Wrestlers’ Protest Exposed a Weak Redressal System For Gender-Based Violence

India is faring well at the Asian Games 2023, winning a total of 95 medals. This is India’s best-ever medal tally in the history of the tournament of 60 over years. India is, at the moment, standing at fourth position, behind China, Japan and South Korea.

The country is celebrating, especially the women athletes who have done wonderfully in these Asian Games. The Prime Minister and other political leaders have been sharing their congratulatory messages on X, formerly Twitter, saying how the athletes have made India proud.

This, however, has also stirred the conversation backwards to a few months when women athletes were sitting on the roads of Delhi, demanding justice for allegations of sexual assault by the former president of the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh.

The wrestlers’ protest led by Vinesh Phogat, Sakshi Malik and Bajrang Punia, took the whole country by storm as they accused Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, and his associate of harassing women, including minors.

The sit-in protests were organized at Jantar Mantar in January 2023, making the sexual harassment allegations against Bhushan public. After an assurance that the Central Government will form a committee to look into the allegations, the protests were called off in January 2023.

The report by the committee was submitted on April 5 2023 but not made public. However, no action was taken, despite Union Minister Anurag Thakur’s assurance to the players. On April 23 2023, the athletes resumed the protest.

Instead of preparing for the Asian Games, the players were forced to have a sit-in protest in screeching hot weather and heavy rains. The players cried and begged the government to listen to their plea but to no avail.

Players Vinesh Phogat, gold medal winner; Sakshi Malik, bronze medal winner and Bajrang Punia, bronze medal winner, were manhandled by the police and trolled on social media for raising their voice.

However, with women athletes excellently showcasing their hard work, people have forgotten about the ordeal of the other players.

Unfortunately, both Phogat and Malik missed the action at the Asian Games, this year. Phogat took to X and announced that she is injured, would require surgery and hence won’t be able to participate

“I wanted to share an extremely sad piece of news. A couple of days ago on 13th August 2023, I injured my left knee in training. After doing the scans and examinations, the doctor has said that unfortunately, surgery is the only option for me to recover,” Phogat wrote.

She, however, wrote that she will be on the mat soon, preparing for the 2024 Olympics taking place in Paris. “I would like to request all the fans to continue supporting me so that I can make a strong comeback on the mat soon and prepare for the Paris 2024 Olympics. Your support gives me a slot of strength,” Phogat wrote.

Sakshi Malik, on the other hand, was not selected for the games, after it was alleged she skipped the wrestling selection trials that took place in Delhi on July 22 and 23.

“As you all know, we had requested the government for additional time for preparing for the Asian Games. We had requested them to hold our trials after August 10, and the government gave us time as well, following which we came out here for training. But, over the last three-four days, it has emerged that direct entries are being sent for two weights (categories),” Malik wrote on X.

It is to be noted that the Indian Olympic Association (IOA), the body responsible for selecting athletes to represent India at the Olympic Games, Asian Games and other international athletic meets and for managing the Indian teams at these events.

An ad-hoc panel led by Bhupinder Bajwa granted exemptions to Bajrang Punia and Vinesh Phogat, forcing U-20 world champion Antim Panghal and 65 kg grappler Sujit Kalkal to approach the Delhi High Court to get the decision overturned.

Panghal has won a bronze medal at the 2023 Asian Games. Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated her for the win.

Speaking to The Citizen, activist Jagmati Sangwan, an award winning athlete herself, said that the government failed the athletes by not taking appropriate action against the perpetrators.

“Whatever happened with women wrestlers and the whole protest that took place, the government should have taken an appropriate action but they did not. The fact that women wrestlers were violated, the government should have done something, and maybe if they did, then we would have seen more medals at Asian Games,” Sangwan said.

On September 23 2023, the Delhi Police told the court that Brij Bhushan “outraged the modesty” of the women wrestlers who filed harassment charges against him at every opportunity he could get.

The statement was made during the hearing at Delhi's Rouse Avenue court during the hearing arguments for framing of charges against him after the chargesheet was filed in the sexual harassment case filed by six women wrestlers.

“This for sure has impacted the women athletes and their families where the government has broken their hope by not doing anything against the perpetrators. They were somewhere demoralised and humiliated with this attitude of the government,” Sangwan stated.

She, however, pointed out that the protest in its own manner started a discourse on workplace harassment among other issues that are usually ignored by the mainstream media.

“Sports and women have been kept as a marginalised sector and became an important part of the discussion during the protest. These protests have brought out these issues to the forefront, especially in mainstream media. It also brought out the gender issues that have been neglected for long. The protest also brought to light workplace harassment on a larger level,” she added.

When it comes to sexual harassment at work place, India has a strong act, called Protection of Women from Sexual Harassment Act, 2013 (PoSH Act), which was also majorly discussed during the wrestlers protest.

The PoSH Act subsequently mandated that every employer must constitute an Internal Complaints Committee (ICC) at each office or branch that had 10 or more employees. It defined various aspects of sexual harassment, and lay down procedures for action in case of a complaint.

However, in July the Supreme Court emphasised on the ‘serious lapses’ and uncertainties surrounding the Act, which led to many women forced to leave their jobs.

The Supreme Court said it is disquieting to note that there are serious lapses in the enforcement of the Act even after such a long time and termed it as a “sorry state of affairs” which reflects poorly on all the state functionaries, public authorities, and private undertakings.

The apex court said an improperly constituted ICC/LC/IC, would be a hinderance in conducting an inquiry into a complaint of sexual harassment at the workplace, under proper rules.

“It will be equally counterproductive to have an ill-prepared committee conduct a half-baked inquiry that can lead to serious consequences, namely, imposition of major penalties on the delinquent employee, to the point of termination of service.

