0:00:00.960,0:00:03.659
Talking about empowerment is odd,

0:00:03.659,0:00:05.761
because when we talk about empowerment,

0:00:05.761,0:00:08.967
what affects us most are the stories.

0:00:08.967,0:00:12.179
So I want to begin with an everyday story.

0:00:12.179,0:00:16.702
What is it really like to be a young woman in India?

0:00:16.702,0:00:18.974
Now, I've spent the last 27 years of my life

0:00:18.974,0:00:21.073
in India, lived in three small towns,

0:00:21.073,0:00:22.889
two major cities,

0:00:22.889,0:00:26.118
and I've had several experiences.

0:00:26.118,0:00:27.974
When I was seven,

0:00:27.974,0:00:29.931
a private tutor who used to come home

0:00:29.931,0:00:34.646
to teach me mathematics molested me.

0:00:34.646,0:00:37.363
He would put his hand up my skirt.

0:00:40.794,0:00:43.970
He put his hand up my skirt and told me

0:00:43.970,0:00:47.930
he knew how to make me feel good.

0:00:47.930,0:00:51.060
At 17, a boy from my high school

0:00:51.060,0:00:52.507
circulated an email

0:00:52.507,0:00:54.940
detailing all the sexually aggressive things

0:00:54.940,0:00:57.704
he could do to me

0:00:57.704,0:01:01.789
because I didn't pay attention to him.

0:01:01.789,0:01:05.500
At 19, I helped a friend

0:01:05.500,0:01:08.592
whose parents had forcefully[br]married her to an older man

0:01:08.592,0:01:12.259
escape an abusive marriage.

0:01:12.259,0:01:14.401
At 21, when my friend and I were walking

0:01:14.401,0:01:18.734
down the road one afternoon,

0:01:18.734,0:01:20.273
a man pulled down his pants

0:01:20.273,0:01:23.483
and masturbated in front of us.

0:01:23.483,0:01:27.910
We called people for help, and nobody came.

0:01:27.910,0:01:32.900
At 25, when I was walking home one evening,

0:01:32.900,0:01:35.726
two men on a motorcycle attacked me.

0:01:35.726,0:01:37.843
I spent two nights in the hospital

0:01:37.843,0:01:41.085
recovering from trauma and injuries.

0:01:41.085,0:01:46.305
So throughout my life, I've seen women —

0:01:46.305,0:01:48.171
family, friends, colleagues —

0:01:48.171,0:01:50.964
live through these experiences,

0:01:50.964,0:01:54.137
and they seldom talk about it.

0:01:54.137,0:01:58.777
So in simple words, life in India is not easy.

0:01:58.777,0:02:02.295
But today I'm not going to talk to you about this fear.

0:02:02.295,0:02:04.049
I'm going to talk to you about an interesting path

0:02:04.049,0:02:08.427
of learning that this fear took me on.

0:02:08.427,0:02:11.930
So, what happened one night in December 2012

0:02:11.930,0:02:13.704
changed my life.

0:02:13.704,0:02:17.000
So a young girl, a 23-year-old student,

0:02:17.000,0:02:21.904
boarded a bus in Delhi with her male friend.

0:02:21.904,0:02:24.513
There were six men on the bus, young men

0:02:24.513,0:02:27.591
who you might encounter every day in India,

0:02:27.591,0:02:29.923
and the chilling account of what followed

0:02:29.923,0:02:31.667
was played over and over again

0:02:31.667,0:02:34.491
in the Indian and international media.

0:02:34.491,0:02:37.765
This girl was raped repeatedly,

0:02:37.765,0:02:40.745
forcefully penetrated with a blunt rod,

0:02:40.745,0:02:43.996
beaten, bitten, and left to die.

0:02:43.996,0:02:46.000
Her friend was gagged, attacked,

0:02:46.000,0:02:49.577
and knocked unconscious.

0:02:49.577,0:02:53.761
She died on the 29th of December.

0:02:53.761,0:02:55.739
And at a time when most of us here

0:02:55.739,0:02:58.242
were preparing to welcome the new year,

0:02:58.242,0:03:01.479
India plunged into darkness.

0:03:01.479,0:03:04.645
For the first time in our history,

0:03:04.645,0:03:06.823
men and women in Indian cities

0:03:06.823,0:03:09.014
woke up to the horrific truth

0:03:09.014,0:03:12.536
about the true state of women in the country.

