Beyond the Rakhi: Fraternity, Dignity and the Sisters of India...
Yesterday, was Raksha Bandhan and sisters tied a rakhi around the wrists of their brothers. This was accompanied by sweets, laughter, photographs, gifts and promises. At the heart of this festival is a beautiful sentiment, a bond of affection and a promise to stand by one another.
It led me to think, if every woman is someone’s sister, daughter, mother or wife, why does she become just a “woman” when she steps outside her home? And why must a woman be somebody’s sister, mother, daughter or wife to deserve respect? Isn't she also a human, a citizen entitled to dignity?
This despite the fact that our constitution had guaranteed equality to every citizen more than seventy-five years ago. It's Preamble not only promises Justice, Liberty and Equality but also asks us to promote “Fraternity assuring the dignity of the individual.”
The choice of words reflects great thought behind it. Laws can guarantee equality. Courts can protect liberty. Governments can enact legislation. But fraternity has to come from society. It is about how we see another human being and whether we adress a stranger with the same dignity as we adress someone we love.
For women, the Constitution has given greater protection as Article 15 prohibits discrimination on the ground of sex, while Article 15(3) specifically permits the State to make special provisions for women and children.This constitutional space for affirmative or protective measures emphasises a basic reality : formal equality alone cannot correct centuries of social and structural inequality.
India has consequently enacted laws addressing dowry, domestic violence, sexual harassment, rape, trafficking and other forms of violence against women. Yet the number of crimes against women compel us to ask : Have constitutional values travelled from the provisions of our Constitution into our homes, streets, workplaces and minds?
The National Crime Records Bureau, NCRB report 2025 records that 4,45,256 cases of crime against women were registered across India, including over 1,200 cases every day or roughly one registered case every 70 seconds. The crime rate was 66.4 per lakh female population. What is even more disturbing is the nature of these crimes.The largest category was cruelty by husband or his relatives with over 1,33,000 cases, nearly 31 per cent of all registered crimes against women. Kidnapping and abduction of women accounted for 88,605 cases, while 83,891 cases involved assault on women with intent to outrage their modesty. Observing these numbers for a moment reflects that the largest category of crime against women is not necessarily committed by the unknown man lurking on a dark street. It is cruelty within relationships and families.
The National Family Health Survey data tells an equally uncomfortable story. NFHS-5 found that about 29 per cent of married women aged 18–49 reported having experienced physical or sexual violence by their husbands. The prevalence was higher among rural women, at about 31 per cent, compared with 25 per cent among urban women.
The Government has noted that the national figure declined from 31.2 per cent in NFHS-4 to 29.3 per cent in NFHS-5. That improvement should be acknowledged. But when nearly three out of every ten ever-married women surveyed report such an experience, it needs our concern. And even these statistics tell us only what is reported or disclosed because many of the crimes go unreported for various reasons. Behind every number is a woman.This is where Raksha Bandhan should make us introspect.
We can be fiercely protective of our own sisters and yet remain indifferent to the harassment of another man's sister on a street.
We may teach our daughters to return home early but fail to teach our sons why a woman should be able to return home late without fear.
We tell women what to wear, where to go, whom to speak to and how to remain safe. Perhaps we need to spend much more time teaching boys and men about dignity, boundaries, consent and respect. A truly safe society is not one where women are safely locked inside their homes. It is one where they can walk outside without fear.
There is another contradiction I feel worried about. Some of the most commonly used abuses in our everyday language invoke someone's mother or sister. We worship the mother. We celebrate the sister. We bow before the Goddess. And yet, when anger takes over, the same sacred relationships are turned into instruments of humiliation. Why?
Use of expeltives in any language makes it harmful. Words reveal attitudes and repeated use of certain words can normalise attitudes. When the female body or a relationship with a mother or sister becomes the vocabulary through which one man insults another, it reduces a woman to an instrument for attacking male honour. Here too, fraternity must begin with the words we choose.If we genuinely respect mothers and sisters, their identities cannot simultaneously become our favourite expletives.
Also, the deeper meaning of Raksha Bandhan cannot be confined to a thread tied once a year. Nor should raksha imply that women are weak and men are their permanent protectors.
The finest protection is not paternalism. It is creating a society in which protection becomes increasingly unnecessary because respect becomes instinctive.
A brother's responsibility cannot end with protecting his own sister. It must include never humiliating someone else's. It must tanslate into objection against a woman being harassed in public. It must also mean refusing to laugh at a misogynistic joke and not forwarding a degrading photograph or message. It must mean respecting a woman's “no”. It must mean sharing responsibilities at home. It must mean teaching sons that masculinity does not lie in controlling women. And importantly, it must mean believing that the dignity of a woman who is completely unknown to us is as valuable as the dignity of the woman we love the most.
Perhaps this is why the constitutional framework of fraternity is so important. Fraternity is larger than brotherhood by blood. It asks us to enlarge the boundaries of belonging and ensure dignity of the individual. The woman travelling alone in a train is someone's sister or mother but she should not need that relationship to command our respect. The woman walking home after a late shift is someone's daughter but her safety should not depend upon whose daughter she is. The woman facing violence inside her marriage is someone's sister too but more importantly, she is a human with constitutional dignity of her own.
This is the transition India needs the most : from just protecting my sister to respecting every woman. We have strong laws. We have constitutional safeguards. We have institutions, helplines and schemes. These are necessary but their implementation must become stronger and faster. And policing alone cannot produce fraternity.
Courts cannot legislate respect into every human interaction. A Constitution ultimately succeeds when its values become social values. So perhaps, after the celebrations are over and the rakhis slowly fade from our wrists, one thread should remain invisible but unbroken.
A thread connecting constitutional fraternity with human dignity.
A promise that the woman we do not know deserves the same respect as the sister whose rakhi we proudly wear. A promise that our sons will inherit stronger laws and better attitudes.
A promise that our language will not demean women even in anger.
And a promise that raksha will no longer mean controlling women's freedom in the name of protecting them, but creating a society in which they can exercise that freedom without fear.
The Constitution gave women equality. It permitted special provisions to overcome historical disadvantage. It guaranteed dignity.But fraternity is something no Constitution can impose upon us. We have to practise it.
This Raksha Bandhan, perhaps the most meaningful promise is not just, “I will protect my sister." It also is: “I will respect every woman as I would want the world to respect my sister.”
When that promise becomes part of our collective conscience, the thread of Raksha Bandhan will extend far beyond one wrist, one family and one festival. It will become a thread wrapped around society...
R. Vimala, IAS Retd.
Maharashtra Cadre, 2009 Batch
Former Resident Commissioner & Secretary, Government of Maharashtra
Founder, AnirvedShakti Foundation
PhD Research Scholar, Centre for Policy Studies, IIT Bombay
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