Raipur’s ‘Gulabi Gang’ fighting to curb crime against women

The urban slums of Raipur are witnessing a ‘pink revolution.’ A group of women who call themselves the Gulabi Gang (named after the women activists of Bundelkhand in Uttar Pradesh) have been successful in putting a stop to the frequent crimes against women in their areas.

Navadhar locality in Raipur has not only has boosted the confidence of women but at the same time helped in curbing the high dropout rate of girls from school. 

CRY-Child Rights and You backed its project partner Navadhar in a slum in Raipur called Purena has put a stop to eve-teasing and the rising instances of domestic violence.

It was noted that young girls from this slum while on their way to school were eve-teased and harassed frequently which led to a large number of girls dropping out of schools.

Ramesh Devangan, Chief Functionary and Secretary of Navadhar says, “The women in the neighbourhood were eve-teased.  When these girls used to go for bathing in rivers too the men used to follow them,” he continues adding that many women were also victims of domestic violence due to the high alcohol consumption by men in their household. This further created a negative environment for the children living with them. Added to that drug abuse too was an issue that was bothering the residents of these slums.

Navadhar has been working in the education sector in slums of Raipur for over 5 years. Since then, Navadhar has been focusing on enrolment and retention of dropouts and child labour, including dropout cases of girls between the ages of 15 to 18 years.

Devangan says that during their time at the slums they formed Nagarik Munch- a group of members from the community that also includes teachers, women representatives and staff of Navadhar to address sensitive and local issues.

It was on the behest of these members that the idea to set up a women’s collective was formed. “Child Rights association members Asha Sharma, Bindeshwari Grathalhare and Veena Gharwal came together to form a group with an aim to not only resolve the issue of drug abuse but also tackle the men in their neighbourhood. A majority of them consume alcohol and other intoxicated substances and abuse their family members, friends, even eve-tease women because of which there is domestic violence in every family,” he says. 

Agrees 36 year old Veena Geherwal, a local resident of Purena . She confesses the reason they came up with this name because a large number of people knew that such a gang actually existed. There was even a movie by the same name.

“We were inspired by them, ”confesses 41-year old Rameshwari Sen, another member of Gulabi Gang  who further adds that their ‘gang’ today has around 40 women members between the ages of 25 to 40. A majority of them are a mix of housewives, working professionals and some are mothers too.

The first order of business was patrolling the area and the women began this with zest and enthusiasm.  They divided the time slots among themselves and began patrolling the areas they thought needed immediate attention, some even from 9 pm till midnight.

“We caught men hiding in the dark to molest girls. We once caught three boys trying to harass some girls and intervened, thrashed them and handed them over to local police. Initially there were several cases of girls eve teasing and few cases of molestation too, but due to our joint efforts, these cases have gradually came down, of course the local women and local police too have extended their support in this initiative ,” says Veena.

Kesari Kanauji, another member of the gang says that their ‘fame’ is so widespread that now men are known to run away when they hear that they are coming. “ They scream ‘Run Run, Gulabi gang members are coming’” she laughs confirming that anti-social elements of the slum now fear them.

Anyone caught by the Gulabi Gang were taken to the police station where the officers jumped in to help.   The women have police protection in case anything goes wrong. They created awareness on the ill effects of alcohol consumption not only on their own families but also on the entire neighbourhood. The families of these women too were happy with their work and supported them. Slowly this led to a change in Purena.

The slum with a population of 8000 people did not have a school above the eighth grade. With help from Navadhar and support from Nagarik Munch, the Gulabi Gang passed a resolution to upgrade the existing Middle School to High School, till the 12th Std.   In the last two years alone, Purena has seen tremendous improvement. The dropout rates have decreased and domestic abuse too has lowered. Issues related to sanitation and cleanliness in the schools too was taken up.   So far, they have been successful in building toilets and drinking water taps in the schools and providing proper meals to the children as well.