Growing Outrage Over Violence Against Women in India

Outrage has continued to grow in India over the gang-rape and murder of a 27-year-old woman, with protesters taking to the streets and politicians calling for the offenders to be “lynched”.

Demonstrations spread to cities including Delhi, Bengaluru and Kolkata and MPs spoke out in parliament following the discovery last week of the woman’s burned body in Hyderabad.

Four men now in police custody are alleged to have deflated the victim's scooter tires in order to leave her stranded then approached her appearing to offer to help. It is alleged she was dragged to an abandoned area by the roadside where she was gang-raped, asphyxiated to death and her body set alight and dumped.

“This act has brought shame to the entire country, it has hurt everyone,” said the defense minister, Rajnath Singh, speaking out against what he called a “heinous crime”.

Last week multiple rapes and murders were reported, including the gang-rape and murder of a lawyer in Jharkhand and the rape and murder of a six-year-old child in Rajasthan.

Violent crimes against women have been in the spotlight in India since 2012, when the fatal gang rape of a young woman aboard a moving bus in Delhi prompted hundreds of thousands to take to the streets to demand stricter rape laws.

Outrage over the 2012 Delhi rape prompted thousands of women to take to the streets and spurred quick action on legislation, doubling prison terms for rapists to 20 years and criminalizing voyeurism, stalking and the trafficking of women. Indian MP's also voted to lower to 16 from 18 the age at which a person can be tried as an adult for heinous crimes.

Sexual violence against women remains rife in India and it is the most dangerous place in the world to be a woman, according to a 2018 survey by the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Police in the country registered 33,658 cases of rape in 2017, according to the most recent available official records – an average of 92 a day - but the real figure is believed to be far higher as many women in India do not go to the police out of fear.

Tens of thousands of cases also remain stuck in courts, often hindering victims and their families as they navigate the slow and cumbersome legal system. Figures for 2017 reveal that courts opened 18,300 cases related to rape but more than 127,800 more remained pending at the end of the year.