Pink Sari Revolution

By: Amana Fontanella-Khan
Location: NF 920 FON
Genre: Social Justice in real life


India's struggle with justice for women in the 21st century is becoming one of the most prominent news stories of the moment. In the last few months, another terrible gang rape hit the headlines. Women's collectives are growing up all over the country and beginning to fight back. The most prominent and potent is the Pink Sari Gang. This is their story. 
 From BBC Radio 4 - Book of the Week:

I have been to India and seen the appalling way girls and woman are treated. I have watched how the caste system minimizes and offers no hope to those who are born into it. I have seen and heard the stores of those wanting love marriages but being forced into an unwanted arranged marriage at a ridiculous age. I have seen young girls beg and woman siting on the pavement with a death look in their eyes.
It is awesome that a bunch of woman are saying - this is enough, we will stand together and we will fight this.

Sampat Pal is an uneducated grandmother who fights against the social injustices embedded in her society. The practice of child brides, shunning love marriages, gang rapes, corrupt police officers, power hungry politicians, and the use of acid in domestics disputes has emboldened the the former child bride to unite a throng of abused women into the Pink Gang. Together, the Pink Gang is strong; faced with death threats, bandwagoning family and followers, Sampat Pal is determined to help women and men understand their rights in Uttar Pradesh region in India. A place where reported rape has climbed 792% in the past 4 decades, with conviction rates steadily dropping, and where domestic abuse has climbed 30% in the same time period.

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