In Uttar Pradesh’s Pilibhit district, one woman makes the men in town quiver in their boots. Sahana Begum carries a rifle and she isn’t afraid to use it – though not in the conventional sense. Sahana hasn’t had to pull the trigger. She just has to point it and it’s enough to strike fear in the heart of both roadside Romeos and the police.

And she’s been at this a long time. For instance, 12 years ago, a recently-married woman in Sahana’s village, Mahanandpur, was being harassed for dowry by her in-laws and husband. The woman had registered a police case with nothing to come of it. She had even tried to commit suicide twice.

Frustrated by this inaction, Sahana stepped in with her loaded rifle and pointed it at the woman’s tormentors. Sahana says that was all it took. Since then, there has been no discord. The couple have three children.  

Sahana’s tactic is simple: expose, shame and parade. The gun-toting, 42-year-old widow confronts eve-teasers, blackens their faces and parades them around the village. It’s far from politically-correct and it’s difficult to gauge if it has been effected a change for the better. There are instances when Sahana has forced a harasser to marry the woman in front of the village, which is an extremely questionable practice since Sahana doesn’t seem to take into account whether or not the woman wants to marry her harasser.

She believes the law will take its own course, but in India, that course can be long and time-consuming. Until the guilty are dealt with by the legal system, Sahana Begum will do the honours so that at least in Philibit, women feel secure.  

Here’s an example of how Sahana’s brand of justice works:

“Some five years ago, I was told some boys of a neighbouring village were stalking a schoolgirl of my village, harassing her on a daily basis, passing lewd comments at her,” she said. “The girl neither told her parents nor to anybody else in the village. Those boys went to the extent of even groping her.”

This incident was brought to Sahana’s notice. She promptly got hold of the boys and publicly revealed their actions. “I put the fear of the devil in them in front of the entire village. From then on, they have never dared to step into our village,” said Sahana.

Sahana took up the rifle and decided to become the protector of local women entirely by chance. She’d grown up like any other girl in the area. She married Mohammad Shabir, a driver. They had a son and were happy together. However, 17 years ago, Shabir died in a road accident and Sahana’s life changed. “I always felt safe and secure so long as my husband was alive,” she said. “He was there to protect me and my son. Things changed after his death. I felt vulnerable and insecure. I was also afraid for my son. That was when I decided get a rifle.”

Despite UP’s reputation lawlessness, getting a rifle legally was not easy. “Everyone demanded money,” she said. “It was frustrating. But after a year of futile running around, my hopes rose when the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) came to power in UP. Mayawati became chief minister, and I thought a woman chief minister would understand another woman, and help me.”

Mayawati did not fail her. “I got my license and you can see the power of my rifle,” she said. “I want to thank Behenji for empowering me.”

Over the past 16 years, Sahana has developed a network of sorts and is the first port of call in the area. Although not all of Sahana’s tactics would find approval with feminists, she is keenly aware of gender disparity. “Have you ever heard of a boy getting raped, gang-raped or sexually harassed by girls? It is always the girls who have to suffer,” she said. Sahana said she realised this after her husband’s death, when she found herself suddenly vulnerable. “Men don’t understand how lewd comments and sexual molestation affect a woman, especially young girls. They feel violated and humiliated. The mental shock is far more than the physical trauma.”

Three years ago, a boy from Sehramau Dakshini, a neighbouring village, abducted a girl from Sahana’s village. Using her contacts, she discovered the whereabouts of the offending boy. The girl was back home within a couple of hours while the boy was brought, with his face painted black, and paraded in the village on a donkey. That was not the end of it: the girl and boy were compelled to marry each other.

Samina Bano, a social activist and a Right to Education crusader, said it was a wonder that a middle-aged woman like Sahana was doing the work of the police.

The local police claim that because of Sahana and her rifle, they don’t recall the last time they had to lodge a case of harassment or domestic violence. That this was possibly why Sahana took justice in her own hands went uncommented on.

The western districts of UP, considered the Samajwadi Party’s Mulayam Singh’s backyard, has a less than stellar record in terms of crime. In August 2015, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) rapped the state government for rising incidents of crime against women. The highly critical report said that over 60 per cent of rape survivors since 2010 were minors, and that nearly 1,012 rape cases were registered in the state in these last few months.

The CAG report is not an exaggeration. Yet in Mahanandpur village and its neighbouring hamlets, which are under Sindhauli police station’s limits, women have no fear of stepping out of their homes at any time of the day or night. All thanks to Sahana. Rafia, an undergraduate student in Mahananadpur, said “I feel safe and secure because of Sahana aunty.”