New Delhi, April 2, 2018: Further to a proposal sent by The Quint to the Aam Aadmi Party, the Delhi Legislative Assembly has passed a resolution to prepare a bill to make stalking a non-bailable offence. This comes 20 days after the AAP Delhi Women’s Wing organised a public consultation with the party and its top leadership to discuss the need for such a bill in Delhi. The Quint’s team, including Assistant Editor Garvita Khybri and Legal Correspondent Vakasha Sachdev, helped organise the event, in which CEO Ritu Kapur was a panelist.
On the development, AAP Delhi Women’s Wing President and National Spokesperson Richa Pandey Mishra said “after discussing with The Quint’s team we realized how grave the problem of stalking is in our country. Therefore, we decided to take up the issue and make a change”.
The Quint started its campaign “Talking Stalking” in August 2017 to give a voice to all those who face stalking on a daily basis yet go unheard. The campaign received an overwhelming response from survivors writing in with their experiences of being stalked, which highlighted several problems with the law on stalking; including how stalkers committed further violence like rapes, murders and acid attacks after getting bail.
The Quint, therefore, realised that one important change could make a huge difference — making stalking a non-bailable offence – and partnered with senior advocate Kamini Jaiswal to draft a proposal to amend the law on stalking.
This proposal was taken up by MP Dr. Shashi Tharoor in the form of a Private Member’s Bill in the Lok Sabha, and presented to Home Minister Rajnath Singh on International Women’s Day. MP Husain Dalwai has also presented a Private Member’s Bill in the Rajya Sabha suggesting the same amendments.
On December 20, 2017, The Quint organised an event at Oxford Bookstore, New Delhi to raise support for the Bill. A packed house participated in a discussion with a distinguished panel, consisting of Dr. Tharoor, Supreme Court advocate Karuna Nundy, stalking victim Varnika Kundu, acid attack survivor Laxmi and Jagori director Geetha Nambisan.
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