Image credit: Illustration of Kolkata and New York City coming together to protest the Moumita Debnath rape-murder (Designed by Ishani Bakshi)

When trainee doctor Moumita Debnath’s half-naked, mutilated body was found last August at a medical college in Kolkata, shock reverberated across India. But the outrage didn’t stop there, with news of her death sparking protests in major cities across the globe and in the tristate area.

In New Jersey’s South Asian community – one of the largest in the United States, with over 432,883 Indians – the Debnath case felt deeply personal, reflecting not just the violence against women in India but also the systemic challenges faced by South Asians in the diaspora.

The Immediate Aftermath

Though the college initially reported suicide, an austopsy reaveled evidence of rape and strangulation. Soon after, Sanjay Roy, a Kolkata Police volunteer, was arrested. He was sentenced to life imprisonment months later, in January.

In the meantime, public outrage continued to build. On August 12, three days after Debnath’s body was found, the outcry boiled over with “Women Reclaim the Night” protests among medical workers. Almost all emergency services in Kolkata were suspended, and the following day, 8,000 doctors in Maharashtra followed. The movement gained followers, even after Kolkata police used tear gas and batons to charge the protestors. 

Shradhya, a former student at Jadavpur University recounted her experience at the Aug. 15 protest at the university, saying the uproar was not simply about this particular crime. “People were conflicted in what they were protesting for,” she said. “Some said, ‘Hang the rapist.’ Yes, of course you should. But, how can hanging just Moumita’s perpetrators bring justice to numerous women who have faced rape or live said everyday? You cannot view rape in isolation; you have to account for intersectionality.” 

The response from the local government was swift: Less than a month later, the West Bengal Assembly passed the Aparajita Women and Child Bill, introducing the death penalty for rape-murder, setting a 21-day deadline for investigations in rape cases, creating a special task force for such investigations, and suggesting mandatory punishment for police who refuse to file First Information Reports—initial victim reports— in sexual assault cases. 

Meanwhile, protests broke across major cities in Europe, Japan, Australia, Singapore, and here in the tristate area.

Local South Asian Women Respond 

In Williamsville, NY, the Bengali Cultural Association of Western New York Sanskriti Buffalo organized a protest where participants held signs reading, “We want justice,” and “Justice for R.G. Kar.”

Closer to home, in Edison, NJ, the Garden State Puja Committee and Indian Community Center of Garden State organized a open letter to the West Bengal government on August 25, addressing rape culture and calling for change. Vigils and protests were also held in Times Square, with participants chanting for justice.

“We should speak out against atrocities that happen transnationally, irrespective of if it occurs on our soil or within our borders,” said a South Asian medical resident in the tri-state area. 

Nadia Hussain, co-founder of the Bangladeshi American Women’s Development Initiative (BAWDI), echoed this sentiment: “The fight for human rights and women’s rights has no border. Unfortunately, violence against women is not an issue unique to Kolkata. It is something that is pervasive globally, including here in the United States.”

Local Gen Z South Asians also took to Instagram. Ruhi Patel, a senior at Woodbridge Academy, a magnet school for allied health and biomedical sciences in Central New Jersey, described mixed feelings about the social media treatment.

“Like all types of social media activism campaigns, I found the Insta stories a little perfunctory. I didn’t think it helped to see 12 different variations of the same atrocious headline over and over again, and obviously calls to action on Instagram are far from the most effective ways to deal with a problem,” Patel said. “But at the same time, I was also happy that awareness was being brought to the issue. I’m sure this specific doctor was not the first, and most definitely not the last victim of sex-related violence in medicine, but her case had the potential to incite actual change.”

The Larger Challenge

While the outrage of the Debnath rape murder attracted the most global attention, crimes against women have been inrcreasing in India. In 2021, 428,278 cases of crimes against women were reported, and 31,878 of those were rapes. In the same year, on average, police received one complaint every four minutes reporting violence at home. Still, the Debnath case stood out. 

“While I was at the protest with a friend from the medical fraternity I remember being a little irritated that she kept saying, ‘How can they do this to a doctor?’ As if justice for a sex worker would take a different route,” said Shradhya, the former Jadavpur University student. “We hear of numerous lower caste women and sex workers’ rapes –  no one bats an eye. I couldn’t help but see this as a privileged case among the rest. The outrage, the protest – I can’t imagine any of that happening for the more underprivileged women.”

In the United States, a 2021 study across all the states found that 48% of South Asian immigrants (n=468) in the US experience physical violence, and that 11% experience sexual abuse. A study of South Asians in the New York found that 85% of participants  (n=393) were victims of sexual assault. 

Other community-based studies have suggested that the rate of interpersonal violence amongst South Asian women ranges from 40-60%. For context, the CDC reports that 35.6% of all women have experienced interpersonal violence. These statistics have a close tie to the diaspora’s home, as The World Health Organization estimates that South-East Asia has the highest regional prevalence of interpersonal violence at 33%, at par with Africa. 

“During Pujo, I was walking right behind a group of women,” Shraddhya said. “A person on the street asked them for money, and upon being refused, they said women like these deserve to die from rape. This is after at least two months of protesting. It’s a clear picture of how much has truly changed.”