The making of an activist

Kavita Krishnan,Secretary,AIPWA,has had a long education in protest culture

Activism started early in life for Kavita Krishnan when she moved to Mumbai following the riots after the demolition of the Babri Masjid in December 1992. Today,shes one of the leading womens rights activists in the country. At St Xaviers in Mumbai,Krishnan met a small group led by Arun Ferreira and started participating in protest rallies and performing street plays.

The college had a sub-culture of activism. We used to lampoon outside the administration building when they were trying to contractualise workers, Krishnan said. Those were the formative years of her passion for activism. In the following years,issues became deeper and protests turned more vehement. Krishnan joined JNU to pursue her masters. The only political thought in my mind was that I was against the construct of a womens identity propagated by the BJP and the ABVP. She said that even on the campus their idea was padhiye Gita,baniye Sita read the Gita,become like Sita. Their idea of a Hindu nation defined the role and place of a woman very strictly, she says. According to her,that role was not just repellent but also scary. At JNU,she came in contact with more like her. She joined the All India Students Association AISA. She said she was intrigued by the creative expression of progressive gender politics as part of anti-communal politics in the organisation.

Krishnan fondly recalls the 94 elections at JNU when a Shiv Sena candidate was contesting. He made a very venomous speech, she says. We deliberately went dressed in short skirts and puffing cigarettes. After his speech,she and her friends asked him what he would do with girls like them if he was voted in. He told them that hed have them sent to jail. She says the incident shook their conscience and inspired them to actively work for womens rights. That year,AISAs Chandrashekhar was elected JNUSU president. The following year Kavita was elected joint secretary.

While she led AISA at JNU through a low tide when right-wing parties were gaining ground and former president,Chandrashekhar,was shot dead,she was the force behind a Gender Sensitisation Committee for Action Against Sexual Harassment GSCASH at both JNU and Delhi University. The body is still active and deals with complaints of sexual harassment.

Krishnan has been at the forefront during the protests for womens safety and empowerment after the Delhi gang rap. She led scores of protests at India Gate,Jantar Mantar and many other places across the city.

Speaking of the governments high-handed approach in dealing with protesters,Krishnan says,We were protesting outside Sheila Dikshits house on December 19 and without warning they unleashed water cannons on us. According to her,this was one of the first acts of repression by the state during the protests and led to great disappointment among them.

Krishnan made a speech for the students that day that a friend of hers recorded and uploaded on YouTube. The video became viral. Krishnan says she was oblivious to the 50,000-odd likes on the video till a person from a foreign community radio called to ask her for an interview. She says what had resonated through the video was the idea that in the name of protecting us,our freedom was being curbed and that it is what needs to be protected. She believes that law is written in such a sexist way that the letter kills the spirit.

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The law talks about outraging modesty at its very heart. Why not outraging dignity or bodily integrity? she questions because,according to her,modesty is a case of character and does not talk about the crime and the offender,thereby taking away the dignity of the victim. Under the new ordinance,they have made the perpetrator gender neutral,which is completely opposite to the recommendations of the Varma Committee, she adds.