this tree is a symbol of
india's broken justice system where rape
is rarely punished
this man found his teenage daughter and
her cousin hanging from it
i met him in 2014 he told me his girls
had been raped
and murdered he wanted to see the
accused
hanged in public it was the first big
case after the delhi gang rape of 2012
when tougher rape laws were introduced
they were meant to make it
easier for women and girls to register
complaints with the police
the death penalty for rape was
introduced and special
fast track courts set up but for the
badayou family it has been a slow
and difficult journey over the years
the papers have piled up first the
investigators said they didn't have
enough evidence to prove rape and murder
so the suspects were set free the family
challenged this
and got the case reopened but charges
have been reduced
to just molestation and kidnap the law
says that cases should be heard quickly
but the courts are deaf to our pleas
i've been doing the rounds of courts
but the poor hardly ever get justice
for the mother it's a battle that's gone
on
too long i just hope
we are still alive to see justice being
done
gyan singh is the lawyer representing
the badayo family
the case is being heard in a fast track
court but they can't power through a
system
creaking at the seams courts
government figures bear this out there
were 95 000
pending rape cases at the end of 2013.
this had risen
to 145 000 by the end of 2019
some question the point of the laws i
think these are hollow
populist measures where they're trying
to quell that public outrage
that has happened around that particular
incident the legal mechanisms for
enforcing these laws are not changed
now sentencing punishment it comes at
the very end of a criminal justice
uh at the end of the trial and before
that
both the victim and the accused they
have to go through a lot of processes
but some parents are abusing the law to
punish their daughters
they're filing false rape cases and
causing
untold suffering we're calling this
woman
usha when i told my lover
that my parents did not approve of our
match
we had to elope but my father found me
and brought me back he beat me up with a
rope and sticks
starved me and then sold me off to
another man
usha was 17 at the time she ran away
again
fell pregnant and got married to her
lover but legal reforms had raised the
age of consent from 16 to 18 years
she was considered unable to give
consent and her parents were able to
accuse her lover of
rape getting him and his family thrown
in jail
i was accused of conspiring with my son
to kidnap her
i spent two weeks in jail her family
then ransacked our house
broke the door and took away our animals
we had to go into hiding to save our
lives
seema is from a non-governmental
organization called anandi
they helped usha get her husband's
family out on bail
their support also meant usha could
stand up to her parents
when i turned 18 i filed a case of
trafficking against my own father
if young women could marry men of their
choice the world would be a much happier
place
many parents want to control their girls
abuse of the law is widespread in this
district
in
there are no figures for how many false
cases go to court
lawyers say they have strong anecdotal
evidence
it highlights a deeper problem which no
law can change
in all walks of life we see that women
are at an unequal position they have
less access to resources be it education
we eat health care
and therefore in some ways therefore
they become
lesser citizens so even when you speak
about caste inequality it's dalit women
who are more marginalized than the lit
men
these dalit activists want to break the
shackles of their oppression
manisha and her sister are lawyers they
are helping dalit rape survivors
become lawyers too dalits are at the
bottom of the hindu caste hierarchy
like this woman we are calling maya
earlier i would keep crying as i recall
those horrific memories
i built the confidence to speak up and
stay positive
only after i came here i then decided to
study law
so i can fight for dalit women like me
who are forced to keep quiet about
atrocities
a lot of pain and anger hides behind
that resolve
maya was harassed for weeks by an
uppercast man
he then raped her she filed a complaint
but was forced to withdraw it after he
married her
her family said it would save her from
the social stigma of being a rape victim
but the marriage was hell of a different
kind
my husband's family would say you're a
dalit like a dirty drain
we hate to even look at you he would
come home drunk
and abuse me for filing a police case
against him
he would beat me and force me to perform
unnatural sexual acts
even when i refused i didn't know what
to do
i even thought of committing suicide
manisha helped maya reopen her old rape
complaint
adding the charge of unnatural sexual
acts
manisha knows it's dangerous work but is
driven
by love for her people
objectively
foreign
as in many across the country women are
gathering to support each other
there is anger a few laughs and a
growing resolve
school students
foreign
you