In Search Of Justice

The COVID-19 pandemic saw a sharp increase in the number of domestic violence cases around the world. What is the co-relation between COVID-19 and domestic violence? What did and could have the government done to facilitate greater access to justice for survivors during this time? How did civil society respond to this sudden rise while grappling with a pandemic themselves?

CW: Mention of Rape, sexual-physical-mental assault, other forms of gender-based violence, and covid -related distress & death.

In this episode, we have with us Shreyasi Tripathi (@khanahbadoshi on instagram), a final year law student from National Law University Delhi and Mounica Sreesai (@mounicasreesai on instagram), who is a sociologist and a researcher. They were both research assistants for the study on Civil Society Response to Domestic Violence Survivors During COVID-19 Building Better Support for Survivors Conducted by One Future Collective and funded by the Azim Premji Covid Research Funding Programme 2020. Listen in as they share key insights, challenges and recommendations that emerged out of this timely study.

Share your thoughts on justice with us on Instagram @onefuturecollective or on Twitter @onefuture_india.

You can find a copy of the study here: http://publications.azimpremjifoundation.org/2767/1/OFC.pdf

What does justice mean for queer folks? Is it marriage equality? How do queer folks experience the surveillance state? And where do queer folks go when institutions fail the queer community? What is the role of community and mutual aid in queer liberation? In this episode we sit with Aruvi to answer some of these questions,.

Special thanks to Sruthi Dixit for lending her voice for the poem for the episode.

Trigger Warning: Mention of assault, rape, mental, emotional, physical and institutional violence.  

Be sure to listen in to the next episode out on the 8th of April.  

Share your thoughts on justice with us on Instagram @onefuturecollective or on Twitter @onefuture_india.

You can follow Aruvi here to keep up with them and their mutual aid work. 

Works cited by Aruvi: Gender Trouble, Judith Butler Criminalizing Dalit Dissent, Santvana Kumar et al., Akademi Mag, accessed on Instagram live. Before the law, Franz Kafka

The prevalence of gender-based violence often impacts how those, most vulnerable to such forms of violence, access public spaces. The possibility of being subjected to such violence can determine where we go, the time at which we go and whom we interact with. In this episode, we sit with Sneha Visakha, Research Fellow at Vidhi Center for Legal Policy to discuss what feminist urbanism means, the relationship between notions of safety and justice, and how we can relook at our infrastructure to improve access to safety and justice for survivors of gender based violence.

News media can play a huge role in our perceptions of gender-based violence and justice. It can influence not only society, but also impact systemic change as we saw with the Justice Verma Committee. We sit with activist and communication consultant Asmita Ghosh to talk about the impact of sensationalist coverage of gender-based violence, the monster theory of perpetrators, what PLU stands for in newsrooms and more.

Special thanks to Uttanshi Agarwal for lending their voice for the poem of the episode.

Trigger Warning: Mention of assault, rape, mental, emotional, physical and institutional violence.

Be sure to listen in to the next episode, out on 11th March, 2021.

Share your thoughts on justice with us on Instagram @onefuturecollective or on Twitter @onefuture_india.

You can find Asmita's GBV in Media Toolkit here.

There has been an explosion of shows and films that portray gender-based violence as the central plot. And these narratives are most often set around the police and the court system. We sit with Rajvi Desai, culture editor at The Swaddle, to discuss Pink, Mardaani, Thappad and more – critiquing the lack of care and centering of survivors, the sensationalisation and saviour complex, and glorification of punitive measures and how unhelpful those may actually be to conversations on justice.

Special thanks to Jerin Jacob for lending their voice for the poem of the episode.

Trigger Warning: Mention of assault, rape, mental, emotional, physical and institutional violence.

Be sure to listen in to the next episode, out on 25th February 2021.

Share your thoughts on justice with us on Instagram @onefuturecollective or on Twitter @onefuture_india.

Additional reading on portrayal of gender-based violence in Bollywood:

https://feminisminindia.com/2015/11/26/media-representation-gbv-rape-subject-matter-hindi-cinema/

https://www.newindianexpress.com/entertainment/hindi/2020/mar/22/bollywood-gets-better-at-portraying-crimes-against-women-but-still-has-miles-to-go-2120174.html

https://theprint.in/features/art-life-and-bollywoods-role-in-violence-against-women/331977/

https://www.nationalheraldindia.com/opinion/thappad-and-bulbbul-portrayal-of-domestic-violence-in-films-sees-a-major-shift

The Me Too movement was supposed to come in where legal systems failed. But as a community we failed survivors – starting with Raya Sarkar. What was supposed to be a space for healing, sisterhood and solidarity, and an opportunity to re-imagine our response to sexual violence, became a space derailed by conversations on “cancel culture”, gatekeeping by privileged members of communities and exploited trauma porn. We sit with feminist legal researcher and founder of Detention Solidarity Network Saumya Dadoo to reflect on where we have faltered, but more importantly talk about where do we go from here to get closer justice.

Special thanks to Gargi Ranade for lending her voice for the poem of the episode.

Trigger Warning: Mention of assault, rape, mental, emotional, physical and institutional violence.

Be sure to listen in to the next episode, out on 11th February 2021.

Share your thoughts on justice with us on Instagram @onefuturecollective or on Twitter @onefuture_india.

Gender-based violence is an outcome of systems. The trauma that results from gender-based violence is a result of these unjust systems. So should an individual reconcile with the trauma resulted from collective actions alone? What role do we play in acknowledging a survivor's trauma? How equipped are formal legal systems in managing trauma while trying to deliver justice? In this episode we sit with the Program Director for Mental Health at OFC and clinical psychologist, Pragya Lodha, to talk about the role justice should play in addressing trauma. 

Special thanks to Sanaya Patel for lending her voice for the poem of the episode.

Trigger Warning: Mention of assault, rape, mental, emotional, physical and institutional violence.

Be sure to listen in to the next episode, out on 28th January 2021.

We hear a lot about due process in our conversations around justice. We urge survivors of gender-based violence who speak up to approach formal legal systems, but we don’t give the same time to analyse the system or think about building new systems that function on principles of fairness, humanity and intersectionality.

In this episode we sit with lawyer and Program Director at One Future Collective's FemJustice Center, Uttanshi Agarwal, to analyse what justice under the formal legal system looks like, how access to justice within these systems can vary and pose some important questions on where we go from here moving forward.

Special thanks to Rituja for lending her voice for the poem of the episode. 

Trigger Warning: Mention of assault, rape, mental, emotional, physical and institutional violence

Be sure to listen in to the next episode, out on 14th January 2021.

Justice is quite a heavy and weighted word that is almost thrown around in various contexts across the news, in our daily conversations. In this episode, co-hosts Vandita and Ruchika take a moment to pause and deep dive into how we currently perceive justice in the context of gender-based violence and what makes justice so elusive and intimidating.

Trigger Warning: Mention of assault, rape, mental, emotional, physical and institutional violence

Be sure to listen in to the next episode, out on 24th December 2020.