The context is to tell the history behind this law, which is the 2000 regime law. The history is that there was this case of Vishakha versus others, Vishakha and others versus the State of Rajasthan.

Vishakha was the name of an organization in Delhi, one of the women's groups. There was a collective of five or six organizations that filed a case for the matter in the court. The panel that gave the guidelines included Justice Verma, who is now no more, and it is Justice Verma who was also the figure behind the law.

Even in the guidelines, he was the figure behind it, and very few of us know this. The idea of having an internal complaints committee, the idea of having a democratic functioning, was his brainchild. The intention was that women should not, as a first priority, go to the police; women should first go to the organization, and there should be an external person. That was his idea.

He was the person who gave this. He was active from 1997 until last year, after which we have this law. This is the date we must remember. People will ask when it came; it came in April, but since the rules came on December 9th, it is applicable across the country from this date, December 9th. So, people might say it is four or five months old on December 9th; that is the reality. It is a new law, fairly. So, people might take advantage of it, you know, the benefit of it being a new law.