0:03:12.536,0:03:14.955
Now, like many other young women,

0:03:14.955,0:03:17.149
I was absolutely terrified.

0:03:17.149,0:03:18.416
I couldn't believe that something like this

0:03:18.416,0:03:21.591
could happen in a national capital.

0:03:21.591,0:03:24.144
I was angry and I was frustrated,

0:03:24.144,0:03:28.247
but most of all, I felt utterly, completely helpless.

0:03:28.247,0:03:30.388
But really, what do you do, right?

0:03:30.388,0:03:32.413
Some write blogs, some ignore it,

0:03:32.413,0:03:34.145
some join protests.

0:03:34.145,0:03:36.710
I did all of it. In fact, that was what everyone was doing

0:03:36.710,0:03:38.388
two years ago.

0:03:38.388,0:03:41.367
So the media was filled with stories about

0:03:41.367,0:03:43.133
all the horrific deeds

0:03:43.133,0:03:45.237
that Indian men are capable of.

0:03:45.237,0:03:46.472
They were compared to animals,

0:03:46.472,0:03:48.659
sexually repressed beasts.

0:03:48.659,0:03:52.663
In fact, so alien and unthinkable was this event

0:03:52.663,0:03:53.977
in an Indian mind

0:03:53.977,0:03:56.393
that the response from the Indian media,

0:03:56.393,0:04:00.300
public and politicians proved one point:

0:04:00.300,0:04:02.179
No one knew what to do.

0:04:02.179,0:04:04.776
And no one wanted to be responsible for it.

0:04:04.776,0:04:07.260
In fact, these were a few insensitive comments

0:04:07.260,0:04:08.441
which were made in the media

0:04:08.441,0:04:10.468
by prominent people

0:04:10.468,0:04:14.624
in response to sexual violence[br]against women in general.

0:04:14.624,0:04:17.826
So the first one is made by a member of parliament,

0:04:17.826,0:04:21.219
the second one is made by a spiritual leader,

0:04:21.219,0:04:23.930
and the third one was actually[br]the defendants' lawyer

0:04:23.930,0:04:25.776
when the girl was fighting for her life

0:04:25.776,0:04:28.630
and she passed away.

0:04:28.630,0:04:32.483
Now, as a woman watching this day after day,

0:04:32.483,0:04:34.283
I was tired.

0:04:34.283,0:04:35.927
So as a writer and gender activist,

0:04:35.927,0:04:39.176
I have written extensively on women,

0:04:39.176,0:04:41.822
but this time, I realized it was different,

0:04:41.822,0:04:43.403
because a part of me realized

0:04:43.403,0:04:45.751
I was a part of that young woman too,

0:04:45.751,0:04:47.929
and I decided I wanted to change this.

0:04:47.929,0:04:51.960
So I did something spontaneous, hasty.

0:04:51.960,0:04:54.506
I logged on to a citizen journalism platform

0:04:54.506,0:04:55.962
called iReport,

0:04:55.962,0:04:58.713
and I recorded a video talking about

0:04:58.713,0:05:00.693
what the scene was like in Bangalore.

0:05:00.693,0:05:02.380
I talked about how I felt,

0:05:02.380,0:05:03.722
I talked about the ground realities,

0:05:03.722,0:05:09.227
and I talked about the frustrations of living in India.

0:05:09.227,0:05:12.845
In a few hours, the blog was shared widely,

0:05:12.845,0:05:14.680
and comments and thoughts poured in

0:05:14.680,0:05:16.340
from across the world.

0:05:16.340,0:05:20.015
In that moment, a few things occurred to me.

0:05:20.015,0:05:23.743
One, technology was always at hand

0:05:23.743,0:05:26.960
for many young women like me.

0:05:26.960,0:05:30.504
Two, like me, most young women

0:05:30.504,0:05:33.925
hardly use it to express their views.

0:05:33.925,0:05:37.849
Three, I realized for the first time

0:05:37.849,0:05:40.707
that my voice mattered.

0:05:40.707,0:05:43.440
So in the months that followed,

0:05:43.440,0:05:45.487
I covered a trail of events in Bangalore

0:05:45.487,0:05:49.469
which had no space in the mainstream news.

