Ever heard of the Gulabi Gang?

I WAS recently pleasantly surprised to hear of the Gulabi Gang. The India based organisation goes around hitting abusive men with bamboo sticks. It got me thinking, what a brilliant idea. Or is this mob justice or a case of taking the law into their  own hands. Then I thought, ‘Why not?’. Women are so often at the receiving end of abuse. We read about hundreds of cases of women abuse where in many instances the mothers are killed by their partners.

South Africa has one of the highest incidents of domestic violence in the world. It is estimated that one out of every six women in South Africa is regularly assaulted by her partner. In at least 46 per cent of cases, the men involved also abuse the children living with the woman. How effective would the Gulabi Gang be in South Africa?

Gulabi Gang’s origins according to their website: One day when Sampat Pal Devi, a simple woman living in a village in Northern India, saw a man mercilessly beating his wife, she pleaded with him to stop but he abused her as well. The next day she returned with a bamboo stick and five other women and gave the man a sound thrashing.

The news spread like wild fire and soon women started approaching Sampat Pal Devi in droves requesting similar interventions. Many women came forward to join her team and in the year 2006 she decided that the sisterhood needed a uniform and a name and thus the pink sari was chosen, to signify the women-hood and understated strength.

The Gulabi Gang kept a watch on all community activities and protested vociferously when they saw any manifestation of injustice or malpractice. On one occasion, when Sampat Pal went to the local police station to register a complaint, a policeman abused and attacked her. She retaliated by beating him on the head with her lathi. On another occasion she dragged a government official out of his car to show him a crumbling road that was in need of urgent repair. After all, what cannot be endured must be cured!