Bhanwari Devi

child marriages take place during this festival.[6] WDP

members were tasked with convincing local villagers not
to conduct child marriages, a task that Bhanwari took
up, along with prachetas and members of the District
Womens Development Agency (DWDA). The campaign
was largely ignored by the villagers and faced disapproval
from local leaders, including the village headman or pradhan.[7]

For the 2011 case, see Bhanwari Devi (Jodhpur).

Bhanwari Devi (also spelled Bahveri Devi) is an Indian

dalit social-worker from Bhateri, Rajasthan, who was allegedly gang raped in 1992 by higher-caste men angered
by her eorts to prevent a child marriage in their family. Her subsequent treatment by the police, and court
acquittal of the accused, attracted widespread national
and international media attention, and became a land- One family which had arranged such a marriage was that
mark episode in Indias womens rights movement.[1][2][3] of Ram Karan Gurjar, who had planned to marry o
his one-year-old daughter. Bhanwari made attempts to
persuade the family against carrying out their wedding
plans. Since many Gujar families seemed determined to
1 Biography
go ahead with child marriages, the Sub-Divisional Ocer
(SDO) and the Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP)
Bhanwari is a woman belonging to a low-caste kumhar started making rounds of the village. On 5 May, the
(potter) family and living in Bhateri, a small village in day of Akha Teej, the Deputy Superintendent of Police
Rajasthan state, located 55 km from the state capital, (DSP) and SDO went to Bhateri village to stop the marJaipur. Most of the villagers belonged to the Gurjar com- riage of Ram Karan Gurjars infant daughter. While they
munity of milkmen, which is higher in the caste hierarchy succeeded in preventing the marriage from taking place
than Bhanwaris own Kumhar caste. In the 1990s, child on the day of Akha Teej, the marriage took place at 2
marriages were common in the village, and the caste sys- am the next day. No police action was taken against this.
tem was dominant. Bhanwari was married to Mohanlal However, the villagers associated the police visits with
at a young age, and came to live in Bhateri village while Bhanwari Devis eorts. This resulted in social and ecostill in her early teens.
nomic boycotts of Bhanwari and her family. The villagers
stopped selling milk to the family or buying the earthen
pots they made. Bhanwari was forced to leave her job
2 As a saathin
when her employer was roughed up, while her husband
was beaten up by another Gujar.[4]
In 1985, Bhanwari Devi became a saathin (friend), a
grassroots worker employed as part of the Womens Development Project (WDP) run by the Government of Ra- 2.2 The alleged gang rape
jasthan. As part of her job, she took up issues related
to land, water, literacy, health, Public Distribution Sys- According to Bhanwari Devi, at 6 pm on 22 September
tem, and payment of minimum wages at famine relief 1992, while she and her husband were working in their
works.[4] In 1987, she took up a major issue of the at- eld, ve men of her village attacked her husband Motempted rape of a woman from a neighbouring village. han Lal, leaving him unconscious. The ve men whom
All of these activities had the full support of the mem- she named were: Ram Karan, Ram Sukh, Gyarsa, Badri
bers of her village. However, in 1992, Bhanwari found and Shravan Sharma. When she came to her husbands
herself alienated, when she took up the issue of child mar- rescue, she said, Gyarsa and Badri raped her, while the
riage[4] which is still widely practiced in India despite be- other three pinned her down on the ground.
ing illegal.[5]

2.3 Police and medical procedures

2.1

Bhanwaris intervention
Bhanwari reported the incident to Rasila Sharma, the pracheta (block-level worker), who took her to the Bassi police station to lodge a First Information Report (FIR). The
FIR was lodged after surmounting police scepticism and
indierence, a phenomenon several rape complainants

In 1992, the state government of Rajasthan decided to

launch a campaign against child marriage during the
fortnight preceding the festival of Akha Teej, which
is considered an auspicious date for marriages. Many
1

5 AFTERMATH

have faced in the Indian context. Scholar Savitri Gooneof raping her and three whom she had accused of
sekere notes that all across South Asia, police are relucpinning her down).[12]
tant to record rape cases and show callousness and in Bhanwaris husbands semen was not found in the
dierence towards women with complaints of rape.[8]
vaginal swab (none of the ve semen traces were
At the police station, Bhanwari was asked to deposit her
his).[12]
lehanga (long skirt) as evidence. She had to cover herself with her husbands blood-stained saafa (turban) and
walk 3 km to the nearest saathins village Kherpuria, at 4.2 District court judgment
about 1 am in the morning.[9]
This indierence continued at the Primary Health Centre Five judges were changed, and it was the sixth judge who
(PHC) in Bassi, where the male doctor refused to med- ruled that the accused were not guilty, stating inter alia
ically examine Bhanwari, while no female doctor was that Bhanwaris husband couldn't have passively watched
[11]
present. The PHC doctor referred her to Sawai Man his wife being gang-raped.
Singh (SMS) Hospital in Jaipur, but wrote in his refer- Under pressure from womens groups, the State Governral that she was being sent for a test conrming the age ment decided to appeal against the judgment. The judgeof the victim.[9]
ment led to a nationwide campaign for justice for Bhan[11]
The Medical Jurist at Jaipur refused to conduct any tests wari Devi. However, by 2007, 15 years after the inciwithout orders from a Magistrate; the Magistrate refused dent, the Rajasthan High Court held only one hearing on
[11]
to give the orders until the next day, as it was past his the case and two of the accused were dead.
[9]
working hours. As a result, the vaginal swab was taken
more than 48 hours after the alleged rape, although Indian
4.3 Criticism of the judgment
law requires this to be done within 24 hours.[9][10]

