Why Pooja got 'mad'
Behind the entire media cacophony over Pooja Chauhan is a real story and a real person. The story is a familiar one. Of women, thousands of them, who are harassed over dowry or over the gender of the child they birth, particularly if she turns out to be a girl, writes Kalpana Sharma.
The Pooja Chauhan story has now become familiar to most people in India with access to the media — print or electronic. Virtually all newspapers flashed the photograph of this 22-year-old woman, walking in her underwear, in ‘conservative’ Rajkot city in Gujarat. She carried a baseball bat in one hand and bangles in the other. Her destination was the office of the Commissioner of Police. She walked for one hour. On the way, people gawked at her. Some laughed. The photographs showed men riding by on scooters, craning their necks to get a better look, laughing at her. No one, it seemed, stopped her, or tried to find out why she was doing what she was doing.
For the media, this was a great story. When they finally did speak to her, Pooja told them that she had decided to resort to this form of protest because she was fed up with the police not taking her complaints about harassment and violence seriously. She said she was being nagged by her husband’s family to bring more dowry and that they made her life even more difficult because she gave birth to a girl child. She accused her parents-in-law of getting a neighbour to beat her up. A week before this incident, Pooja had allegedly tried to immolate herself in front of the police commissioner’s office.
Media cacophony
What a story! All the elements of a Hindi movie. Yet, although the first stories did report the reasons that provoked Pooja to act in this manner, later reports took a different turn. Pooja’s parents were accosted by the local media and asked whether their daughter was sane. “Is she mad?” they apparently asked. Others reported that the story was complicated, that her husband’s family had also registered complaints against Pooja. It was also reported that the girl did not live with her husband anymore and was on her own, with her infant daughter.
Behind this entire media cacophony is a real story and a real person. The story is a familiar one. Of women, thousands of them even if you go by official statistics, who are harassed over dowry or over the gender of the child they birth, particularly if she turns out to be a girl. Pooja survived such harassment. Thousands of women each year do not. At a time when India boasts of becoming an international economic giant, its women are being pushed to the brink for dowry, the giving and taking of which was banned in 1961 and is against the law. They also continue to be blamed for producing female children, something over which they can have no control. Yes, this is the same country where we celebrate a woman of Indian descent having been on a space mission — even if she is an American.
Pooja’s protest symbolises an anger against a system that refuses to hear the voices of ordinary women.
• Why dowry will not die • Hitting dowry for a six At the time of writing, Pooja was in a shelter. Although the court had ruled, after a network of women’s groups working on issues of violence against women filed a case under the Domestic Violence Act on her behalf, that she was entitled to continue staying in the rented house where she had taken shelter to get away from her abusive marital home, she found she could not in fact go back there as the landlord refused to accept her as a tenant. To prevent her from facing further violence, these women’s groups got together and arranged temporary shelter for her. They were moving her to a government-recognised women’s shelter so that she would be free to meet people, including members of the National Commission on Women.
In some ways, Pooja is lucky. Despite extreme provocation, she is still alive. Her parents have been supportive. As a result, she was able to move out of her husband’s house and into independent rented accommodation. Her strategy of doing something outrageous did work. It got her the attention she desperately sought. Perhaps some positive conclusion will arise from this. And hopefully she will survive the negative side of media attention, that which has spawned blogs where men blow off steam about women who are allegedly misusing anti-violence laws, and the repeated use of her photograph on many sites. One hopes she will not be too badly affected by the unsubtle hints in media reports that she was “mad” and slightly unbalanced for having resorted to what is popularly being called “a semi-nude protest”.
Missing the point
The point that the media has missed completely is that the issue they ought to investigate more thoroughly is not the state of Pooja’s mental health, but what her protest represents. They should remember the naked protest by middle-aged women in Manipur against the Armed Forces Special Powers Act. Because it took place in distant Manipur, which only springs into the news when something affecting hundreds of people occurs, the actual protest went largely unreported. There were no TV cameras to telecast that image, or to talk to the women, or to ask others whether they were collectively ‘mad’. They surely were. Not insane, but mad and angry at a system that refuses to hear the voices of ordinary people, or ordinary women.
Pooja is also mad at the system. Her protest symbolises that. Regardless of the specific details of her story, her protest reminds us again that dowry is alive and flourishing and that women face as much danger to their lives within their homes as they do out in the public space.
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Cite this article
Kalpana Sharma (2007) ‘Why Pooja got 'mad'’, India Together, 19 July 2007. https://indiatogether.org/pooja-op-ed/
10 reader responses
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Irfan Nooruddin · 19 July 2007
A very thoughtful piece. Thank you. Reminds me of an interview I saw with a labor activist in the US. He said, "People ask me all the time if I'm mad. And I say, of course I'm mad. Hell, if you're not mad, then you're not paying attention." Keep it up.
Aparna Pallavi · 21 July 2007
Why are women mad when they appear naked or semi-naked in public as a form of protest, but not when they appear in provocative attair in entertainment programmes, films or publications (they actually get deified for their 'talent', 'hard work' and what not? Is commercial nudity more 'sane' than the other variety?
