Soni Sori
Soni Sori describes herself as ‘just a small teacher’ from the Bastar district of Chhattisgarh, one of India’s most mineral-rich states. But, in reality, she organizes Adivasi (indigenous) women to speak out against the sexual violence and assaults they have endured at the hands of the local police and the central government’s security forces stationed there to fight what the government refers to as ‘leftwing extremism’. Sori has gone public about her own experiences of sexual torture when she was jailed.
DB: What do Adivasi people think about their situation?
SS: The questions that I always get asked first by Adivasis is: why are we getting beaten up by the police? Why do they barge into our homes and take our supplies, eat our chicken, rice and lentils, and beat us up like animals? We never, , [water, forests and land]. We treat the police and the Naxalites [Maoists] alike… If they ask for water, we won’t refuse. So how are we wrong? The police ask us why we go to the Naxal committee meetings… there’s a problem even when we don’t go. When women go to fill water from the tankers, placing their containers waiting in line, the forces patrolling the area fling [away] the vessels, saying, ‘This water belongs to government and not . You cannot have it.’ Why such treatment?
