A man harassed her on a train, but this time she did not let it pass
Ayushi was molested, but decided she had to act against the man
Ayushi Agarwal was taking an overnight train from the Indian city of Allahabad to Delhi, the country’s capital. She felt a bit uneasy as she entered her compartment, because all passengers were male. However, she decided not to get paranoid and tried to sleep.
In a Facebook post on Tuesday, Agarwal recounted details of what followed. She wrote: “I woke up suddenly in the middle of the night. The passenger on the berth right above mine (perhaps in his early thirties ...) was sitting on my seat and I could feel his hand right above my right knee. Though I was knew this was strange, my first instinct was still to try and justify this in favour of the man.”
But when she opened her eyes, she saw the man was wideawake and watching something on his phone. She wrote “I confronted him in anger and shock by asking: ‘aap kya kar rahe hain?’ (what are you doing?).” The man apologised and left. Agarwal, who according to her Facebook profile has previously studied at the National Law School of India University, had to decide what to do next.
She wrote: “I thought about all the times I’ve been sexually harassed before, and all the times I’ve heard of the same happening to my friends. I thought about the regret I had each time that I didn’t call out the culprit or drag him to the police station.”
Deciding to take action, Agarwal “set out to look for the travelling ticket examiner (TTE).”
According to Agarwal, the TTE listened to her patiently and told her: “Aap ne tab hi kyu nahin bola? Aap ne thappad kyun nahi mara? Ab kya ho sakta hai?” (Why didn’t you say anything while it was happening? Why didn’t you slap the man? What can we do now?).” ■
Delhi-based Agarwal, who also manages a group called the Alliance of Oversensitive Women founded by three women to challenge normalisation of sexism, wrote: “Thankfully, my dad had told me long back that a few police officers always travel on trains to deal with untoward incidents. I told the TTE to call the police.”
The police arrived soon and woke the man up. Agarwal then asked him “to sit in front of me and tell me how his hand managed to reach my thigh in the middle of the night. His excuse was that he had fallen asleep while sitting on my seat (even though his berth was above mine) and must have put it there by mistake. This couldn’t be true, as he was watching something on his phone.”
When she told the police she wanted to file a case, the man began apologising saying he was married and a complaint would ruin his life. When the train arrived at New Delhi station, the police on the train escorted the man to the police station, and asked Agarwal to register the FIR (First Information Report).
She was constantly urged to drop the case: “The police dropped hints that it would be in my best interests to take the case back. Meanwhile, the man’s family came and started pressurising me to take the case back.”
No relenting
She did not relent and spent the afternoon in courtrooms to record her statement.
Agarwal’s post was met with positive reactions on Facebook. Many, especially women praised Agarwal. Alisha Agrawal wrote: “You go girl! Awesome. Many women might not know what to do on a train when such an incident occurs but you sure have taught them a thing or two.”
Facebook user Shagun Singh wrote: “I don’t know you, but am glad another one didn’t let it go. I have done and always do stand up, report, take action.”
Agarwal in her Facebook post had written that: “This is for every single time that I, and so many of my friends, held our silence due to fear, underconfidence or even pity ... I just want to say — we, as girls, have an equal right to travel by trains ... and to feel safe while doing so ... This shouldn’t be happening, and when it does, we must not let it slide by.
Agarwal has also asked other women to use the hashtag #IWillNotLetItGo to share similar instances where they stood up.
According to a recent opinion survey published by the Thomson Reuters Foundation, India is the most dangerous country in the world to be a woman.