Budapest Post

Cum Deo pro Patria et Libertate
Budapest, Europe and world news

Decade after gruesome Delhi gang rape, India faces ‘epidemic’ of crime against women

Decade after gruesome Delhi gang rape, India faces ‘epidemic’ of crime against women

Ten years ago, the gruesome gang rape and murder of a young woman in Delhi sent shockwaves around the world, bringing under a spotlight the frightening levels of violence against women in India.
It was the night of Dec. 16, 2012, when 23-year-old Jyoti Singh was brutally assaulted by the driver of a bus she was traveling on and his five accomplices. Tortured with an iron rod, she was thrown naked from the bus to die.

She died two weeks later, at a Singapore hospital, where doctors had been treating her for injuries to internal organs.

While she fought for her life, Singh had identified her attackers and all six were located by police.

The oldest man, the 34-year-old bus driver, was never convicted as he reportedly killed himself in custody. The youngest was 17 at the time and was sentenced to three years at a juvenile prison. The other four, aged between 28 and 19, were convicted and sentenced to death and executed by hanging in 2020.

Singh became widely known as Nirbhaya, or Fearless One, and her struggle was a symbol of women’s resistance and mass protests in India throughout 2012, which led to new anti-rape laws that would recognize wider and more nuanced definitions of violence against women. But a decade on, little has changed.

For Singh’s mother, Asha Devi, who has fought to get justice for her killers and to help others, “things have moved from bad to worse” over the years.

“When my daughter’s tragedy inspired nationwide protests, I hoped that no mother would have to suffer like me and see the brutalized body of her daughter. But my hope is dashed with the way violence against women has become a way of life,” she told Arab News.

“Look at the temerity of the boys,” she said, referring to an attack in which three boys poured acid on a teenage girl in New Delhi only this week.

“They did not fear the consequences of such acts. The reason is that the government has not been strict in dealing with cases against women.”

The Delhi Commission for Women requested on Friday a special session of parliament to be dedicated to women’s safety.

“Today the Nirbhaya case completes 10 years. The sad part is that nothing has still changed,” Swati Maliwal, the commission’s chairperson, said in a video message.

“The problems of increasing crime against women and girls have reached an epidemic proportion and the governments are failing to take concrete steps to counter it. Governments have failed to create deterrence.”

Data from India’s National Crime Records Bureau shows that nearly 430,000 cases of crime against women were reported in 2021 — over 40 percent more than a decade earlier. The number is likely to be just the tip of the iceberg as the prevalence of reporting gender-based violence in India remains one of the world’s lowest.

But since the 2012 incident, women have begun to raise their voices, although the “conditions have become worse for women over the years,” said Kawalpreet Kaur, human rights lawyer based in Delhi.

“Despite the escalation in violence, what has changed over a decade is that women have started speaking up and are expressing solidarity with each other,” she told Arab News.

For All India Democratic Women’s Association, which was at the forefront of protests in 2012, there has been no improvement in women’s protection despite the amendment of the law.

“After the Nirbhaya incident, we came out in large numbers. Many women’s movements and democratic forces also came out and continued our protest. The criminal law was amended, but after that, nothing has moved in terms of implementation,” said Maimoona Mollah, one of the association’s most prominent members.

“Be it Hathras, Kathua, or Unnao, in rape cases everywhere the culprits were protected so thoroughly that in no way women could feel safe,” Mollah added, referring to other examples of horrific violence that shook India in the past few years.

In 2020, a 19-year-old Dalit woman was gang raped in the Hathras district of Uttar Pradesh by four upper-caste men. She died two weeks later in a Delhi hospital with her spinal cord severely damaged.

The 2018 Kathua rape case involved the abduction, gang rape and murder of an 8-year-old Muslim girl by seven men near Kathua in Jammu and Kashmir. The accused were Hindu men, including a priest and police officers.

The Unnao rape case was the gang rape of a 17-year-old girl in Unnao, Uttar Pradesh in 2017. A politician from India’s ruling party was convicted of the rape and the murder of the girl’s father.

“The present government has a pompous slogan, ‘Teach daughter, save daughter,’ but things have not improved. The criminals have worked with impunity on all counts because they have protection from the people who should have taken action against them,” Mollah said.