0:05:49.469,0:05:52.240
In Cubbon Park, which is a big park in Bangalore,

0:05:52.240,0:05:53.840
I gathered with over 100 others

0:05:53.840,0:05:55.749
when groups of young men came forward

0:05:55.749,0:05:57.561
to wear skirts to prove that clothing

0:05:57.561,0:06:01.241
does not invite rape.

0:06:01.241,0:06:03.075
When I reported about these events,

0:06:03.075,0:06:06.168
I felt I had charge, I felt like I had a channel

0:06:06.168,0:06:10.337
to release all the emotions I had inside me.

0:06:10.337,0:06:12.409
I attended the town hall march

0:06:12.409,0:06:14.343
when students held up signs saying

0:06:14.343,0:06:16.872
"Kill them, hang them."

0:06:16.872,0:06:20.699
"You wouldn't do this to your mothers or sisters."

0:06:20.699,0:06:22.177
I went to a candlelight vigil

0:06:22.177,0:06:24.280
where citizens gathered together

0:06:24.280,0:06:28.237
to talk about the issue of sexual violence openly,

0:06:28.237,0:06:30.277
and I recorded a lot of blogs

0:06:30.277,0:06:32.980
in response to how worrying the situation was

0:06:32.980,0:06:34.249
in India at that point.

0:06:34.249,0:06:35.898
["I am born with sisters and cousin who now live in cities and abroad but they never talk to me or complain about their daily difficulties like you say"]

0:06:35.898,0:06:37.357
Now, the reactions confused me.

0:06:37.357,0:06:40.227
While supportive comments poured[br]in from across the world,

0:06:40.227,0:06:42.241
as did vicious ones.

0:06:42.241,0:06:43.675
So some called me a hypocrite.

0:06:43.675,0:06:46.438
Some called me a victim, a rape apologist.

0:06:46.438,0:06:49.403
Some even said I had a political motive.

0:06:49.403,0:06:51.523
But this one comment kind of describes

0:06:51.523,0:06:56.330
what we are discussing here today.

0:06:56.330,0:06:59.440
But I was soon to learn that this was not all.

0:06:59.440,0:07:01.429
As empowered as I felt

0:07:01.429,0:07:02.879
with the new liberty that this

0:07:02.879,0:07:05.236
citizen journalism channel gave me,

0:07:05.236,0:07:08.570
I found myself in an unfamiliar situation.

0:07:08.570,0:07:11.737
So sometime last August, I logged onto Facebook

0:07:11.737,0:07:13.140
and I was looking through my news feed,

0:07:13.140,0:07:15.183
and I noticed there was a link

0:07:15.183,0:07:16.856
that was being shared by my friends.

0:07:16.856,0:07:19.039
I clicked on the link; it led me back

0:07:19.039,0:07:23.114
to a report uploaded by an American girl

0:07:23.114,0:07:25.322
called Michaela Cross.

0:07:25.322,0:07:26.710
The report was titled,

0:07:26.710,0:07:29.951
"India: The story you never wanted to hear."

0:07:29.951,0:07:33.096
And in this report, she recounted her firsthand

0:07:33.096,0:07:36.796
account of facing sexual harassment in India.

0:07:36.796,0:07:40.763
She wrote, "There is no way to prepare for the eyes,

0:07:40.763,0:07:42.850
the eyes that every day stared

0:07:42.850,0:07:45.574
with such entitlement at my body,

0:07:45.574,0:07:47.424
with no change of expression

0:07:47.424,0:07:50.072
whether I met their gaze or not.

0:07:50.072,0:07:53.210
Walking to the fruit seller's or the tailor's,

0:07:53.210,0:07:55.309
I got stares so sharp

0:07:55.309,0:07:58.746
that they sliced away bits of me piece by piece."

0:07:58.746,0:08:02.640
She called India a traveler's[br]heaven and a woman's hell.

0:08:02.640,0:08:04.656
She said she was stalked, groped,

0:08:04.656,0:08:06.253
and masturbated at.

0:08:06.253,0:08:08.692
Now, late that evening, the report went viral.

0:08:08.692,0:08:12.304
It was on news channels across the world.

0:08:12.304,0:08:13.910
Everyone was discussing it.

