The traditional concept about women that they are vulnerable and need protection is changing due to adverse circumstances. In India the number of assaults on women has increased dramatically in the recent past. Women are not just being brutally raped but the new trend in assault is to kill the victims after raping them. A large number of women go out of their homes for working and bring home money for running the household. Women are progressing and they have the right to live freely yet due to the increased number of rape cases and incidents of molestation they feel unsafe on the roads even in day time.
Usha Vishwakarma, a spunky 25 year old girl, has decided to empower women physically so that they can take on their attackers and fight back. She teaches martial arts to other women and teenagers so that they can live their life with more courage, with heads held high. She calls her trainee group the ‘Red Brigade’. Last December, when a 23-year-old girl was gang raped in the most devilish manner and then thrown out of a running bus, fear spread among the Indian women community. Usha has shown the presence of mind by starting the martial arts coaching.
Men who rape women are trying to overpower them and subjugate them to the tortures doled out by them. The Red Brigade practices martial art techniques for bringing down attackers swiftly and save their lives and dignity. According to the chief minister of Delhi, Sheila Dixit, Indian women do not lodge police complaint because they are afraid of misbehavior of the police. The laws regarding abuse of women are not yet fully matured and sometimes women have to face brutal violence from their nearest relations.
Usha Viswakarma and her students have faced sexual assault from men themselves and that’s why they know the importance of protest. Usha and her team mates don’t just wait around for being assaulted or insulted. When they get information about some eve teaser they surround his house and hurl profanities at him. If that person does not ask for forgiveness then he is beaten with sandals and slapped. This is a great new way of making women more upfront and bold and at the same time the Red Brigade is a warning for male offenders that women are neither weak nor seek their protection.