Julie Thekkudan · 24 July 2007
I think there should be more articles like this in the so-called popular media. It is essential to highlight the what Pooja's protest actually represents. Popular media has this way of side-lining the real issue and sensationalising the irrelevant. In continuation of your question whether Pooja is perceived as 'mad' for her semi-nude protest, would that also make all the semi nude men at street sides, bus depots, taxi stands etc 'mad'? With that logic, then all the digambara jains monks are all stark raving lunatics!!! Media needs to become responsible in their reporting of news.The media could have of their own accord imposed censorship of sorts by blurring the picture, but they were quick to cash in on the semi-nudeness of the protest, blurring of the picture came from the second day onwards. Print media still continues to display the original picture. Hats off to Pooja for having the courage to do this of her own choice. What about all those women who are made to strip and parade before large crowds for perceived violations by sections of society?
Dr. P. Sensarma · 26 July 2007
I feel the article is as emotionally biased as the media reports have been alleged to be. In response to the first section, if any well-meaning man had indeed stopped to ask a semi-clad lady and had got photographed, his wife would by now be in the courts with a complaint on adultery. The author does miss a point when she disguises Pooja's allegations as the truth to the extent of contemptuously treating the husband's complaint as absolutely frivolous. Incidentally, the NCW has commented that Pooja has been a victim of a human-trafficking nexus, in the light of which the husband's allegations should receive equal, if not more, concern. The second section is more of a rant of loosely related topics which go to show the author's lack of concern for Pooja the individual and more for Pooja the case study of a pre-fixed agenda. Take the reference to the dowry angle. Please recall that during justification of the DV Act, it was mentioned that this would give women a more reasonable mode of complaint as earlier they were forced to take recourse to 498A. The accent on "forced" clearly means that even if a woman had other matrimonial complaints, she had to introduce a dowry angle for her complaint to be received seriously. I am sure the author is aware of this fact but fails to mention this as a possibility. From her piece it is quite clear she derives all her information from the media, which till date has not objectively confirmed harassment related to dowry. In that sense, there is a lack of balance. If blowing off steam were such unprintable obscenities, I am afraid this section of the article doesn't fare much better. The third section is where the steam some sensibility dawns. Yes, Pooja's intense mental trauma should be looked into with all sensitivity. It's a situation where an individual has lost all hope which is even worse than death itself. It's a common fallacy to start a tirade against men whenever there is a high-profile media piece involving a woman. Human trafficking nexi involve men and women and the common motive is lucre and not gender adversity. It's somewhat similar to the case of some unscrupulous elements indulging in organ trading. These are gruesome offenses and should be struck at the roots. Gender polarisation in public mind however has the effect of adversely affecting gender equality.
SVLN Nageswara Rao · 16 August 2007
Pooja's husband and in-laws are vegetable vendors. Will the entire episode have a different view-point with this background?
Dr Vineet Gupta · 28 August 2007
A semi clad woman on the streets seems to be the ultimate picture of torture, but is this the reality? Has Pooja been tortured or is she torturing her husband and her vegetable seller in- laws? This is the question which we must all ask ourselves. It is important to mention here that simply because Pooja chose to strip and come out on the streets should not automatically make her the aggrieved, and her husband plus in-laws the aggrievers. What people do for money is not a hidden fact. Aren't women a part of that? Why is that when it comes to dowry allegations all women are presumed innocent and all husbands and in-laws presumed guilty?
shailee · 1 October 2007
These days women and nudity go side by side, whether it is mad Pooja or semi nude film heroines. It seems that when a woman has to show power she undresses herself. I am always surprised that when a man has to impress some one they dress up very nicely in a suit and tie but when a woman needs to emphasise her self she just bares herself. Moreover media is very enthusiastic in reporting such kind of news repeating the clips not less than 100 times just to enhance their TRP. I think it is not only Puja who has become mad but it is entire society who has become very insensitive to this kind of news .
Rajni Thakur · 6 March 2008
When we see around us this kind of environment which has exceeded its limit, then these type of incidents will take place. Women now don't expect any kind of manners from male dominated society.
Archana · 9 July 2008
Does it make any difference if Pooja runs naked or clothed? It is like the saying, "you can wake up a sleeping man, but you cannot wake up a man who pretends to sleep". Doesn't anyone understand it is wrong and inhuman to harass a fellow human being? No point even discussing, who is right or wrong? Are our men willing to give up their privileges and treat their women with dignity and respect or do they prefer to remain attached to their umbilical cords all their life. It's their call whether to do the "right" thing or not.
Melissa M. M. · 17 November 2009
Pooja is my hero. As a young American girl, I applaud her efforts to bring light to a taboo issue like the thousands of non-violent protesters that have come before her. Men hold the responsibility to stop this pattern of abuse and harassment. Again, I commend Pooja for her incredible bravery.