0:08:13.910,0:08:15.018
It had over a million views,

0:08:15.018,0:08:16.923
a thousand comments and shares,

0:08:16.923,0:08:18.837
and I found myself witnessing

0:08:18.837,0:08:21.401
a very similar thing.

0:08:21.401,0:08:24.097
The media was caught in this vicious cycle

0:08:24.097,0:08:26.395
of opinion and outburst

0:08:26.395,0:08:29.700
and no outcome whatsoever.

0:08:29.700,0:08:32.105
So that night, as I sat wondering

0:08:32.105,0:08:33.437
how I should respond,

0:08:33.437,0:08:35.847
I found myself filled with doubt.

0:08:35.847,0:08:39.208
You see, as a writer, I approached this issue

0:08:39.208,0:08:41.586
as an observer,

0:08:41.586,0:08:45.964
as an Indian, I felt embarrassment and disbelief,

0:08:45.964,0:08:50.443
and as an activist, I looked[br]at it as a defender of rights,

0:08:50.443,0:08:52.578
but as a citizen journalist,

0:08:52.578,0:08:55.852
I suddenly felt very vulnerable.

0:08:55.852,0:08:58.183
I mean, here she was, a young woman

0:08:58.183,0:08:59.583
who was using a channel to talk about

0:08:59.583,0:09:01.721
her experience just as I was,

0:09:01.731,0:09:04.545
and yet I felt unsettled.

0:09:04.545,0:09:06.467
You see, no one ever tells you

0:09:06.467,0:09:09.407
that true empowerment comes from giving yourself

0:09:09.407,0:09:11.783
the permission to think and act.

0:09:11.783,0:09:14.245
Empowerment is often made to sound as if

0:09:14.245,0:09:17.442
it's an ideal, it's a wonderful outcome.

0:09:17.442,0:09:19.274
When we talk about empowerment, we often

0:09:19.274,0:09:22.559
talk about giving people access to materials,

0:09:22.559,0:09:25.295
giving them access to tools.

0:09:25.295,0:09:27.744
But the thing is, empowerment is an emotion.

0:09:27.744,0:09:29.206
It's a feeling.

0:09:29.206,0:09:31.938
The first step to empowerment

0:09:31.938,0:09:34.818
is to give yourself the authority,

0:09:34.818,0:09:36.793
the key to independent will,

0:09:36.793,0:09:38.393
and for women everywhere,

0:09:38.393,0:09:40.941
no matter who we are or where we come from,

0:09:40.941,0:09:44.261
that is the most difficult step.

0:09:44.261,0:09:46.870
We fear the sound of our own voice,

0:09:46.870,0:09:49.656
for it means admission, but it is this that gives us

0:09:49.656,0:09:52.740
the power to change our environment.

0:09:52.740,0:09:54.581
Now in this situation where I was faced

0:09:54.581,0:09:57.267
with so many different kinds of realities,

0:09:57.267,0:09:58.753
I was unsure how to judge,

0:09:58.753,0:10:01.838
because I didn't know what it would mean for me.

0:10:01.838,0:10:04.843
I feared to judge because I[br]didn't know what it would be

0:10:04.843,0:10:08.124
if I didn't support the same view as this girl.

0:10:08.124,0:10:09.490
I didn't know what it would mean for me

0:10:09.490,0:10:14.370
if I was challenging someone else's truth.

0:10:14.370,0:10:15.863
But yet, it was simple.

0:10:15.863,0:10:17.312
I had to make a decision:

0:10:17.312,0:10:20.502
Should I speak up or should I stay quiet?

0:10:20.502,0:10:22.786
So after a lot of thought,

0:10:22.786,0:10:25.282
I recorded a video blog in response,

0:10:25.282,0:10:27.252
and I told Michaela, well,

0:10:27.252,0:10:29.955
there are different sides to India,

0:10:29.955,0:10:35.364
and I also tried to explain

0:10:35.364,0:10:37.425
that things would be okay

0:10:37.425,0:10:40.091
and I expressed my regret for what she had faced.

0:10:40.091,0:10:42.692
And a few days later, I was invited to talk

0:10:42.692,0:10:44.061
on air with her,

0:10:44.061,0:10:48.181
and for the first time, I reached out to this girl

0:10:48.181,0:10:50.982
who I had never met, who was so far away,

0:10:50.982,0:10:53.820
but yet I felt so close to.

