Pragati Sawney had a kind of grace men would die for. By training a dentist, she was more into Sai Bhajans and service in their camps. She was beautiful beyond words but preferred to remain single after her fiancée died on the Kargil front.
She learned to live fully beyond that grief and committed her weekends to a NGO that involved in women’s welfare. This NGO in Bhopal provided counseling to women who were victims of domestic violence besides providing free legal service for their betterment.
Pragati’s lists of activity span to more than 18 hours -her dental practice keeping her busy in the mornings and evenings; rest of the day at the NGO in an honorary capacity. The cases were horrific beyond words. Dowry victims burnt alive and barely able to survive, women being battered by their husbands for trivial reasons with cigarette buds or having extramarital affairs leaving wives in doubt and searching for answers. This is particularly bad in North India where the men really wield clout and women are expected to be the doormat. Unlike in South were there are all-women police stations and state welfare mechanisms to handle such issues whereas in Bhopal even rapists go scot-free.
It was in the winter of 1998 when Vimala approached Pragati for her intervention. She was the daughter-in-law of a MP and she was really beaten black and blue. Her father had performed a regal wedding and promised a Mercedes Benz and a duplex flat in South Delhi as dowry. His business took a nosedive and so he couldn’t keep this part of the bargain while the daughter-in-law started to receive her daily doses of torture – she was first slighted before other daughter-in-laws and mocked for her penury and then it started to take a physical hue. Unable to withstand the daily batter, she consumed sleeping pills before her neighbours brought her to the hospital inches away from death. Even then the stone hearts did not melt and it was then that the NGO got involved after a whisper in the local press.
It would have been clear that there was a case of dowry harassment and the groom and in-laws be brought to book. But law does not work like that in our country particularly if you are powerful politician belonging to the ruling party.
Fine, how about divorce? Even that option was not entertained as they did not wish get their names tainted in the circle of influence. The in-laws offered to take her back and she must learn to live what was in her lot. Vimala, however, was psychologically unprepared to go back as she felt like a cow in a slaughter house.
Pragati offered her shelter in her house and since both the women were educated they had no problems vibing well with one another. This was not taken kindly by the powerful forces that be and there was an attempt to waylay the flat and glass windows broken. It seemed that there was no escape route except call in a press conference and allow events to take their course.
But newspapers have a short shell life and if the judiciary been more efficient, they could have been some justice.
Pragati then did the unthinkable and she spoke to Sonia Gandhi’s secretary and asked for an appointment and as luck would have it, it was granted. Pragati told Sonia the bare facts and imploring that she use her influence with the MP and give a life to a poor woman who has borne it all – harassment, suicide and emotional torture- and now at her wit’s end.
Sonia Gandhi heard her patiently and asked to leave the details with her office and promised to help.
A fortnight later the father-in-law appeared chastened and went to Pragati’s house and agreed to a speedy divorce. A girl’s life was saved and I believe, Vimala after this experience took up a course in NIFT and is married to a cardiologist.
That girl has seen the worst of human depravation before her 20th birthday and yet lives on tell her tale. No matter how bad hell is, there is always a hope of heaven as this beautiful girl proved. As for Pragati, it was just another day at work. (710 words)
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