Industry can police itself, others may not interfere: Azmi

Shabana Azmi has given the Indian women a voice and a face for almost four decades now. In the process she has helped us understand ourselves as a society just a little bit better. In the protest and the media debate that followed the brutal gang rape and murder of the 23 year old woman in Delhi in December, she has been a committed participant and commentator. She is a woman who has always made her own choices.

Also read: Delhi rape accused lived on margins of India's boom In an interview to CNBC-TV18's Anuradha Sengupta, Shabana Azmi said she believes media has a very strong role to play in shaping the future generation. "There has been a lot of anger and outrage expressed. People came together spontaneously and one suddenly believed that everything is going to change, but for things to change, it requires persistent effort which unfortunately I haven’t seen," she adds. Below is an edited transcript of his interview to CNBC-TV18 Q: How optimistic are you that this brutal issue that has managed to shake us all up in the way it has that this will be an inflection point in the way women security is dealt with and in the way women rights and gender equality materializes? A: This is the tipping point and things are going to change after this. I have my share of doubt. In the past several issues on which particularly because of the media playing a very strong role, there has been a lot of anger and outrage expressed. People have come together spontaneously and you suddenly believe that everything is going to change. However, we must recognize that for things to change, particularly when we are talking about mindset change, it requires persistent effort, which unfortunately I haven’t seen. That’s why I feel slightly doubtful, although I would like to believe that it is not possible that no change will happen at all. So, it will lead to a certain amount of awareness and the outrage will be justified in actually getting some things done as we have seen. Q: In terms of the tangibles at least for instance you have the Justice Verma Commission to make recommendations on existing laws, we have the fast-track courts that have got set up. A: The fast-track courts are important, but what about commissions? If one really looks at the history of commissions there are commissions upon commissions. They are just kept in cold storage and nothing happens with them. The fact that the courts have pulled up the police commissioner, so all those things one can try and get at least some relief from that. To make a drastic change in that it really requires for all sections of the society to introspect, to reflect and to see instead of portioning blame on the other, which is the easiest thing to do, I think the time has come for each of us to really introspect and look within ourselves. We need to see that in this required mindset change what is the role that we can play. If that is the spirit in which we take this debate forward then some change will occur. It starts with me, how I treat my son and daughter, my daughter-in-law and the maid in my house. Then if I take responsibility for that then something might start changing. Q: Do you think that the attention that the role of popular cultures especially the movies has got in shaping what we see is that disproportionate to what it actually does? A: This day of sound bytes where everything is compressed into either yes or no the space for nuanced discussion is shrinking. I would plead for the discussion of what we need to have, to disproportionately say that everything that is happening is wrong in our society and it’s due to media and television and films. That is simply not true. It puts people particularly of the film industry into a defensive position. They just do not want to take any cognizance of whether they have a role to play or not. Q: This is detrimental? A: Definitely detrimental because I know for a fact that within the film industry in the wake of the gang rape there has been a certain amount of reflection. However, they are not verbalizing it for fear of being appropriated by the moral police. Now we cannot surrender that space. We cannot have other agencies come up to us and tell us that this is what you should do and this is why you are at fault. We have a board of film certification which is the only body that can tell us that.