Women forced to take justice in their hands in rural India. One in three women in India is reportedly a victim of domestic violence. Few of their cases make it to court and those that do experience long and costly cases. But in the north of the country, a group of women are taking the law into their own hands. They may wear pink saris, but this is not a fashion statement – they wear pink as a symbol of their cause. These vigilante women go after corrupt officials and violent husbands with sticks. Numbering over 100,000 in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, they proudly call themselves the Gulabi Gang or ‘pink gang’.
Their leader is 48-year-old Sampat Pal, who first decided to act when she witnessed domestic violence. “The police tell us, ‘Don’t take the law in your own hands.’ So I tell them, ‘We have no option. When we have no faith in the police, we have to protect ourselves.’” Sampat Pal argues.
In rural India, with the administration often corrupt and failing to deliver, and with women still amongst the most oppressed, it was only a matter of time before movements such as Gulabi Gang became popular.source.
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