RIT Foundation: ‘Please Arrest Me’

RIT Foundation: ‘Please Arrest Me’ campaign paving the way to criminalising marital rape nationwide.

In India, 2 in 3 women are raped by their husbands, and it is legal. The law has an exception where rape inside a marriage is not a crime. To fight the law, RIT Foundation needed to raise awareness. So they sent an activist to turn himself into the police, pretending he raped his wife. Within minutes, he was freed. They filmed the entire process — from interviews with lawyers & victims to him going into the police station with hidden cameras and authorities saying that raping your wife is not a crime — exposing how India treats marital rape cases. Online, the story sparked fierce reactions. Thousands tried to silence us and even managed to take down our content four times. Censorship tried but didn’t shut the debate — with the help of feminist activists and influencers who shared our videos & content, the conversation progressed and forced India’s patriarchal society to deal with the issue.

Impact of the campaign:
This integrated campaign created a support system for marital rape survivors. Soon after the campaign launch, women in India started sharing their own stories of marital rape privately with them. They managed to help them get in touch with local counsellors in their state to give them the support they needed.

Credits
Agency: Ogilvy, Singapore
Production: Knights Media & Films
Director: Sameer Lukka, Xavier Mairesse
Producer: Raghav Awasthi, Bijal Sunil Majithia, Tarun Jain, Anirudh Dhanak, Rahul Dhir
Director of Photography: Sai Gunuranjan
Editor: Jaspreet Ranjan, Nicholas Lim, Lorenzo Colugnati
Music: Sacha Chaban
Research: Ritu Bhardwaj

This campaign is about:
Delhi Shorts International Film Festival, RIT Foundation, Please Arrest Me, rape survivors, Marital rape, Public Affairs Campaign, Public awareness campaign, Best Documentary, India, One Show, Award winning film, D&AD