“Our protest and movement and campaign on the issue will continue and we shall continue putting pressure on the authorities and helping society to become more sensitized to women’s issues.”
AI Disclaimer: An advanced artificial intelligence (AI) system generated the content of this page on its own. This innovative technology conducts extensive research from a variety of reliable sources, performs rigorous fact-checking and verification, cleans up and balances biased or manipulated content, and presents a minimal factual summary that is just enough yet essential for you to function as an informed and educated citizen. Please keep in mind, however, that this system is an evolving technology, and as a result, the article may contain accidental inaccuracies or errors. We urge you to help us improve our site by reporting any inaccuracies you find using the "Contact Us" link at the bottom of this page. Your helpful feedback helps us improve our system and deliver more precise content. When you find an article of interest here, please look for the full and extensive coverage of this topic in traditional news sources, as they are written by professional journalists that we try to support, not replace. We appreciate your understanding and assistance.
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated that Hungary will not adopt the euro because the European Union is falling apart.
Mayor in western Germany in intensive care after stabbing
Australian government pays Deloitte nearly half a million dollars for a report built on fabricated quotes, fake citations, and AI-generated nonsense.
BYD’s UK Sales Soar Nearly Nine-Fold, Making Britain Its Biggest Market Outside China
Latvia to Bar Tourist and Occasional Buses to Russia and Belarus Until 2026
Wave of Complaints Against Apple Over iPhone 17 Pro’s Scratch Sensitivity
Munich Airport Reopens After Second Drone Shutdown
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Tokyo’s Jimbōchō Named World’s Coolest Neighbourhood for 2025
European Officials Fear Trump May Shift Blame for Ukraine War onto EU
The Personality Rights Challenge in India’s AI Era
Italy Considers Freezing Retirement Age at 67 to Avert Scheduled Hike
Italian City to Impose Tax on Visiting Dogs Starting in 2026
Study Finds No Safe Level of Alcohol for Dementia Risk
Trump Says Ukraine Can Fully Restore Borders with NATO Backing
Europe Signals Stronger Support for Taiwan at Major Taipei Defence Show
Germany Weighs Excluding France from Key European Fighter Jet Programme
Cyberattack Disrupts Check-in and Boarding Systems at Major European Airports
Björn Borg Breaks Silence: Memoir Reveals Addiction, Shame and Cancer Battle
When Extremism Hijacks Idealism: How the Baader-Meinhof Gang Emerged and Fell
JWST Data Brings TRAPPIST-1e Closer to Earth-Like Habitability
Trump Orders $100,000 Fee on H-1B Visas and Launches ‘Gold Card’ Immigration Pathway
France’s Looming Budget Crisis and Political Fracture Raise Fears of Becoming Europe’s “Sick Man”
Three Russian MiG-31 Jets Breach Estonian Airspace in ‘Unprecedentedly Brazen’ NATO Incident
European manufacturers against ban on polluting cars: "The industry may collapse"
Turkish car manufacturer Togg Enters German Market with 5-Star Electric Sedan and SUV to Challenge European EV Brands
Christian Brueckner Released from German Prison after Serving Unrelated Sentence
World’s Longest Direct Flight China Eastern to Launch 29-Hour Shanghai–Buenos Aires Direct Flight via Auckland in December
New OpenAI Study Finds Majority of ChatGPT Use Is Personal, Not Professional
The conservative right spreads westward: a huge achievement for 'Alternative for Germany' in local elections
Pope Leo Warns of Societal Crisis Over Mega-CEO Pay, Citing Tesla’s Proposed Trillion-Dollar Package
Poland Green-Lights NATO Deployment in Response to Major Russian Drone Incursion
U.S. and China Agree on Framework to Shift TikTok to American Ownership
Le Pen Tightens the Pressure on Macron as France Edges Toward Political Breakdown
Czech Republic signs €1.34 billion contract for Leopard 2A8 main battle tanks with delivery from 2028
Penske Media Sues Google Over “AI Overviews,” Claiming It Uses Journalism Without Consent and Destroys Traffic
Indian Student Engineers Propose “Project REBIRTH” to Protect Aircraft from Crashes Using AI, Airbags and Smart Materials
One in Three Europeans Now Uses TikTok, According to the Chinese Tech Giant
Could AI Nursing Robots Help Healthcare Staffing Shortages?
NATO Deploys ‘Eastern Sentry’ After Russian Drones Violate Polish Airspace
The New Life of Novak Djokovic
German police raid AfD lawmaker’s offices in inquiry over Chinese payments
Volkswagen launches aggressive strategy to fend off Chinese challenge in Europe’s EV market
France Erupts in Mass ‘Block Everything’ Protests on New PM’s First Day
×