Media coverage

On 25 September 1992, the Rajasthan Patrika (a major

local newspaper) carried a small news item stating that
a woman from Bhateri village had registred an FIR in
Bassi thana (police station) alleging gang rape.[4] Following this, a number of local Hindi dailies as well as national
dailies reported the incident. On 2 October 1992, the Rajasthan Patrika carried an editorial article Kroor Hadsa
(Brutal Incident) condemning the incident. Soon after
this, many Jaipur-based womens groups and other social
organizations began making inquiries about the incident.
However, Bhanwari Devi was accused of fabricating the
entire incident by the alleged rapists and their supporters,
and faced public humiliation in her village.[4] Bhanwari
Devi refused monetary compensation to discourage such
allegations.[11]

Womens activists were critical of some of the judicial

remarks made in the case. The judgment stated in passing
that Bhanwaris husband couldn't have passively watched
his wife being gang-raped. This was taken as prejudice
and bias by the womens groups. The accused included
an uncle-nephew pair, and the judge said that a middleaged man from an Indian village could not possibly have
participated in a gang rape in the presence of his own
nephew.[11]

5 Aftermath
The judgment was well received in India. A state MLA
organised a victory rally in the state capital Jaipur for the
ve accused who were now declared not guilty, and the
womens wing of his political party attended the rally to
call Bhanwari a liar.[10]

5.1 Social boycott

The court case

4.1

Summary of evidence

The summary of evidence in the court case stated that:[12]

The semen of ve dierent men were indeed found
in Bhanwaris vaginal swab and upon her lehenga
(long skirt)[12]
There was not even a single match between any
of these ve semen traces and the semen of any of
the ve accused (including two who she had accused

Bhanwari and her family were ostracized by villagers in

Bhateri and by members of her own caste living elsewhere. When her mother died, her brothers and others
did not allow her to participate in the funeral. Following
this incident, Bhanwari handed over to them the sum of
Rs.25,000 which she had received from Prime Minister
Narasimha Rao. Her brothers spent this money on organizing a Kumhar caste panchayat, where people were
asked to accept her back into the community. In spite
of this eort, her acceptance in the community remained
nominal and her son Mukesh had a dicult time nding a family willing to give their daughter in marriage to
him.[11]

3
The New Indian Express journalist Sukhmani Singh interviewed Bhanwari in 2001 and reported: Feisty, outspoken, innately hospitable, she openly expressed her resentment against both the womens groups and the government, all of whom have been ercely guarding her
like their pet mannequin all these many years.[13] He
reported that she was weary, resigned and bitter after
all these years. He also reported that Bhanwari wanted
to leave Bhateri, but couldn't aord to do so. Her sole
source of income was a bualo, as her two bighas of land
had become unproductive due to three years of drought.
Most of the money that she received as part of the Neerja
Bhanot Memorial Award in 1994 was locked away in a
trust to aid women.[14]

5.2

Ocial honours

Bhanwari received honours both nationally and internationally. She was invited to be a part of the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing.
In 1994, she was awarded the Neerja Bhanot Memorial
Award carrying Rs. 1 lakh cash prize, for her extraordinary courage, conviction and commitment.[15]
In 2002, the Chief Minister of Rajasthan, Ashok Gehlot,
allotted a residential plot to Bhanwari Devi and announced a grant of Rs. 40,000 for construction of a house
on the plot. He also sanctioned an additional amount Rs.
10,000 for the education of her son.[16]

Impact

Bhanwaris case shaped the womens movement in India,

heralding a trend in which media publicity and management of atmospherics became crucial to the activities
of the womens movement in India. The Bhanwari case
is held by some to have encouraged genuine rape victims
to prosecute their rapists.[17]
By 2007, the average age of the rst-time mother in Rajasthan had gone up to 16.5 years. According to Shivam
Vij (prominent communist activist and founder of the
left-wing blog Kala), this change was brought about by
the eorts of womens groups, catalyzed by the Bhanwari
case.[11]

6.1

The Vishaka judgment

tion, led by Vishakha and four other womens organizations in Rajasthan against the State of Rajasthan and the
Union of India, resulted in what are popularly known as
the Vishakha Guidelines. The judgment of August 1997
provided the basic denitions of sexual harassment at the
workplace and provided guidelines to deal with it. It is
seen as a signicant legal victory for womens groups in
India.[17]

7 In lms
In 2000, Jag Mundhra released a lm, Bawandar, based
on Bhanwaris story.[19]

8 References
[1] Dalrymple, William (2004). The sad tale of Bahveri
Devi. The Age of Kali: Indian Travels and Encounters. Penguin Books India. pp. 97110. ISBN 978-014-303109-3.
[2] Mathur, Kanchan (10 October 1992). Bhateri Rape
Case: Backlash and Protest. Economic and Political
Weekly 27 (41): 22212224.
[3] Vij, Shivam (13 October 2007).
Tehelka. Retrieved 19 May 2015.