“It is disquieting to note that there are serious lapses in the enforcement of the Act even after such a long passage of time,” the Bench said.

While there have been discussions on gender violence, how athletes faced it came into limelight. For Farah (name changed on request), a former national Lawn Tennis player, while celebrating the victories at Asian Games said that players are common citizens and no amount of achievement can take away the trauma women players going through sexual harassment have to go through.

“International players are common citizens. Their life is intertwined with those around them and thereby the growing gender violence with no repercussions and with no accountability is going to set a precedent that’s going to affect far too many lives and create a further divide, that already exists, between people in the society.

“No amount of fame, no amount of achievements will bring back or change the times that many women continue to go through and the trauma that gets shared-passed on,” Farah said.

She further said that the achievements of athletes, particularly women, have been used to justify irrational actions.

“While the wins of many are at individual level, there is a collective grief and trauma that is shared by many. The system picks and chooses who they want to celebrate.

“Vinesh Phogat became the first Indian woman wrestler to win a gold, yet this same system continued to hide what her and many others went through in the last few months,” Farah added.

Speaking to The Citizen, Vertika Tripathi, Delhi based lawyer and secretary at People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), said that there needs to be a transformative justice, which focuses on the trauma of the survivors.

“When democratic institutions fail, law – when it has to deliver punitive justice – also fails. In the case of sexual harassment, what we need is a way for transformative justice which focuses on the trauma of the survivors. In this particular case, women wrestlers, when they said that it was getting difficult to get FIR registered.

“Although the FIR was registered, the process of getting it done shows the failure of the legal system. The trust of the players also broke due to the legal system,” Tripathi said.

Explaining the situation, she said that the wrestlers were not protesters and never thought they would be forced to come out on the street.

“With that privilege they had no idea that this would be their fate. Bhushan, on the other hand, had complete faith in the Constitution. His confidence in the legal system and the audacity to say on camera that ‘I have murdered once’ shows that making of the law is not enough if there are going to be procedural loopholes in the system,” Tripathi added.

While the discourse on sexual harassment whether workplace or anywhere else, did take place, many believe the legal system still has a lot to achieve.

On Thursday, hundreds of women were part of the National Women’s Rally at Jantar Mantar to protest to highlight the attack on women’s rights and the weakening of the democratic, secular ethos of the country.

“The current government has made the lives of women unsafe in the country. From unemployment to violence, they have made the future of women uncertain, which is why we took out this rally. We want these issues to reach the masses and for that we will continue with the awareness campaign,” Sangwan, who was also part of the protest, said.

In 2020, 4,509 cases of rape against Dalit and Scheduled Tribes women were reported.

According to a 2011 Minority Rights Group report, “Dalit women are…subject to a ‘triple burden of inferiority’ based on caste, class and gender.”

According to a report by the Observer Research Foundation (ORF), in many of the above-mentioned cases, the perpetrators are mainly men from the upper castes, who are “putting [these women] in their places.”

“There continues to be a strong general perception regarding the low status of these communities, giving a certain degree of social acceptance to acts of violence committed against them. Legal provisions for justice, such as the 1989 Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, are inadequately implemented, and justice remains slippery,” the report stated.

Experts said that the change needs to be on a policy level with a need to focus on prevention and address the root cause of the problem in India, which is patriarchy.

“It would centre the vulnerable population (here, women) as crucial contributors to a solutions framework, rather than passive subjects of policymaking. India needs to move away from the patriarchal focus on the gender binary when it comes to Gender Based Violence (GBV) policymaking.

The categorisation of only women as victims alienates them, creating an ‘us vs them’ mentality, whereas GBV is a societal issue, and should include everyone as part of the solution. Involving men in this conversation is crucial to shift the focus towards creating a more gender-equal society,” the report by ORF stated.

It further said that policies must recognise the importance of civil society as partners in tackling GBV in India. “NGOs have always been at the forefront of protecting women’s rights. They engage in research, advocacy, relief programmes, awareness, and changing societal perceptions regarding harmful gender stereotypes.

“Local organisations have a better understanding of the communities they work in, can reach vulnerable and disaffected women in a community better than large-scale institutions, can find more innovative solutions, and are therefore best suited to effectively carry out awareness campaigns and implementation of social programmes,” the report stated.

However, Sangwan and many from the civil society have raised concerns by the government’s attack on these same organisations that were also included in policy making.

Delhi Commission of Women Chief Swati Maliwal, in a recent media interview, had pointed towards an increase in gender-based violence. “What is striking is the increasing incidence of brutality with which these crimes are being carried out. This is one thing that has been visibly increasing over the years…

“And the biggest reason for it is the slow and often inept justice system in place in India. There are laws, yes, but there is hardly any deterrence. People are not scared in the country, they think they can commit any kind of crime and get away with it without any consequences,” Maliwal had said.

The ORF in its report averred that it is imperative that an “equal consideration” must be given to the punishment of perpetrators, “improving preventive measures, and facilitating the rehabilitation of survivors”, rather than merely criminalisation.

“The elements that constitute actions of sexual violence in India need to be revised for a broader categorisation, particularly to recognise marital rape and to add provisions for the prosecution of military personnel accused of sexual assault.

“Currently, Section 6 of the Armed Forces (Special Powers Act), 1958, provides legal immunity to armed officers carrying out duties under the ambit of this Act. This means that officers accused of sexual violence cannot be prosecuted, or any other suit or legal proceeding cannot be brought against them, without previous sanction from the Central government,” the report observed.

“When athletes who have international recognition have nowhere to go, a woman who comes from a humble background will question where will they go. The women wrestlers' protest also exposed the long-time corruption that was always there in the system, which is also a major point we missed. And this is all we need to see and work on,” Tripathi added.