Inside A Secret Safe House For Rape Survivors

Brut India

At least four lower-caste women are raped every day in India. Dalit lawyer Manisha Mashaal runs a safe house for these survivors. But can she protect them from the harassment that continues long after the courts and cameras have moved on?

Transcript

00:00We were living a happy life, but this fire destroyed everything.

00:19I was very scared, and I didn't eat anything for nine days.

00:27If you want to kill someone, go and kill their family first.

00:34It's a conspiracy, and you feel scared.

00:37I survived this accident, and I might survive the next one.

00:42A lot of people in the media call us and say that they want to make a story out of it.

00:49But they never ask us what we want to say.

00:53At least four lower-caste women are raped every day in India.

00:57Manisha Mishal, a young Dalit lawyer, is running a secret safehouse to give survivors a chance at a better life.

01:04Manisha has agreed to pull back the curtain and show brute journalist Neeti Upadhyay

01:09the harassment survivors have to endure long after the courts and the cameras have moved on.

01:23Neeti Upadhyay, a young Dalit lawyer, is running a secret safehouse to give survivors a chance at a better life.

01:28I was 15 years old when I was going to my grandmother's house.

01:32Some boys forcibly raped me.

01:36I was unconscious for three hours.

01:40I got up and cleaned myself up.

01:43I put on my clothes, and the place where the incident took place was three kilometres away from the road.

01:51I had to walk all the way to the road.

01:55The next day, I went to school.

01:58The boys were showing me a video.

02:04I was so scared. I didn't eat anything for nine days.

02:08Neeti Upadhyay, a young Dalit lawyer, is running a secret safehouse to give survivors a chance at a better life.

02:17Community leaders wanted the families to compromise, but Shabnam wanted justice.

02:22She pressed charges and was one of the rare cases to get a partial conviction.

02:26But for her, this was no cause for celebration.

02:30I am not satisfied with the judgment of my case.

02:35The police had named eight out of twelve people.

02:39Only four of them were punished.

02:43The rest were released.

02:50I became hyper. I was admitted to the hospital for 20 days.

02:56People in Haryana and in India think that I am their servant.

03:03They think that I have a lot of power.

03:08They think that I can use Dalit women whenever I want.

03:16Manisha started a small safehouse in 2016, so survivors had somewhere to escape the stress and threats.

03:22After rape, the situation of the family is such that a victim's daughter is kept in her house like a stranger.

03:29Looking at all this, we thought that if the victim's daughter is given a place where she can study and do whatever she wants,

03:36she can do whatever activity she wants.

03:41I don't want to go to the police. I don't want to go to the police.

03:46I don't want to go to the police. I don't want to go to the police.

03:51I don't want to go to the police.

03:59After coming here, they feel that they were not alone.

04:04They get the strength to give each other strength.

04:08This is a big job, because they couldn't find it at home.

04:11The boy is in jail now, and his family is harassing him.

04:17Yes, his family is harassing him.

04:20That's why we are saying that we will change our home.

04:24Our neighbours are always trying to kill us.

04:29We have built our own home.

04:31We don't have a father or a mother.

04:33It's our sisterhood home.

04:41Many survivors don't know where to seek legal aid from.

04:49So every day, Manisha and the girls sort through newspapers

04:52to find new cases they can assist on.

04:55Our register is from 2019 to 2020.

04:59We have scrambled with 8th grade students and young girls.

05:04We go through thousands of cases throughout the year.

05:08We talk to the police and the newspaper agencies.

05:13Then we take them to court for justice.

05:20Being a Dalit women's rights activist is dangerous work.

05:23While Manisha is off doing her activism and fieldwork,

05:26her family has been facing grave danger at home.

05:29Her elder brother is threatened several times a month,

05:32and last year he was a target of what he believes was an intentional hidden run.

05:39The administration wants to kill anyone

05:43and if you want to kill someone,

05:45go and kill their family first.

05:50The road was completely empty.

05:52A truck hit me from behind.

05:54Suddenly.

05:56Why did it hit me suddenly?

05:58I broke my head, my arm, my leg.

06:01I fainted.

06:05It's a conspiracy.

06:08You feel scared.

06:10I was saved in this accident.

06:12Maybe I'll be saved in the next one.

06:23No matter what happens,

06:25whether we live or die,

06:27I will never stop my sisters from doing their work.

06:31They are doing a good job in activism,

06:34and they will continue to do so.

06:36I am proud of my sisters.

06:47The safe house hasn't felt so safe lately either.

06:50Manisha and the women in her care

06:52are regularly getting death threats from their attackers.

07:02When we reached home at 11.30,

07:05we saw that the window was broken.

07:09The glass was lying here and there.

07:16When we get threats like this,

07:19like when someone follows us regularly

07:22and we hide a lot,

07:24we come here and see what the bike number was

07:28and what the car number was.

07:31A lot of people come here every month.

07:34We don't have enough infrastructure to keep everyone here.

07:41When the women don't feel comfortable stepping out,

07:44Manisha's mother sneaks in food from nearly an hour away.

07:48Whenever I'm scared, I take the food to the girls.

07:51I make it and give it to them.

07:53It's okay, my girls don't get worried.

07:56They don't get worried.

07:58I'm not hungry, I'm not thirsty.

08:00I'm ready to die with them.

08:05Once I sat on someone's back.

08:07He said, sit on my back, I'll go to jail.

08:09I said, where are you going?

08:10He said, I'll go to the girls.

08:12He said, do you have 500-400 rupees?

08:15I said, I don't have it.

08:17Then I got off at the hospital.

08:19I was scared.

08:21Then I walked half a mile.

08:23I walked a long way.

08:26Mom?

08:27Okay.

08:31For Shabnam's family,

08:33the nightmare has been ongoing for more than eight years.

08:36Right after Shabnam told her parents about the attack,

08:39her father committed suicide from the pain and societal pressure.

08:43We were living a happy life.

08:47But this attack destroyed everything.

08:53He was a very good man.

08:55He loved his daughter a lot.

08:58He said, my daughter's life will be ruined.

09:01I don't want to live.

09:03My reputation will be ruined.

09:06Since then, her family has been harassed so overtly

09:09that they have a designated police guard

09:11and have had to shift houses.

09:13All her attackers are now out on parole.

09:16After getting the guard, I feel safer.

09:20The fear is still there.

09:22I meet them on the street.

09:24And then I threaten my daughter.

09:28He used to stand right in front of the gate.

09:31He used to look at me from the front.

09:33He used to say, I'm going out.

09:34I'm going in.

09:35I'm doing this and that.

09:36So I was very upset.

09:38I didn't want to leave the house.

09:39I even stopped going to the roof.

09:42That's why we want to shift to another place.

09:46We don't want people to know about this incident.

09:55Manisha's plan is to reform the judicial system from the inside

09:59by having Dalit survivors defend other Dalit survivors in court.

10:03The accused, the upper-caste people,

10:06have 20-20 lawyers in court.

10:10These issues of caste-based sexual violence

10:13can only be addressed by women or advocates

10:19who have experience in this.

10:21I'm a lawyer, my sister is a lawyer,

10:24and we're getting the other girls on trial

10:27so that we can answer their questions.

10:33We feel very confident when we wear this dress.

10:37The dress in court is black and white.

10:40It's all black and white.

10:42To prove what's right and what's wrong.

10:47That's the color of the court.

10:50Why should we stop our work because of the fear of death?

10:53If we stop this work,

10:55it doesn't mean we'll never die.

10:58Death is inevitable.

11:02I accept life as it is.

11:08But I don't want to live like a victim.

11:14I want to live like a leader.

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