A Mighty Heart.

[4] Kanchan Mathur (10 October 1992). Bhateri Rape Case:

Backlash and Protest. Economic and Political Weekly 27
(41): 22212224. JSTOR 4398990.
[5] Handbook on the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act,
2006 (PDF). Ministry of Women and Child Development, Government of India; UNICEF; HAQ.
[6] Rajasthan govt issues advisory against child marriage.
Times of India. 4 May 2014. Retrieved 25 June 2014.
[7] Mathur, Kanchan (10 October 1992). Bhateri Rape
Case: Backlash and Protest. Economic and Political
Weekly. Retrieved 25 June 2014.
[8] Goonesekere, Savitri (2004).
Violence, Law and
Womens Rights in South Asia. http://www.sagepub.com/
books/Book226912/toc: SAGE. pp. 9799. ISBN
9780761997962.
[9] Taisha Abraham (2002). The Politics of Patriarchy and
Sathin Bhanwaris Rape. Women and the politics of violence. Har-Anand Publications. pp. 277279. ISBN
9788124108475.

While her detractors accuse Bhanwari of taking advantage of her government job to harass people against whom
she had old animus, womens activists and innovative [10] Pinki Virani (4 March 2001). Long wait for justice.
The Hindu. Retrieved 7 April 2010.
lawyers have propagated the view that she attracted the ire
of her rapists solely on the basis of her work. A number [11] Shivam Vij (13 October 2007). A Mighty Heart.
of groups which championed the latter view led a Public
Tehelka. Retrieved 7 April 2010.
Interest Litigation (PIL) in the Supreme Court of India,
under the collective platform of Vishakha.[18] The peti- [12] [The Age of Kali by William Dalrymple, p.136-38]

[13] Smriti Ananth (28 December 2001). A lm album supervised by Vishwamohan Bhatt. The Music Magazine.
Retrieved 7 April 2010.
[14] Sukhmani singh (23 November 2001). Rape victim enters Bollywood lmscript but stays an outcast. Indian Express. Retrieved 7 April 2010.
[15] A Deant Dalit Womans Fight for Justice. PUCL Bulletin Vol. XIV No. 10. Peoples Union for Civil Liberties.
October 1994. Retrieved 7 April 2010.
[16] Government extends nancial help to Bhanwari Devi.
Redi.com. 10 January 2002. Retrieved 7 April 2010.
[17] Apurva (26 January 2010). Sexual harassment at workplace. Indian Express. Retrieved 7 April 2010.
[18] Aurina Chatterji (9 February 2006). Sexual harassment:
Battling unwelcome sexual attention. InfoChange India.
Retrieved 7 April 2010.
[19] IANS (5 September 2011). Filmmaker Jagmohan
Mundhra dead. Hindustan Times. Retrieved 18 May
2015.

REFERENCES

Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

9.1

Text

Bhanwari Devi Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhanwari_Devi?oldid=681074958 Contributors: Alan Liefting, Edcolins, Utcursch,

Wiki-uk, Tabletop, Fram, Gilliam, Bazonka, Primordiallogus, Ohconfucius, Shyamsunder, Dl2000, Cydebot, AroundTheGlobe, PKT,
Epbr123, Qwyrxian, Headbomb, Ekabhishek, Lvdt, Waacstats, Dharmadhyaksha, Abecedare, Alewis2388, Flyer22 Reborn, Miniapolis,
Icarusgeek, Yobot, AnomieBOT, LilHelpa, FreeRangeFrog, Shadowjams, F3ew, Orenburg1, Chhora, Ansumang, RjwilmsiBot, John of
Reading, PBS-AWB, Bishdatta, Abhishekitmbm, ClueBot NG, AgniKalpa, CaroleHenson, Widr, Angel et demon, Fltyingpig, Helpful Pixie
Bot, BG19bot, Womensrightindia1947, Anupriya85, Hunknitin29, Pashu111, Howardroark91, BattyBot, Media-hound- thethird, Balicha,
Rassum Frassum, BrightStarSky, Kaleem1985, Mogism, Rakeshwarier, Visdaviva, Commons sibi, Shasha law, Bladesmulti, Nitishkumartn,
Varun Chatterji, Monkbot and Anonymous: 46

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