In India the conviction rate for rape is just 1 out of 100 because here when a girl is raped, she is asked to cleanse herself to get rid of the so-called sin lest the society gets to know about it. But the truth is cleansing leads to loss of crucial DNA and sadly, no deterrent left behind that would put the criminal behind bars. As a result the rapist feels that he can get away. Our brief was to raise awareness about the importance of saving DNA, to spread the word that a girl needs to keep herself unclean to preserve DNA. The solution came in form of a T-Shirt. A T-Shirt that had signs of struggle/evidence marks. The project scale and scope was huge as it involved changing a wrong practice and had apex bodies from law and order, justice and media involved in the execution.

We created a ‘Don’t Wash. Don’t Clean. Save the Evidence.’ T-Shirt as the creative device for the DNA Fights Rape Campaign. We chose a T-Shirt as the device because it is the victim’s clothes that are discarded to get rid of the shame associated with getting raped and simultaneously the DNA too gets lost. This T-Shirt had marks like blood, spit, semen etc. that are incriminating evidence in a rape case. Visually arresting, this T-Shirt advocated the importance of saving DNA. People posed wearing it on social media and key influencers and policy makers used their reach to spread the message that a rapist can’t roam free once he’s committed a crime. The impact of the campaign, DNA Fights Rape , Don’t Wash. Don’t Clean T-Shirt was at a national scale both on ground as well as on the social media.

We noticed that public outcry in cases of brutal rapes was a recurring and highly emotive issue that cut across sections of the society and had the power to shake the usually slow-moving bureaucracy into action. Therefore, the most effective way to make the case for DNA in India was to narrow down our focus to the burning issue of rape and sexual crimes against women & children. Another challenge the rape survivors faced in getting justice was the absence of eyewitnesses. In such cases, DNA is considered to be the most conclusive proof but without such evidence collected or tested, offenders are known to get off the hook easily, which further perpetuates distrust in the system. In order to channelize widespread outrage to fight rape we identified citizens, youth, leaders of civil society leaders, and social influencers as the primary target audience for this campaign.

For execution we found our answer in form of a T-Shirt. A Don’t Wash, Don’t Clean T-Shirt. Since DNA is the most incriminating evidence in any rape case and it is found in blood, tear, semen, sweat, hair follicles, we fabricated a T-Shirt that looked like evidence on its own. It had blood and other marks of bodily fluids, tear marks, dirt and grime. Look wise it was very arresting and something that one had not seen before. Celebrities wore this T-Shirt and it became the talking point on social media like Instagram and Twitter with people posting static posts and stories, tweeting and then re-tweeting their pictures with the T-Shirt and hence advocating the importance of DNA testing in a rape case. Both, as a deterrent and a warning that if you commit rape, you can’t get away.

The impact of the Don’t Wash. Don’t Clean T-Shirt, as a deterrent against rape was there for all to see. It created ripples on ground and also online. Within months of launching this initiative the motion in favour of passing the DNA bill in the parliament gathered steam. And as per recent estimates, the number of DNA profiles developed from crime scene evidence has doubled over a year from 10,000 cases tested in 2017-18 to nearly 20,000 in 2019-20. During the same period, state labs across India managed to reduce DNA testing backlogs by 50% at an average. And with a count of Lifetime Total Video Views of 3.3Million, Sum Total Video Views of 57.9Million and Sum Total Impressions of 845 million, the campaign had a successful run online as well