The most grandly celebrated festival of India, Durga Pujo, ends on Tuesday. Colourful pandals, finger-licking bhog (a Bengali word for food served at pujo), men and women clad in traditional ethnic attire, cultural programs, artistic creations, etc are the common attractions.
During the days of the festival, most Bengalis leave aside everything else and dedicate their entire time in pandal hopping and enjoying with their loved ones.
Being a Bengali myself, I have been in love with the festival since childhood and eagerly wait for it each year. However, over the years, my attachment to Pujo has been limited to fun and enjoyment with friends, and declined on the religious front, unlike before, when I used to fast on Ashtami (considered the most important day) and give anjali (a prayer with flowers) each day.
But an incident during last year’s pujo exposed the hypocrisy of people who spend thousands of rupees on the event, swear by the name of Maa Durga, but cannot support a girl who has allegedly been molested.
Why Can We Not Stand up Against Injustice?
On Maha Ashtami, 21st October 2016, there was a huge crowd for the evening aarti in our pandal. Suddenly, I heard my mother calling me loudly as she struggled to tightly hold an old man’s hand. Utterly confused, I reached near her, and then she told me that this man had allegedly sexually abused a young girl and her mother had approached my mother for help.
While she hurriedly explained me the issue, the man tried to run away. Immediately, I ran behind him and called my friends who assisted me to catch the person. When we held him tightly, he was slapped by a few people and the victim’s mother came too, and accused the person of inappropriately touching her daughter.
While a couple of friends and I held the accused, others frantically called the police, who arrived a good 15 minutes later. They took the parents’ statement and took away the accused to the station for further action.
Back in the pandal, the noise and commotion incited curiosity amongst the people present, who wanted to know about the incident.
Later that night, some older people’s attitude towards the episode shocked me.
“We should have not involved ourselves in the case”. “It is not our responsibility”.
Such behavior raised some thought provoking questions in my mind:
Do people only worship Maa Durga only for purely selfish reasons? Does worshipping Durga each year make any sense if you cannot stand up for injustice against girls? We can worship an idol but why cannot we stand up against injustice?
Total Apathy
The paranoia of committee members didn’t end. The organising committee’s members who were approached by the police for the CCTV tapes constantly questioned my mother.
“You should not get yourselves involved in such cases”. “Because of this, police came to my house”. “You should have handed over the accused to the victim’s mother and backed off”.
These were some appalling statements my mother had to hear, which enraged me.
Ironically, all those who criticised us for calling the police and helping the victim have daughters (my mother is the only one having a son) and some of them had even celebrated Kumari Puja.
In Kumari Puja, a girl who has not yet attained puberty is worshipped as she is considered the most pure and clear minded soul, representing the Kumari form of Devi. People wash their feet, offer ‘bhog’ and present them with new clothes.
Rise in Child Abuse Cases
Unfortunately, the admiration is just limited to worshipping, not standing up in times of need.
Throughout the course of events, I was tempted to show my outrage vocally but the societal hierarchy compelled me to not interfere when elders talked.
There has been an augmented interest in child abuse cases over the past few years. Statistically, the number of registered child rapes increased by 151 per cent from 5,484 in 2009 to 13,766 in 2014, according to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB).
Additionally, 8,904 cases were registered nationwide under the Prevention of Sexual Offences Against Children (POCSO) Act and 11,335 under the category “assault on women (girl child) with intent to outrage her modesty under Section 354 IPC (which includes stalking, voyeurism, use of criminal force with an intent to disrobe, etc)”, according to the NCRB.
Is a five year old girl victim not worthy enough of a few minutes of our puja schedule? Why do you worship goddesses blindly when you cannot stand up for a girl in real life? Would you have done the same if your daughter had been harassed or stalked at? (This is quite cliché but given their pathetic moral standards, it’s a big enough question.)
As I mentioned earlier, my attachment to Durga Pujo on the religious front has declined, and this experience will totally end it. Rather than spending lakhs of money and resources on worshipping an idol made of clay and offering our hollow reverence, it would serve much better if we worship and respect the Kumaris and Durgas in our homes first.
(Devanik Saha is an independent journalist based in Delhi and has previously worked with Teach For India, Monitor Deloitte, Naandi Foundation and World Bank.)
(This article has been republished from The Quint’s archives on the occasion of National Girl Child Day, It was first published on 27 October 2015.)
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