Clutching a handbag, Manashi Haldar walked up the stairs at Ballygunge railway station in a hurry, anxious not to miss the train home.
Every day for the past 10-odd years, the woman in her early 30s has travelled from her village to Kolkata, 60 km away, to earn a living as a domestic worker.
She is among hundreds of women from the South 24 Parganas district who commute daily in crowded trains to work in the homes of the middle-class and the affluent in South Kolkata.
Like many women in the West Bengal, Haldar has watched the protests seeking justice for the 31-year-old junior doctor alleged raped and murdered at the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital last month with a mix of sympathy and anger. “Everywhere, people are very angry,” she said. “The way chief minister Mamata Banerjee handled the incident, it appeared she was trying to protect someone.”
Though the protests – ongoing for a month – have largely been held in Kolkata, they appear to have struck a chord among a cross-section of women, even in rural areas. “Everyone in my village knows about it [rape]. We have seen the news on TV,” Haldar said.
Her friend Sandhya, who was travelling back to Lakshmikantapur with her, was even more agitated. “We love Didi,” she said, referring to the chief minister and Trinamool Congress leader. “But she has not done a good thing [in this case]. If she had a daughter, would she have allowed this?”
Sandhya drew a link between the doctor killed at the seminar room of the government hospital and her own life. “We work in people’s homes away from our home. That doctor was killed at her own workplace. If she is not safe at a hospital, are we safe?” she asked.
The women support
Women are crucial to Trinamool Congress’s politics, and their loyalty to Mamata Banerjee is an important reason behind the chief minister’s staying power. As many observers have pointed out, this support comes less from urban, educated women in the state – and more from working-class women like Halder and Sandhya who identify with Banerjee and are also beneficiaries of welfare schemes targeted at them.
“Women voters are very important for Mamata Banerjee,” trade union activist Anuradha Talwar told Scroll. “Rural women especially are proud of her, they identify with her. Because of different welfare schemes, there has been a lot of encouragement for women to step into public life, into social life since she became the chief minister.”
The city-wide protests against the rape and murder at the government hospital, which have not died down even after a month, poses a challenge to this support base, said observers. It is not clear, however, if this disaffection will affect electoral outcomes adversely, they said.
In Kolkata, Scroll’s conversations with several working-class women revealed that they shared the anguish over the doctor’s death. Many were critical of the government, alleging that it had a hand in protecting the accused. The state government’s decision to reinstate the college principal, Sandip Ghosh, hours after he stepped down has been widely seen in this light.
“Everyone is protesting and it should continue until those who raped and killed the girl are caught and punished,” an elderly woman sitting at the Bullyganj railway station platform, also on her way to Lakshmikantapur, said. “Only one person is not involved. Big people are involved, and they are not being caught.”
Many women said the anger against Mamata Banerjee is justified. “This incident has degraded her image,” said Shulata Koyal, a 38-year-old garment vendor. Koyal said she had worked for the Trinamool Congress in the past, arranging local party meetings in her neighbourhood. “I don’t think people will vote for her. There is a conspiracy behind the murder, which is being covered up. We have seen it on TV and Facebook. Lakhs of people are blaming Mamata. Will all of them lie?”
Neha Shaw, a 21-year-old running the adjacent shop, however, did not blame the government alone. “Mamata has lost some credibility. But it is not right to blame the government for one incident. Some are also trying to corner her politically.”
Bishakha Laskar, secretary of the Durbar Mahila Samanwaya Committee, a forum of 40,000 sex workers in West Bengal, argued that women are more empowered and safer in West Bengal as compared to other states. “There are many departments in the state or under her. If a person from any department is involved in any crime, will Mamata be responsible for that?” she asked.
Spreading protests
Thousands of protestors continue to turn up on the streets of Kolkata a month after the rape-murder of the doctor. On September 8, sculptors and rickshaw-pullers joined a “reclaim the night” protest in the city.
“The protest is spreading to different sections of the society,” said a reporter in his 40s.
The last time Kolkata saw such massive protests was in 2007, when Mamata Banerjee was an Opposition leader and had led the agitation against land acquisition in Nandigram and the police killing of 14 protestors. “As chief minister, Mamata Banerjee has never faced such a challenge before,” the reporter said.
Another Kolkata-based journalist added: “It is the first time in 13 years a finger has been pointed at her as she is both the health and home minister. If the movement keeps going, this will spread to rural areas.”
Talwar pointed out that women in rural areas have already expressed some solidarity with the protests. “Even in the remotest of places, women have heard about the RG Kar incident. They are showing sympathy, not in an organised way but spontaneously.”
A deeper anger
In a significant way, this is different from the mobilisation around other recent allegations of sexual assault in the state.
Earlier this year, several Trinamool Congress leaders in Sandeshkhali, a village in the Sundarban delta in West Bengal’s North 24 Parganas district, were accused by women of sexual assault – as well as organised land grab.
Despite a campaign by Opposition parties, especially the BJP, the state government appeared to tide over the anger against the Sandeshkali episode.
However, the crime at the RG Kar hospital, observers said, has tapped into a deeper anger against the rogue elements in the party and their clout in the government.
Jay Roy, a 45-year-old cab driver in Kolkata, who described himself as a Trinamool Congress supporter, told Scroll that the rape-murder has opened the Pandora’s box of people’s disaffection.
“In every department, there are dalals [brokers] and Trinamool Congress goons who are very powerful. Why did Didi need to protect the hospital principal? Because they are all connected,” he said.
Talwar agreed. “It is not just the RG Kar incident, there is a whole problem of lumpen elements. And it is now starting to impact women and their safety too.”
The trade union activist said the “sexual harassment angle in Sandeshkhali was probably exaggerated by the media”, but there have been recurring incidents of women being punished by kangaroo courts controlled by Trinamool Congress leaders.
She explained: “Everything is controlled by the party syndicate. A nexus of government, police, goon and party controls all local resources. The anger against this is spilling over.”
On September 8, Trinamool Congress MP in the Rajya Sabha, Jawhar Sircar resigned in protest against the party’s handling of the incident. “Let us realise that the movement is as much for [the doctor] as it is against the state government and the party,” and the “unchecked overbearing attitude of the favoured few and the corrupt”, he said.
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