Women inmates bring their ordeal to the stage

The play is about the ordeal of a mother, who hits her neighbour on the head with a bottle when he tries to force himself on her. After his death, she is sent to jail. During a prison visit by her mother, she is told that her husband has moved to divorce her. Eventually, she is found innocent, but only after spending eight years in jail. She goes home to find her husband has remarried and her son, now 12, doesn’t recognise her.

“The purpose of this play was to make people aware about problems these women face in prison. It’s our duty to help them lead a new life once they come out,” Vartika Nanda, head of the department of journalism at Lady Shri Ram College, said. Tihar DG Sudhir Yadav said that it takes courage for women, many of them illiterate, to face trial and deal with lawyers, frequently without support from their families.

The play was directed by Peepli Live director Mohammad Farooqui, who is also in jail. The event was a collaboration between Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, Bureau of Police Research and Development and Delhi School of Social Work.