Nidhi Razdan: Wrestlers expose the challenges of speaking out against harassment in India

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00:00Well, for the last few weeks, one of the headlines that has dominated Indian newspapers and television

00:09screens has been the protest by India's Olympic-winning wrestlers who have accused BJP MP and Wrestling

00:16Federation Chief Brij Bhushan Singh of sexual harassment.

00:20At first, the government didn't have any response for them and ignored their protests.

00:24But finally, they were forced to act.

00:26The police filed a charge sheet in the case last week but dropped the most stringent provision

00:31against Brij Bhushan Singh, which could have seen him being arrested right away.

00:37For the wrestlers, this has been an agonizing journey.

00:40These were the people who won Olympic medals for our country.

00:43Leaders rushed to take photographs with them and to laud them for being India's pride.

00:49But when they spoke up about sexual harassment that they faced, nobody from the government

00:54was there to stand by their side.

00:55In fact, India's citizens also seem to have some kind of apathy on the issue.

00:59We're not seeing those kind of protests, for instance, that we saw over a decade ago during

01:04the Nirbhaya gang rape.

01:05It's very sad because it reflects how difficult it is for people to speak out against sexual

01:12harassment in this country, especially if the person they are accusing is a person in power.

01:17For the wrestlers, as I said, it's been a difficult journey.

01:21And they deserve much better from all of us as citizens.

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