After #MeToo: Exploring Responses to Workplace and Urban Sexual violence Through the 2024 Kolkata Protests

• In Event: Urban safety and social change: International and interdisciplinary perspectives

Abstract

In August 2024, the city of Kolkata in India saw a massive surge of protests and marches after the rape and murder of a woman doctor in her hospital at night. What followed was a series of ‘Reclaim the Night’ marches all over the city and the state where women of all ages joined in to take back the night as well as the urban space without feeling unsafe. The protests also addressed the faulty police investigation, the alleged political shielding of the accused, and the long wait for justice in the courts. My presentation argues that what could have led to a sustained conversation about the safety of women at night, especially in her workspace, the political activism quickly shifted to questioning the corrupt practices of hospitals and medical colleges. 7 years after the #MeToo movement in India and its critiques of being too focused on urban, upper/middle-class, educated women - political mobilization over sexual violence seems to happen for only a certain kind of an 'ideal victim' and even then, justice remains out of reach.

Author

• Sukanya Bhattacharya, University of Tennessee, Knoxville