India to welcome 2013 with protests demanding women's safety

New Delhi, Dec 31: India is going to step into 2013 with a sad note. The country is experiencing a bad phase. Protests demanding safety for women have become the order of the day. Moreover, political class seems to pay least heed to the demands of the protesters.

Protests across Delhi and India erupted after a 23-year-old paramedical student was brutally beaten and gang-raped by a group of half dozen men in a moving bus. Later on she and her male friend was thrown out on the streets to die. After struggling for 13-days, the girl died in a Singapore hospital on Saturday, Dec 29.

For last 10 days Delhi is protesting to demand justice for the gang-rape victim. Moreover, protesters are also demanding to make India safer for women. Government has used force to curtail the protests. Right from police lathicharge to fighting tear gas shells, protesters faced tough time carrying forward their movement.

In spite of all odds, agitators are adamant not to end their protests till justice is delivered.

At Jantar Mantar, two protesters who are on a hungerstrike demanding the death sentence in rape cases; one of them has been fasting for eight days, one for three. "We will fight for the girl. I'm on hunger strike for the past three days and will continue till she gets justice and the fast-track courts to hear cases of sexual harassment," Babusingh Ram, one of the protesters said. Through the weekend, people poured out of their homes mourning the medical student, holding candlelight vigils and vowing to keep their movement alive.

OneIndia News