Spring Semester 06: The Message at 1 a.m.
English

This episode talks about someone
threatening to share private photos.
If it touches your own life, support
details are below this video.
Ritu? From my optics elective.
Third row.
Sorry, ma'am. It's nothing.
I'll come another day.
You've been standing here ten minutes.
I could see your shadow under the door.
I have a free hour and a
full flask of tea. Come in.
...Okay.
Take your time.
It's my ex. We broke up in December.
Since last week, he
messages me every night.
He has photos. From when we were together.
Private ones.
He says if I don't come back by
Sunday, he'll send them to my family.
Last night he sent one, to
show me he still has them.
Ritu. This is not your fault.
I sent them to him.
I'm the one who—
You trusted him. He's the
one doing something wrong.
Do you want to see the messages?
No. I don't need to see anything.
I believe you.
I haven't slept. I keep
turning the phone over.
Then let's make a plan.
You decide each step.
Don't reply. Don't pay him
or promise him anything.
And save everything: screenshots,
dates, his account name.
He doesn't want money, ma'am.
He wants me back.
And what do you want?
I don't want to go back.
Then we work from that.
Has he come near you, on campus?
No. Just the phone.
He's in final year here.
Then the Internal Complaints
Committee can act.
It's confidential. And the police are
an option, whenever you want them.
There's also StopNCII.
It makes a digital fingerprint of the
photos, so platforms that take part can
block copies.
And the one he sent can be reported.
Platforms must remove intimate images
within twenty-four hours of a complaint.
I can file it for you, if you'd rather.
The committee. The fingerprint thing.
And the platform complaint. Today.
Today, then. I'll sit
with you while you do it.
Ma'am... will you call my parents?
No. That's your decision.
I won't call anyone without
talking to you first.
I want to tell my sister.
Tonight. Before he does anything.
Good. And Farah is there for
you too, whenever you want.
Batch group, tonight.
Everyone should see this.
After the way she dumped Vivek?
In front of everyone?
She deserves it.
That's not a joke. Don't send it.
Anna, it's just a photo—
Put the phone away.
Madam. Two boys in the second-year lab.
They wanted to send a girl's
photo to the batch group.
I stopped them. I've told only you.
Thank you, Anna. It stays with us.
Farah? It's Kamala.
A second-year student may need
someone to check on her, quietly.
I'll come over and tell you who.
Ritu agreed to the photos being taken.
She never agreed to them being shared.
Under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, if a
woman agreed to an image being taken but
not to it being shared,
sharing it is an offence.
Platforms must remove intimate or morphed
images within twenty-four hours of a
complaint. The person can file it,
or someone else can, on their behalf.
A RATI Foundation report looked
at a year of cases reported to its
Meri Trustline. Sextortion and
blackmail were the most common kind of
intimate-image abuse.
Sextortion means threatening to share
intimate images to get money, or to make
someone do something.
Like come back.
Seventy-six percent of all the reports
that year came from women or girls.
In the lab, Mani Anna named it, and
then told someone who could act.
Those are two of the five
Ds of bystander action.
Distract: interrupt the moment.
Delegate: bring in someone with authority.
Document, only if someone is already
helping, and ask the person what they want
done with it.
Delay: check in afterwards.
Direct: name it, if it's safe.
Didi, are you alone?
I need to tell you something.
Before anyone else does.
I'm alone. Bol. I'm listening.
Next time, you call me at one a.m.
Understood?
Understood, didi.
You know why you're here.
A photo and a batch group.
Ma'am, it was a joke.
We weren't really going to—
Then deleting it will be easy.
Sharing a woman's private image
without her consent can be a crime.
And it can follow her for years.
Delete it today. If it ever reaches
anyone, the Internal Complaints Committee
will hear about it.
Yes, ma'am.
Ritu. What happens to light
going from air into glass?
It slows down, ma'am.
And bends.
Good.
Anna. We deleted it.
Good. Now your burette.
It's dripping on my bench.
Try this week: find your Internal
Complaints Committee's contact, and put it
on your course page.
And here is a phrase to keep.
Notice it. Name it.
Don't spread it.
This episode talked about
threats to share private photos.
Support details and sources
are below this video.
See you in week seven.