Echoes of Onaatah
SHILLONG: The portrayal of a rape survivor and the healing touches of a supportive community in the recent movie Onaatah have received much public acclaim. The movie succeeded in stirring the conscience of Khasi society about the growing menace of molestation of women. The movie spurred ICARE (The Society for Informed, Conscious and Responsible Existence) to conduct a citizen’s seminar on this issue.
The objectives of the seminar were to draw public attention to an issue that receives minimal priority from government and civil society, to provide information and research knowledge on abuse of women and children and to highlight the efforts by a few individuals and organizations in the realms of academics, media, arts and community service.
Inaugurating the seminar at St Edmunds College, the chief guest, P. N. Syiem, CEM, KHADC, explained the legal and judicial procedures of the District Council for rape and other crimes. Praising the initiative, he announced a grant of Rs 50,000 to ICARE for research.The president of ICARE, Toki Blah, explained the motivation for the seminar and the proposed outcomes for long term action.
Jennifer War, coordinator, life skills and sexuality education, Martin Luther Christian University made a presentation on ‘Sexuality and Silence’ in which she described her research findings on the benefits of sexuality education for university students. She stressed the importance of coining appropriate terms for the genitals and sexual activity in the local languages to help break the silence on sex because of a misplaced sense of propriety.
Dr Shaibya Saldanha from ENFOLD Bangalore explained the various provisions of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO). ENFOLD has pioneered sex education programmes for children and youth in Karnataka and training for police, doctors and government officials.
Vivek Syiem, Superintendent of Police, described the role of law enforcement and the challenges they face. He appealed to citizens to cooperate responsibly with the police.
According to Patricia Mukhim, editor of The Shillong Times, the media has difficulty in reporting such crimes in a sensitive way because of an inadequate vocabulary to describe the trauma of the victim, the mindset of the rapist and other aspects of rape and child abuse.
“Rape is even more difficult to report in Khasi or Garo”.
Ivyreen Warjri, Mission Director, State Resource Centre for Women spoke on myths of rape and support systems. She talked about the ritualization of rape where society takes out candle marches instead of more meaningful measures to restore dignity and healing to survivors.
To begin the afternoon session, a short clip from Onnaatah was screened, followed by a question and answer session with Sweety Pala and Merlvin Mukhim, the lead pair in the movie. They talked about the challenges of the script and the intense preparation for their roles. The seminar closed with a panel discussion chaired by Dr Sandra Albert, Director, Indian Institute of Public Health in which the difficulties of changing mindsets and strategies for the way forwardwere discussed.
At the end of the seminar, more than 300 participants signed a Citizens’ Declaration on Rape and Child Abuse, pledging individual and collective action.