India's Daughter: Five takeaways from watching the documentary

We Indians are touchy about our nation's image in the eyes of others; intolerant and perhaps embarrassed when shown the mirror by them. We wish foreigners should sing paeans of our history, culture, heritage and diversity all the time. And when they deviate and talk about India's modern day problems, we lose our cool and react violently. Next, we would love to demonise the foreigner for being someone trying to poke his nose in a scene where we are trying to wash our dirty linen.

Governments, as such, are always insecure about new imagery and thoughts and therefore never take chances. They use quick-fix solutions and invoke a legal ban - on books, films and now television documentaries. Interestingly in most cases, the banned works are ordinary but become the most viewed or read after the panic ban.

Now, same is the case with Leslee Udwin's India's Daughter, a documentary film that the BBC had released first on the YouTube and could, sometimes, be shown on the Womens' Day. The film, which despite the ban by an Indian court, continues to make waves on the internet, is the story of the gangrape of a Delhi girl on December 16, 2012. The ban and the storm raised by the film have only helped shift focus from the scourge of rape and also India's capacity to deal with it as the government and activists are alleging filmmaker's hidden agenda behind it. Others are pointing to the conspiracy to damage India's reputation. However, after seeing the documentary on the internet, as an unbiased Indian, I picked some key takeaways from it:

1. Prisons are not reformatories:

Mukesh Singh, the unrepentant gang rape convict, interviewed in the film comes across as someone who is perplexed by the storm around his crime of raping a woman brutally in a moving bus. The illiterate Mukesh reiterates his belief that women not wearing appropriate dress and moving with friends, deserve to be raped. He is also openly boasting about his brother Ram Singh's "reformist" campaign of teaching young men and women moving in late hours a "lesson" and he sees nothing wrong in this.

Mukesh's admissions reminds us of the ugly truth about the Indian society where, on one hand, women are worshiped as "goddesses" and on the other raped and silenced into shame. Now, Mukesh has been in prison for 30 months - first as an under-trial and now a convict. Are prisons meant for incarcerating a confirmed criminal or an under trial? Don't we have someone working on their minds; trying to make them better human beings for a world where they could possibly go back one day.

Unfortunately, jails, as they say, are no longer reformation centres but are known to be turning ordinary criminals into hardcore ones and as indoctrination centres for criminals with an ideology like the terrorists.

Probably the overcrowding in Indian prisons is a reason why the authorities do not look beyond the lodging and boarding of inmates. However, given the fact that majority of Indians are deeply religious and there is a provision for religious preachers to visit the jailbirds, I wonder if someone ever tried to invoke the conscience of Ram Singh, Mukesh Singh and other members of their gang.

2. Question mark on legal professionals:

The two lawyers messers ML Sharma and AP Singh for the convicts spoke the most despicable things about women and rape. One of them, in broken English, talked of women as flowers which emit sweet fragrance and diamonds, which, if left unattended, will be taken away by dogs. He further likened women to flowers who should chose to fall in a gutter or make it to adorn a deity. The other fellow had the temerity of saying that he would bury his daughter alive is he found her with boys from outside her family. Now these two lawyers could have made their points without linking the brutal rape committed by their clients to victim's character.

If this is human material available to litigants at the lower and high courts, God save them. My personal experience of dealing with courts in Ghaziabad, UP, tells me that Bars at district and session court levels have many lawyers with questionable integrity. They not only fleece the clients but also use unethical means to extract money from them. Now, there is no redress available to the litigants who are already stuck in a difficult situation. Isn't it time that we have clear criterion of giving membership of Bar to lawyers like the two featuring in India's Daughter?

3. Resilience of "aam aadmi"

The film depicts Nirbhaya's parents as courageous, loving and a picture of grace. Their views about her daughter and women should be an eye-opener to all, including many of our leaders. Even while working at the airport on basic wages Nirbhaya's father had a dream for his daughter. He sold off his land in native village to fund her studies. The mother knew that the family would see better days with her daughter becoming a doctor soon. She was forthright in defending the right of girls to freedom of dress and movement. The family, by all standards, comprises the "aam aadmi" of India. Their views on women are liberal. They do not shy away from supporting their girls in making big and speaking up against their tormentors. They do not think being raped is shameful for the girls or it is their fault. Given the support of media such voices could multiply and make the country a better place for women.

4. India as a happening and evolving democracy:

Contrary to the propaganda, India's Daughter by no means seeks to belittle India or its women. Rape is a worldwide phenomenon and part of conflict between genders in an unjust society, not endemic to India alone. However, as against societies which tend to push this crime under carpet, India is ready to deal with it. The film shows a vibrant and powerful civil society, a sensitive judiciary and police force, which are determined to change the situation. Also since every sixth person is the world is an Indian, our battle for equality of women has a global impact.

5. Long road to victory:

India has one of the strongest women's movements across the world. But the film has made us realise that the road to victory in the battle for equality and freedom is a long haul for the Indian women. The mindsets of criminal Mukesh Singh and his lawyers reflect the deep-rooted prejudices against women in the minds of vast sections of Indians. The advocates of women's rights have to strengthen the elaborate set of laws dealing with women specific malaise - dowry, domestic violence, harassment at work places, etc - to make the government and the system accountable to half of country's population. However, the most important battle is against that of the mindset.