Mrs.
Sampat Pal Devi and members of the Gulabi (pink) Gang, is a group of several
hundred vigilante women in India, committed to protecting women against social
malpractice, corrupt administrators, and abusive husbands.
You must have seen her in TV Serial “Big Boss”, Unsung Heroes in India Group
Salute Her.
Sampat was married off at the age of 12 to an ice-cream vendor and had the
first of her five children at 15. The gulabis, whose members say they are a
"gang for justice," started in 2006 as a sisterhood of sorts that
looked out for victims of domestic abuse, a problem the United Nations
estimates affects two in three married Indian women. Named after their hot-pink
sari uniforms, the gang paid visits to abusive husbands and demanded they stop
the beatings. When obstinate men refused to listen, the gulabis would return
with large bamboo sticks called laathis and "persuade" them to change
their ways. "When I go around with a stick, it's to make men fear me. I
don't always use it, but it helps change the mind of men who think they are
more powerful than me" says Sampat. She has assumed the rank of commander
in chief and has appointed district commanders across seven districts in
Bundelkhand to help coordinate the gang's efforts.
Sampat's group now has more than 20,000 members, and the number is growing.
Making her way from one far-flung village to another on an old rusty bicycle,
she holds daily gatherings under shady banyan trees, near makeshift tea-stalls
selling the sweet Indian drink chai and other popular village hangouts to
discuss local problems and attract new recruits.
Sampat has a long list of criminal charges against her, including unlawful
assembly, rioting, attacking a government employee, and obstructing an officer
in the discharge of duty, and she even had to go into hiding.Her feistiness has
secured notable victories for the community, however. In 2008, the group
ambushed the local electricity office, which was withholding electricity until
members received bribes or sexual favors in return for flicking the switch back
on. The stick-wielding gulabi stormed the company grounds and proceeded to
rough up the staff inside the building. An hour later, the power was back on in
the village.
While the gulabi use a mild level of force, more violent strains of vigilantism
have been reported elsewhere in India among dispossessed women. In 2004, a mob
of hundreds of women hacked to death the serial rapist and murderer Akku Yadav,
after the courts failed to convict him over a period of 10 years. After the
deed was done, the women collectively declared their guilt in the murder,
frustrating police efforts to charge anyone with the crime. This kind of
violence has generated concern among some Indian commentators, who say that
while many vigilantes have noble intentions, too many of them are brutally
violent.
