with a stigma is not quite human. On this assumption, we exercise varieties of discrimination. We construct a stigma theory, an ideology to explain his or her inferiority and account for the danger s/he represents.

The task of helping a stigmatised rape victim, to regain self-control and confidence becomes arduous since the victim tends to hold the same belief about identity as the society does at large. This is a pivotal fact. The victim, hence may perceive, often correctly, that no matter what others profess, they do not really "accept" her and are loathe, to make contact with her on ‘equal grounds’.

The standards she incorporates from society equip her to be intimately alive to what others see as her ‘failing’. Shame becomes central, arising from the victim’s perception of one of her attributes as being a defiling thing to possess.

In India, though individual efforts are being made to fight rape and rehabilitate victims of the crime which are indeed laudatory, a serious endeavour at the community and legal (police and courts) level is missing. At the global level, however, some progress has been made in the past five years.

Legal reforms have introduced more severe punishment for marital violence (in some French cities more than half of emergency calls received are regarding marital violence) and prostitution. Due to the unrelenting efforts made by the Women’s Caucus on Gender Justice, the International Criminal Courts on July 1, 1998, included sexual violence, above all rape, in its definition of both war crimes and crimes against humanity.

These changes, however positive, are not enough to counter the use of sexual violence, as a weapon of war the daily brutality inflicted on women and the impugnity accorded to the guilty. It is distressing that little has been done to raise awareness on marital violence. This is especially true in case of India, where violence at home goes almost unnoticed. Also, the international community continues to disregard gender specific personation as a legitimate basis for refugee status.

Fatalism explains the persistence of such barbarity. Gender-specific violence is perceived to be as natural as the division of labour between the two sexes.

Not only should women’s rights be respected, but also protected. The states must intervene in several ways — by giving legal, medical, financial and, most important, moral support to the abused, and even personal protection, if need be. This needs the involvement of the police, courts, health service, education and the media.

While this would indeed, entail considerable amount of money, what appears to be in even shorter supply is the will to act.

In a retrograde step, the Bush-Junior Administration as soon as it assumed the reins of power, announced a halt to funds to pro-groups violating women’s right to choice and to her body. In Poland, too, the matter of abortion and contraception are again a matter of debate, while prostitution in Russia is flourishing with teenagers considering it an "ideal job."

If rape, marital or otherwise, leads to unwanted pregnancy, the Conservatives represented by Mr Bush would still continue to deny a woman the right to abortion. By complicating the issue with morality, is nothing but a sinister design by the world’s called "most progressive and fair" State to gain control over a woman’s body.

The idea of a world without prostitution or violence may seem a dream in the year 2001, but women can dream of it and demand it.

THE arrival of judges, one by one, in speeding ambassadors on the spotless tarmac with jamadars running to open their car doors and escorting them through the exclusive doorway is quite a royal experience. Gajadhar is the last one left when in comes the car no. 13. Alighting from it is the only woman judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, Justice Bakshish Kaur. In a plain gray suit embellished with a little cutwork embroidery on the edges, her hair neatly tied into a small bun, this 5’8" tall lady could be just an ordinary Punjabi woman out for casual shopping. I walk towards her court-room No. 34 to find the entrance choc-a bloc. Slowly, I edge my way in to find the hall jampacked with men. Ordinary men, important men, intelligent men, prosecuting men defending men but all men. Far away, behind a big desk sits a very thoughtful Ms Bakshish Kaur. Her white collar and black gown give her an imposing image.

Her colleagues are generous with compliments about her meticulous and organised way of working. They find her hardworking, quite reserved and possessing a focused personality that adds dignity to the exalted chair of a judge. She is officially committed to her job from 9am to 4pm. After which begins the arduous task, at times through the night, of reading, contemplating, consulting through 200 odd cases piled up in the files for the next day. I decide to seek an appointment with her, impressed as I am with the aura this only woman judge exudes.

Sounds of a normal Punjabi household, with grandchildren prancing in the background, welcome me on the phone. Driving into her spacious official bungalow, I walk into a neat sitting room with beautifully carved furniture. The look is clean and uncluttered, with just a few decorations. In walks My Lord, smiling a hello! She looks 10 years younger than she did in the courtroom. She tells me how she has had to make a conscious effort at maintaining simplicity and reserve in this primarily male domain to remain non-controversial. She is at number four of the five daughters of Major Sharam Singh, who was from the education core of the Indian Army. Her own family hails from the districts of Montgomery and Shekhupura from Pakistan, while her in-laws belong to Gurdaspur in Punjab. She changed her subjects from political science and history and graduated with home science and psychology from Patiala. The decision was to do an M.Sc. in home science and become a lecturer. After her graduation, her father goaded her to join the Department of Laws, Panjab University. She was hesitant ,due to her inhibition at not being able to talk nineteen to the dozen. Fate willed it, and she became part of a group of four to five girls amidst hundreds of boys studying law.

On passing out in 1962, she got through the first entrance test of PCS Judicial Service and found herself being appointed as a sub-judge-cum-magistrate at Jalandhar. In 10 years, she rose to become a Sessions Judge at Ludhiana, Gurdaspur and Faridkot. To work in these districts at the height of terrorism was no mean task. It was only in this highly emotionally-charged scenario that the excellence of the lady judge was there for all to see. It was also in a packed courtroom here that she received a heart-felt thanks from a 20-year-old hardcore terrorist who had been convicted. She had stood alone to grant him permission to visit his dying mother, before sentencing him for his deeds (his mother died two days later).

She does not understand discrimination and has never felt it. This Amritdhari lady only has her God to thank for it. The presence of men, for her, is of no consequence, for she only focuses on the issues before her and the people in front of her, at that point, are only people not men or women, she points out.

The scarcity of women at her position is all due to the small number of women in the profession and very few out of them enjoy the support, understanding and adulation from a husband like Major Mehar Singh, she adds. They married in 1966. He gave up his career in the army after serving 13 years in the Sikh Regiment to look after, support and nurture his family and farms. He almost makes one want to write about these few great men behind these few very successful women.

Major saab feels that a couple is like two ordinary sepoys working together towards peace, harmony and tranquillity within a family, with no one singularly being the thanedaar. It is all thanks to men like him that it is possible for us to find successful women with normal happy families and lives. They both spend their time in shared interests of gardening, philosophy and spirituality. Their social life is curtailed to a minimum and that too only with close family and friends. This, according to her, eliminates undue familiarity something that is very important in her job. Bakshish Kaur has never felt any political pressure. Major saab proudly states that no politician has ever visited their home with an idea of influencing judicial decisions. On being complimented for a beautiful garden and a beautiful home, she gives all the credit to major saab, who in turn magnanimously insists it is a combined effort. They have a married son and a daughter and she regrets, not being able to spend a lot of time with her children. Her little daughter Simran, when she was 8 years old, hoped her mother would become the President of India and then thankfully retire to find the time to have lunch with her. For Ms Bakshish Kaur, it was a price she had to pay. She is a fabulous cook and so warmly does she extend an invitation for a Chinese meal cooked by her, that one cannot but marvel at the ability to compartmentalise her private and public personas so very diligently. Meeting Bakshish Kaur is an experience that is heartening as well as inspiring.