A video showing a young girl walking around seeking help after being raped has sparked anger in India. Many people expressed outrage after CCTV footage showed a man appearing to wave the girl away when she approached him for help.
Police told local media that the girl, who walked around Ujjain city in Madhya Pradesh state for more than two hours, was eventually helped by some people. A senior police official said a medical examination showed the girl was raped. "Five people who came in contact with the girl are being questioned," Ujjain police superintendent Sachin Sharma told ANI news agency, adding that the girl was "incoherent and could not initially give any details about her whereabouts". Police have not confirmed the girl's age yet.
A short CCTV video which surfaced online this week sparked condemnation from politicians and on social media. It shows the girl, who appears to be bleeding, walking on a road on Monday. At one point, she approaches a man who seems to wave his hand at her, before walking away again. Police say they are reviewing other CCTV footage from the area to trace the route the girl walked before she got help.
Superintendent Sharma said the girl had been reported missing from Satna city (more than 435 miles from where she was found) on Sunday. After her two-hour search for help, she was eventually helped by Rahul Sharma, whom media reports have described as a Hindu priest. He said the girl was bleeding when he found her. "She could not speak. Her eyes were swollen," Rahul Sharma told news channel NDTV. "I then inquired what had happened, but she spoke in a language that I did not understand; I also gave her a pen and paper but she could not write anything either," he told The Hindu newspaper. He said he gave her some clothes and called the police, who took her to the hospital.
On Wednesday night, police said in a statement that the girl's injuries had been treated and that she underwent surgery as well, without giving more details. Madhya Pradesh home minister Narottam Misra said that the girl's condition was stable. Opposition leaders in the state have condemned the incident and criticized the governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over the safety of women.
Priyank Kanoongo, chairperson of the National Commission for Protection Of Child Rights, told reporters that he had contacted local police and administrative officials in Madhya Pradesh to find out more about the incident. Activist Yogita Bhayana, who has worked with several rape survivors, told the BBC that she was trying to trace the girl's family and get in touch with them to offer support.
Unfortunately, India is a country where women have been constantly fighting a regressive mindset that accepts and normalizes sexual violence against them. 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.
Last year, data from India's National Crimes Recrods Bureau showed that crimes against women remain unabated over the previous six years.The numbers show a consistent year-on-year rise, except in 2020 - the year when the Covid-19 pandemic swept India and a hard lockdown forced the country to shut down for months. In the year 2021 India recorded the highest number of crimes against women ever.
Typically, acts of violence against women (rape, acid attacks, dowry killings, forced prostitution, honor killings) are committed by men as a result of the long-standing gender inequalities present in the country. India's Gender Gap Index rating was 0.629 in 2022, placing it in 135th place out of 146 countries. 65% of Indian men believe women should tolerate violence in order to keep the family together, and women sometimes deserve to be beaten.
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