#ReportingToRemember the police, the Panchayat and the upper caste Jat community in the Jhabbar Village.

On July 6 2002, in the Jhabbar village of the Mansa district in Punjab, two men committed rape on Baljit Kaur, a 17-year-old minor Dalit girl. The rapists were assisted by Gurmail Kaur, a Dalit woman. Gurmail lured Baljit to her home by seeking Baljit’s help in collecting water. There, the two men were waiting, and gangraped her.

One of the rapists, Mandheer Singh, was a Jat, while sources vary on the caste of the other rapist. Most sources report him to be a Jat as well, though one source reports that his name is Tarsem, and that he belongs to a Scheduled Caste. Jat men in the region have historically asserted power over Dalit women and girls through sexual violence. Many Jat men viewed enduring sexual violence at the hands of Jat men to be like a ‘coming of age’ ritual for Dalit girls. Jat men proudly spoke about raping and hurting Dalit girls. Popular village songs also normalised the sexual violence Dalit women faced. Many people in the region followed a tradition where women from a Dalit bride’s house were made to put up a gidda or a dance show for upper-caste men with lewd songs that the men chose. Most of the times, Dalit victims of sexual violence were pressured into silence. The victims and their families were forced to settle for meagre payments and threatened with violence if they refused. Hence, no Jat rapist was brought to justice.

Jats, an agricultural caste, formed fifty-five percent of the population, while Dalits formed forty-five percent. While the Jats were a dominant, powerful caste that owned land, most of the Dalits were employed as agricultural labourers in Jat fields and hence economically dependent on them. Baljit Kaur and her father Bant Singh were Mazhabi Sikhs, a Scheduled Caste. Bant Singh, like his father and older brothers before him,had refused to work as an agricultural labourer to remain economically independent from the Jats.

After the rape, Baljit Kaur chose not to keep quiet or conceal her identity. Instead she challenged deep patriarchal values of shame and blame by speaking publicly about the rape. Baljit Kaur and her father, revolutionary singer and activist Bant Singh, decided to seek justice against the rapists.

It took a month for the FIR to be registered. Bant Singh and Baljit Kaur continued to face immense pressure from the rapists and other members of the village, especially the Panchayat. They were offered upto 10 lakh rupees, 3 acres of land, a scooter, and jewellery, in exchange for their silence. They refused to settle the matter outside of court.

All the three accused, including the two rapists and the woman who conspired with them were convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment in 2004. This was the first time that a conviction had been secured in a complaint by a Dalit against upper-caste sexual violence. However, the conviction was followed by sustained harassment and violence from the Jats of the village as punishment for the conviction. Bant Singh’s older brother Hansa Singh, was forced to flee the village because of threats issued by the Jats. In 2005, Bant Singh was assaulted on two occasions by individuals associated with the rapists. Both the assaults were reported to the local police and charges were filed.

On January 5, 2006, Bant Singh was brutally beaten up by a group of armed Jat men. Severely injured, he lay on the road for 3-4 hours before anyone could come to his help. When he was taken to the civil hospital in Mansa, the doctor refused to touch him unless he was paid 1,000 rupees in advance. By the time Bant Singh was finally treated, his wounds had become infected. Due to gangrene, both his arms and a leg had to be amputated.

Soon after she was raped, Baljit Kaur was moved to a different village and married to a daily-wager widower with a child. The family was told about the violence Baljit had faced and accepted her.

The violence had brought an abrupt end to her school education as well as an existing engagement with a boy her own age. Soon after the rape, Baljit Kaur was blackmailed by men who threatened to ‘expose’ her. She found out who the blackmailers were, and beat them up in the village square. Bant Singh continues to work for the liberation of Dalits in Punjab.