How to Meet / Interview Rape Victims in India?

[Miles]

Hi, I have this idea to shoot a documentary film exposing : The Sexualization of women in today's media, Why the Govt is not legalizing Prostitution and other social issues. I strongly believe that such things are the root cause for rapes, domestic violence and other sexual crimes. In the documentary, I have covered a lot of things but am lost in the interviews part. I would like to interview both Rape victims (in their houses) and Rapists (in penitentiaries, if possible) but just don't know where to start from. Should I contact the cops to get the Rape victims addresses and go approach them? or what?. Please help.. any suggestions/help would be really appreciated. Also, if you are an activist and would like to volunteer (online/field work) in the making of this documentary, feel free to contact me at : irenejones(at)aol(dot)in.

P.S : This documentary decision was made long back even before this media hyped Delhi Rape case. I know that in India 2 women are raped in every 2 hours and would like to do something about it, so please do your part. cheers!!

[Betty]

the root causes of the violence against women is not confined to India, its just sensationalized by the media in India and it happens to catch the attention of people in the west. Women are brutalized all over the world.

In India there is a strict caste system, at the bottom of this caste system are women, they have no rights no voice.

why don't you investigate your own backyard and gain some credence as a film maker instead of cashing in on a terrible crime.

[YahooDeana]

Most people in the world are not like Americans. They don't freely talk about such things and the culture in many places puts the blame on women or accepts it on some level.

In America, people talk about it with their friends, write books or go on Oprah.
It is not like that in other places and many would be ashamed to talk to you or finding them could put them in danger.

Maybe just interview people about legalizing prostitution or other social issues and get a dialogue going. Sometimes a documentary can take on a life of its own and lead to other directions than first planned.

[Elmbeard]

You are basing this documentary on a false assumption - that it is the sexualisation of women that is the root of the problem, whereas I believe that the problem is the suppression of sexuality, whereby taboos blow up in a most brutal and criminal fashion. The worst rapes always seem to occur where the local laws and conventions against sexuality are at their strictest. You'd never hear of this sort of thing going on in Denmark or the Netherlands!

There must be a certain element of shame and violation of family honour when a woman is raped in these places. Gaining their confidence is necessary before you can even start to ask questions. I don't know if there are women's refuges in India, but while using just these people as subjects might give the wrong impression about the nature of victims (that they are assertive and quite capable of organising themselves against male oppression), you might find some volunteers to help the less approachable victims and their families to gain confidence, and let you conduct an impartial interview. Your best ally might actually be men - boyfriends, husbands, fathers and brothers of victims - men who deeply love their women and suffer almost as much as the women themselves, because they felt they could have done more to protect them.

Also when interviewing a rapist, you must not go in there with a self-righteous condemning attitude if you are to get useful material out of them. Best to appear friendly and sympathetic, and hopefully they will open up more. Leave it to the audience to do the judging.