What it says about India when 100-yr-old woman gets raped, killed

Nothing much has changed since the murder-gangrape of Nirbhaya in 2012 as crimes against women continue unabated.

New Delhi, Oct 31: Why there is no end to horrific rape stories in India? Every day we come across news reports on rapes enough to numb all our senses.

Just a few days ago, the nation was outraged after a woman was raped in front of several passersby on a busy pavement in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh. As the culprit committed the heinous crime in broad daylight, people on the road either decided to look away or film the entire macabre on their smartphones.

But none came to the rescue of the woman till one or two men among the onlookers called the police to inform about the incident.

Almost seven days after the shameful incident, committed by a drunken man who managed to get the silent approval from the passersby to carry out his beastly act, on Monday, came the news of death of a 100-year-old woman after she was raped by another drunken man at a village in Uttar Pradesh's Meerut district.

In between these two unspeakable crimes, several rape and gangrape incidents took place across the country in a week's time, out of which a handful were being reported in the media and many were not even reported to the police.

One more such sexual assault case took the life a 17-year-old school-going girl in a village in Punjab after she was raped by three men on Sunday.

The victim, found dumped in bushes, died because of profuse bleeding as her family never took her to a doctor to save their "honour".

According to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data released last year, over 34,600 cases of rapes have been reported from across the country in 2015. If you take into consideration the figures, at least 100 women/girls were raped every single day in the country in 2015.

Activists say the figures would be much higher as most often rape/gangrape cases don't get reported to the police as victims and their families often fear further harm from the culprits, social boycott and lengthy justice system, to name a few ills that discourage sufferers from taking legal recourse.

The mind-blogging number of rape victims and the brutally with which the crime is committed against women/girls (at time leading to the death of victims) is an indication that nothing much has changed in spite of five years since 23-year-old Nirbhaya was brutally gang raped and murdered in the national capital in 2012.

It was the barbaric nature of the crime against Nirbhaya, who was a physiotherapy intern, which triggered massive anger among the masses forcing many cities to host protest rallies demanding justice for the 23-year-old victim.

India never saw such colossal public display of outrage against rape, where men, women and children did not even fear lathicharge by police personnel as they raised their voices to make the country safer for women/girls.

It was after Nirbhaya gangrape and murder case which led to the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2013, which provides for amendment of Indian Penal Code, Indian Evidence Act, and Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 on laws related to sexual offences.

The strong bill was passed in Parliament with the hope to contain sexual violence and harassment against women/girls.

In spite of a people's movement that brought a new law and ignited a debate surrounding the need to educate boys/men in India to respect women/girls, unfortunately crimes against women/girls continue unabated.

Or, do we need one more revolution to contain sexual violence against women?

OneIndia News