Madhumita Pandey was only 22 years old when she first came to Tihar prison in New Delhi to meet and interview rape criminals.

According to India's National Crime Records Department, more than 34,650 women reported being raped in 2015. The number of rapes increased by 60% to 40,000 between 2012-2016, according to government data. However, many cases were not reported, especially in rural areas.

In India, rape criminals are considered "monsters". However, during the three years from 2014 to 2017, Pandey met 100 of them for his doctoral thesis at the Department of Criminology, Anglia Ruskin University, UK.

It all started in 2013 and was first a pilot project that was carried out a few months after the mass rape and murder of a female student on a bus in New Delhi shocked the Indian public.

The girl named Nirbhaya, which means "fearless person", has led thousands of people to the streets of the country to protest rape and sexual violence against women. That year, gender experts ranked India as the worst of the G20 countries for women, even below Saudi Arabia, where women were subjected to the supervision of a guardian. is man.

"Everyone has the same thought," Pandey said. "Why are these men doing that? We all think of them as monsters, we think humans, no one does such a thing."

The protests sparked a national debate on the issue of rape, which has been largely avoided in India. Pandey, who grew up in New Delhi, saw a new light in her city after Nirbhaya's death: "I think, what motivated those men? What circumstances created these Man like that? I think I have to find the root. "

Since then, she has spent weeks talking to rape criminals in Tihar Prison. Most of the people she met were uneducated, only a few had ever graduated from high school. Many newcomers go to grades 3 or 4.

"When I entered the research, I believed that the men were monsters. But when I spoke to them, I realized that they were not unusual people. What they did came from their upbringing. and think, "Pandey said.

In Indian families, even in well-educated families, women are often tied to traditional roles, Pandey said. Many women do not even dare to call the husband's name.

"I used to call some friends and ask what their mother called their father? The answer I got was 'you listen to this' or 'Ronak's father'," she said. "Men learn the wrong ideas about their position, and women learn to obey. People think that rapists are inherently problematic. But they are part of our society. They are not people brought from another world. "

After speaking to rape criminals, Pandey is shocked to feel compassion for them, something a woman like her never thought of.

"I almost forgot that those men were being prosecuted for raping women," she said. "Many people don't realize what they do is rape. They don't understand what consensus is. At that time, I asked myself, are these people or the majority of men like that?".

Indian society is very conservative. Sex education is not included in the curriculum in most schools, and lawmakers feel the subject can "spoil" young people and offend traditional values.

"Parents don't even mention words like penis, vagina, rape or sex. If they can't get through it, how can they educate boys?", Pandey said.

In interviews with her, many people apologized or justified their actions. They deny that rape has occurred. Only 3-4 people said they were repenting. Others seek to justify, refute or blame the victim.

There is a special case, a 49-year-old man surprised Pandey. This person expressed regret for ever raping a 5-year-old girl. "He said that he felt very bad for destroying her life. Now, she is no longer a virgin, no one wants to marry her. Then he said that he would accept her. , will marry her when released from prison, "Pandey said.

The reaction of the man made Pandey so shocked that she felt the need to learn about the victim. According to the information he provided, she found the girl's mother. However, the family did not even know the rapist was in jail.

When preparing to publish the research, Pandey was faced with hostility. "They think, another feminist. They think that a woman doing research like this will misinterpret men's thoughts. So where do you start with people like that?" She said.

Pandey's doctoral dissertation is one of the first studies in India to investigate rape criminals and gain international media attention. In October, she was awarded the Ruskin medal of Anglia Ruskin University, an annual award for students with research projects that have a great impact.

"Studies on sexual violence in India often look at victims' perspectives and reform policies, not a lot of research into the perpetrators," Pandey, 28, now a lecturer at Sheffield Hallam University in the UK, speaking at the award ceremony. "I believe that rapists are in a special position to give us insight into their sexual violence behavior as well as the social systems that enable them to repudiate their responsibilities. responsibility for his actions. "