Indian womanâ??s new face to fight for her right

Pallavi Sharma

New Delhi

Sat, 07 Jul 2007: 

July 07: Yesterday a new face of Indian woman came to the fore when, Pooja chauhan, doubly victimized by dowry and male domination in Indian ciety, walked nude in face of public to register her protest in her own way against police and her husband for being harassed for dowry and shocked the police and public by adopting new way of protest.

Earlier Rajkot police did not register Pooja’s complain of harassment by her husband and in-laws for dowry and for giving birth to a female child and did not take any action against her in-laws even after repeated complains.

When nobody listened to her voice she adopted extreme steps of stripping her off before public to draw attention of the police to herself.

Sociologists say that inaction by police forced her to behave in unusual manner and take bold step which she would not have taken in normal conditions and which is least expected from an Indian woman. The delay in action against injustice created a pressure on her to cross the normal limits.

This whole episode is a reflection of the lethargic legal system and the position of the Indian woman in society that their voice is not heeded. There is none to listen to their problems.

There are strong legal measures in India such as dowry prohibition act to protect women from the draconian social evil, still Pooja had to take recourse to such method of protest, and this shows the failure of the legal system. The strength of the laws can be made out of the fact that these laws run opposite to the natural justice and the burden of the proof of innocence remains on the shoulders of the accused. Event sends the message that laws in papers alone would not work but the human machinery implementing will have to be equally sensitive and humanistic to the issue.

Even Soli Sorabjee said that it is a new mode of expression and it shows the freedom of expression of protest and no legal action can be taken against her for this act.

Woman from Rajkot has given the message that if police does not take action definitely she herself will have to come with off-line methods of protests to win justice.