In the North of India sexual harassment of women unfortunately is commonplace. It happens at night and during the day, in lonely streets as well as in public places. Often witnesses do not intervene at all but watch it happen. This is also what just happened in a bus. But there is another way to deal with situations like this – and with people just watching instead of helping. Help yopurself!
A video that has been taken in a bus shows what two girls, two sisters did. The victims fight back against their three attackers, hit them with their fists and belts. In the internet, the two sisters are celebrated for their courage, in the bus though, no one helped them.
On Monday, several Indian TV station released the video that was filmed by a fellow traveler on the bus. Great the passenger did the movie that shows the girls’s courage – sad the passenger, and all the others, did not stand up to help the girls.
On November 24, Arti (22 years old) and Pooja Komar (19 years old) took the bus for a ride home from their school in Rohtak (Haryana). It is a 60 kilometers drive, they want to go to Sonepat which is located north-west of New Delhi.
Already at the bus stop, the two sisters were harrassed by two men as the “Indian Express” stated it on Saturday. They threw at first some little paper beads to the girls on which they have written their phone numbers. “When they have done three or four times, I told them that they should stop,” said the 19-year-old Pooja in an interview with the British “BBC”.
But the men go on: “You do not deserve to get a seat on that bus,” they insulted the girl. “Who are you to tell me that?” Pooja had replied. Finally an elderly lady asks them to leave the girl alone, but this only made the men threaten the her now. Pooja said: “The men began to harass me more and touch me. I said. If you touch me again, we will beat you “. One of the men calls friends and the next bus top they enter the bus. “One of them hit my sister, while two others held me ” said Pooja.
The girls tried to call 1091, the emergency number for women, but what can you do if guys hold you and beat you? Not much. But, there is the situation when THE OTHERS need to do something. Stand up and support the girls, talk the guys off.
No one helping the girls did not let them get down. With their strenghts fists and belt they hit the agressors. Sadly, they know, no one will help them. It is no surprise: “Here it is normal that they men tell women, do this or do that. If we had hope, why did I used my belt? “Pooja asks.
Luckily, later at night the three guys have been arrested. Mohit, Kuldeep und Deepak will be put in front of a trial. “The family of the accused were pressuring us to withdraw the case and reach a settlement,” the father of the girls said. The two sisters have now the surname #RohtakBravehearts – they were brave!
We hope that this case will get a massive amount of attention and be set as a strong case – as a positive example for girl’s power and as a negative example for passengers that just watch instead of help.
Read also: The 2 Faces of India and Self Defense, the Step by step guide
