Background

In India the conviction rate for rape is just 1 out of 100 because the victim is blamed and she is asked to cleanse herself to get rid of the so-called sin lest the word spreads about her, and it becomes very difficult for her to live in the society. This leads to loss of crucial DNA. The brief was to raise awareness about the importance of saving DNA in a rape case .We needed to spread the message that it was very crucial that the girl keeps herself unclean to preserve DNA. The solution came in form of a T-Shirt. A T-Shirt that had evidence marks all over it. The project scale and scope was huge as it involved changing a deep-rooted and had apex bodies from law and order justice and media involved in the execution. The estimated budget of the on ground campaign was Rs 500,000.

Describe the creative idea (40% of vote)

The creative idea in this exercise was a Don’t Wash, Don’t Clean Tee Shirt that was powerful enough to put the rapist behind bars. In India, rapists get away after committing the crime because often there is no evidence that puts them at the rape scene. So we needed a weapon that would remedy this problem. To bring this idea to life we designed a Tee Shirt (Don’t Wash, Don’t Clean Tee Shirt), that had marks like blood, spit, semen etc , that are incriminating evidence in any rape case. The target audience of this idea were people from field of media, law and order and apex medical bodies, celebrities and influencers. Everyone wore this Tee Shirt and advocated the importance of preserving the DNA in a rape case. From a niche topic the Tee Shirt bought the subject in spotlight and for once an entire nation rallied behind it.

Describe the execution (40% of vote)

For execution we found our answer in form of a Tee Shirt. A Don’t Wash, Don’t Clean Tee 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 Tee 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 Tee Shirt and advocated the importance of preserving the DNA in a rape case. The Tee Shirt became a 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 Tee Shirt and hence advocating the importance of DNA testing in a rape case.

List the results (20% of vote)

This increase in DNA casework can be attributed to an upward trend in press reporting of rape & sexual violence cases owing to public awareness and activism along with steps taken by the government to upgrade police and forensic infrastructure keeping women in mind. DNA Testing Doubles. Lab Backlogs Come Down by 50%: 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.