Building the portrait of a rapist

At the age of 12 Tara Kaushal began to dwell on the thought Why are the actions of men changing my life Her family of three had just relocated to Noida from Mumbais Navy Nagar Her extremely liberal parents were suddenly policing what she wore As she dodged not always successfully molesters in public spaces potential kidnappers in an orbiting van when she walked the dog she recognised her parents attempts at keeping her safeIn 2012 when medical intern Jyoti Singh was gangraped by six men in a DTC bus in south Delhi that could have been me thought the Juhuresident As a student at Jesus and Mary College she would take a DTC bus to Chanakyapuri Though she loved her course her attendance was severely affected by the sexual harassment she fought off on the commuteBy 2016 her thoughts coagulated into a shapemdasha multimedia project to investigate why men rape and whether a lot of men were doing it a little or few men were doing it a lot The book published by Harper Collins after being delayed by the global pandemic will be out soon Why Men Rape An Indian undercover investigation is a pedantic thesis peppered with asides from the author with unparliamentary acronymsmdashI was four FFS she writes when her rival asked Kaushal during a college debate what she was wearing when she was first raped The framework for her project is this definition of rape Penetration of a womans anus vagina urethra by mouth fingers penis or an object and her inquiries cover only CIS gender heteronormative scope There are plans to mould the leftover research into another book a documentary and a platform for online activismShe crowdfunded the project and set out to understand rapists and the ecosystem that nurtures them Do you know a rapist Do you know someone who has been raped she asked social media NGOs policemen private detectives friends family and familiarsShe then followed each lead until she reached the name of a rapist and address and narrowed it to nine names across the country with diverse religious socioeconomic and geographical backgrounds One of them had gangraped a woman whose husband owed his cousin some money another was a surgeon who raped a teenager he had operated upon while she was still under anaesthesia which led to her being paralysed for life a pillar of a community admitted to raping a 12yearold out of rage and a man looking for his exwife so he could kill her she left him after he raped her repeatedly Theres also a list of 72 elite men who have rapedDelhi bus gang rape deceased Jyoti Singhs mother Asha Devi raises slogans in February this year after a crucial hearing to determine when the four convicts will be hanged was postponed When the news of the rape broke Tara Kaushal says she thought that could have been me As a student of Jesus and Mary College she would take a DTC bus to Chanakyapuri Pic Getty ImagesWith 250 questions and pretending to be an NRI filmmaker Kaushal spoke to the rapists in their homes and met their family The result is compassionate portraitsmdashsome of the men suffered extreme violence intergenerational trauma or neglect at the hands of caregivers from an early age others bore the brunt of poverty and of being on the lower rungs of the caste system in a rigid community most came from environments that did not nurture respectful and multifaceted relationships with women If we demonise the rapist we render him irredeemable says the 37yearold If he is born bad then we bear no responsibility for his creation through culture and nurturemdashor his rehabilitation We are left with only the lawandorder approach to aim to lock criminals away which has not been successful We have to have a preventionbeforecure approach She also resisted describing the rapes in detail to ward off voyeuristic interest Also the extent of the brutality should not decide whether a rape is traumatic All rape is traumatic if you situate it as a violation of human rights and bodily autonomy she reasons During their talks the part of Kaushals brain always alert to sexual attacks becomes a canary in a coal mine When Abbas talks about his first and pure love a girl he has never spoken to committing suicide she wonders if his stalking was the trigger When the wife of a respectable uppercaste doctor will not leave them alone in their home for the interview she wonders what the man has done to warrant this extreme chaperoning She notices that several of the men are so aroused by the retelling of their crimes or shaitaanis mischief that they cant stop touching themselves She senses a trap when another manmdasha pillar of his communitymdashtries to get her to stay the night in their village under the guise of wedding revelryIn the book Kaushal dismantles rape into three components Power Anger and Sexuality She also uncovers common rape myths such as Rape begets attraction Women want sex all the time To have sex is to rape It becomes rape only if someone finds out There is no rape in marriage or with sex workers A woman will have sex if you convince her using threats and powerThe project was aided by Amit fictitious name an ally who understood the essence of her project immediately and helped find subjects turned into a translator or bodyguard when required accompanied her to interview them and even lived with them He was very jugaadu approachable and intuitive He once lived with a subject to draw out information mantoman she says There was also a source lodged in jail and a subinspector she coerced into talking to her by hanging outside a police station every day like a rookie reporterBy December 2017 nine months into her investigation Kaushal began suffering from blackouts would cry excessively and shout at her husband in her sleep We would try to get intimate and Sahil Mane her husband would say I know you are thinking of all those rapes I cant do this she laughsKaushal lives a feminist life and is aware she is ensconced in a privilege usually afforded only to menmdashto be able to focus only on her writing I have a chaotic writing routine anyway I disappear says Kaushal When Im in the flow I eat breathe and sleep the story I literally sleep in my office Ive reneged on so many marital familial social responsibilities did not wish any of my friends on their birthdays My friends and family stopped expecting me to show up at social events I was supported and enabled by everyone around me starting from my spouse I was fed my home chores were taken care of In 2018 adding to the MeToo movement online she named and shamed the editorinchief of a broadsheet daily who kissed her while interviewing her for a jobWhere in her early 20s after years of continuous sexual violence she believed all men would rape given the opportunity she ends the book believing that all rapists are bad but they are not devils and change is possible through comprehensive sex education rehabilitation and dismantling penis privilegemdashthe specific male privilege to expose the genitalia without consent or consequencesmdashat every step Feminism is not a battle between men and women but between the ideologies of patriarchy and human rights she saysCatch up on all the latest Mumbai news crime news current affairs and a complete guide from food to things to do and events across Mumbai Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updates MidDay is now on Telegram Click here to join our channel middayinfomedialtd and stay updated with the latest news