0:10:53.820,0:10:56.350
Since this report came to light,

0:10:56.350,0:10:58.655
more young people than ever

0:10:58.655,0:11:02.006
were discussing sexual harassment on the campus,

0:11:02.006,0:11:04.797
and the university that Michaela belonged to

0:11:04.797,0:11:08.645
gave her the assistance she needed.

0:11:08.645,0:11:10.990
The university even took measures

0:11:10.990,0:11:13.049
to train its students to equip them

0:11:13.049,0:11:14.685
with the skills that they need

0:11:14.685,0:11:18.155
to confront challenges such as harassment,

0:11:18.155,0:11:22.448
and for the first the time, I felt I wasn't alone.

0:11:22.448,0:11:24.534
You see, if there's anything that I've learned

0:11:24.534,0:11:27.169
as an active citizen journalist

0:11:27.169,0:11:30.252
over the past few years,

0:11:30.252,0:11:34.225
it is our dire lack as a society to actively find

0:11:34.225,0:11:37.222
avenues where our voices can be heard.

0:11:37.222,0:11:41.526
We don't realize that when we are standing up,

0:11:41.526,0:11:43.368
we are not just standing up as individuals,

0:11:43.368,0:11:46.605
we are standing up for our communities,

0:11:46.605,0:11:48.464
our friends, our peers.

0:11:48.464,0:11:51.837
Most of us say that women are denied their rights,

0:11:51.837,0:11:54.213
but the truth is, oftentimes,

0:11:54.213,0:11:57.613
women deny themselves these rights.

0:11:57.613,0:12:00.250
In a recent survey in India,

0:12:00.250,0:12:04.781
95 percent of the women who work in I.T.,

0:12:04.781,0:12:08.197
aviation, hospitality and call centers,

0:12:08.197,0:12:10.764
said they didn't feel safe returning home alone

0:12:10.764,0:12:14.150
after work in the late hours or in the evening.

0:12:14.150,0:12:15.551
In Bangalore, where I come from,

0:12:15.551,0:12:18.017
this number is 85 percent.

0:12:18.017,0:12:20.563
In rural areas in India,

0:12:20.563,0:12:23.720
if anything is to go by the recent

0:12:23.720,0:12:26.287
gang rapes in Badaun and acid attacks in Odisha

0:12:26.287,0:12:28.308
and Aligarh are supposed to go by,

0:12:28.308,0:12:31.885
we need to act really soon.

0:12:31.885,0:12:33.578
Don't get me wrong,

0:12:33.578,0:12:36.285
the challenges that women will face

0:12:36.285,0:12:39.077
in telling their stories is real,

0:12:39.077,0:12:41.782
but we need to start pursuing

0:12:41.782,0:12:44.269
and trying to identify mediums

0:12:44.269,0:12:45.760
to participate in our system

0:12:45.760,0:12:50.124
and not just pursue the media blindly.

0:12:50.124,0:12:53.122
Today, more women than ever

0:12:53.122,0:12:54.767
are standing up and questioning

0:12:54.767,0:12:56.146
the government in India,

0:12:56.146,0:12:59.169
and this is a result of that courage.

0:12:59.169,0:13:02.222
There is a sixfold increase in women

0:13:02.222,0:13:03.784
reporting harassment,

0:13:03.784,0:13:05.173
and the government passed

0:13:05.173,0:13:08.149
the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act in 2013

0:13:08.149,0:13:11.968
to protect women against sexual assault.

0:13:11.968,0:13:13.920
As I end this talk,

0:13:13.920,0:13:16.040
I just want to say

0:13:16.040,0:13:21.620
that I know a lot of us in this room have our secrets,

0:13:21.620,0:13:23.572
but let us speak up.

0:13:23.572,0:13:26.241
Let us fight the shame and talk about it.

0:13:26.241,0:13:29.761
It could be a platform, a community,

0:13:29.761,0:13:33.648
your loved one, whoever or whatever you choose,

0:13:33.648,0:13:35.740
but let us speak up.

0:13:35.740,0:13:38.800
The truth is, the end to this problem

0:13:38.800,0:13:40.542
begins with us.

0:13:40.542,0:13:42.187
Thank you.

0:13:42.187,0:13:45.748
(Applause)