One day long public dialogue on the topic: “The Politics of Rape: Justice, Accountability and Healing” was organized at St. Joseph’s University Auditorium, Bengaluru on 11/2/2023 by Naveddu Nilladiddare, a statewide network of women’s organization, which has been campaigning to public attention issues related to gender violence and injustice in Karnataka, wherein on invitation 30 law students of Pratishtha (Woman and Child Cell), and Alliance University Legal Services Clinic (AULSC), Alliance University participated with enthusiasm. The public dialogue emerged as a follow up to the signature campaign initiated against sexual violence following the remission of convicted rapists and mass murderers in the case of Bilkis Banu and increased incidents of rape rape and sexual violence within the state in the last months.

The programme covered a vast and varied area focusing upon the testimonies from survivors of sexual violence,  dialogues and conversations with panels of activists, lawyers and media professionals on the state and national context, discussions on a charter of demands with representatives of concerned government departments, judiciary and media, Main Yahan Hoon (I am Here) : 8 Mahila, Ek Shareer’, a debut performance of Freeda Theatre Group, an inter-generational collective of women from MP and UP that helped us to engage with the worldviews, aspirations and desires of the survivors of sexual violence and poster exhibition and art installation.

The special guests who were part of the dialogue were Vrinda Grover, the well-known feminist lawyer and activist and Farah Naqvi well known journalist, writer, activist.

Objective and Utility of the event: As there is a Woman and Child Cell actively working in the University striving towards the rights and dignity of every single woman and child, hence this public dialogue came as an opportunity to connect with the open society and gave a platform to our students to understand how society and law works hand in hand.