On 16 December 2012, a 23-year-old medical student was brutally gang-raped in New Delhi, prompting some of the biggest protests we have seen and a change in laws. However, the situation on the ground hasn’t seen much improvement
It was a night when humanity’s worst was on display and it has forever scarred our minds. We are talking of the incident in which a 23-year-old medical student, who later came to be called ‘Nirbhaya’, was gang-raped by six people on a moving bus in the national capital.
She could not survive her trauma, and the gruesome details of the incident sparked a national conversation on the change needed to prevent and punish such acts.
Here’s a look at what has changed since 16 December 2012 and how do women perceive the issue of safety in India today.
The incident
Nine years ago, on 16 December 2012, a medical student, Jyoti Singh, and her friend stepped onto a private bus from Munirka in New Delhi along with her friend after watching a movie.
What followed was not only tragic but also shook the psyche of the country.
Six men, who were aboard the bus, tied up the male friend and trashed him whereas the woman was dragged to the rear of the bus and was then beaten with a rod, followed by raping her and even mutilating her.
A medical report later said that she had suffered serious injuries to her abdomen, intestines and genitalia due to the assault, and doctors said that the damage indicated that a blunt object (suspected to be the iron rod) may have been used for penetration.
After the beatings and rape ended, the attackers threw both victims from the moving bus. The two were then rushed to Safdarjung hospital.
The boy survived his injuries. Singh, who was later airlifted to Singapore, passed away on 29 December 2012 at Mount Elizabeth Hospital, Singapore.
What happened to the perpetrators of the crime?
The cops arrested all six men, which included a minor, and were charged with sexual assault and murder.
On 11 March 2013, one of the accused, Ram Singh, died in police custody from a possible suicide. While officials said that Ram Singh had hanged himself, his lawyers and family claim he was murdered. The minor was later convicted of rape and murder and sentenced to three years in a reform facility.
The four remaining adult defendants — Pawan Gupta, Vinay Sharma, Akshay Thakur, and Mukesh Singh (Ram Singh’s brother) — were found guilty of rape and murder on 10 September 2013, and sentenced to death three days later. On 13 March 2014, the Delhi High Court upheld the guilty verdict and death sentences in the death reference case and hearing appeals. The Supreme Court of India rejected the final appeals of the attack’s convicted perpetrators on 18 December 2019 and finally on 20 March 2020, the four adult convicts were executed.
Protests and changes in laws
The horrific incident pierced the country’s conscience, with an angry India pouring onto the streets. Protests broke out across New Delhi, with people demanding justice and safety for all women in the national capital. Protesters, seething for justice, decided that it was high time that action be taken and held protests in Raisina Hill. The Hindu reported that the single protest then saw 125 teargas shells being lobbed, leading to 35 protesters being injured.
Singh’s death only spurred on the protesters with conversations taking place on the fact that in most cases women were shamed after assaults and molestations. Panel after panel on television shows, column after column in newspapers spoke of the security of women in the country and how women in the country were being victim-shamed.
The anger refused to subside and huge protests broke out at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi and elsewhere in the country. The discussion finally moved on from ‘what she was doing on the bus’ to ‘what India needed to do to keep its women safe’.
File photo of New Delhi police firing tear gas to quell a protest against the rape of the 23-year-old, who came to be known as ‘Nirbhaya’. AFP
A committee headed by former Supreme Court Chief Justice JS Varma was constituted to look into Criminal Law and recommend amendments for quicker trials and enhanced punishments for crimes against women.
On 21 March 2013, the rape law in the country was amended. The new tougher anti-rape law — Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2013 — to punish sex crimes redefined rape and made punishments more stringent — including death for repeat rape offenders.
Also, new offences such as stalking, acid attacks, and voyeurism were added to the definition of rape. The minimum sentence was changed from seven years to ten years considering the increase in the number of rape cases. The law also made the character of the victim totally irrelevant to rape cases.
Additionally, changes were also introduced in Delhi police; more women were introduced into the force and all officials had to undergo a sensitisation course.
Six fast track courts were set up to specifically deal with rape cases with the aim of providing immediate aid to rape victims.
Where do we stand today?
But, have these changes been enough? Do women in India feel safer? Have the crime rates against women gone down?
In 2020, a total of 371,503 cases of crime against women were reported across the country in comparison to 405,326 in 2019. If we go by these numbers, it seems that things are improving, albeit slowly.
The National Crime Records Bureau data showed that nearly 77 rape cases were reported across the country on an average every day in 2020; a figure that really we should be ashamed of.
Legal experts are of the opinion that while many laws could be formulated, it was the implementation of them that remained the problem.
For instance, according to an IndiaSpend article, nearly 81 percent of the 26,965 cases completed by fast-track courts in 2019 took anywhere between one and 10 years for the trial to be completed.
Further, 69 percent of the 17,155 cases disposed of by the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) courts in 2019 took between one and 10 years. This is despite the fact that the POCSO Act 2012 specifies that the special courts must complete trial, as far as possible, within one year from the date of taking cognisance of the offence.
Other brutal cases continue to haunt us
India continues to be rocked by horrifying rapes in the post-Nirbhaya period. In September 2020, the incident in Uttar Pradesh’s Hathras where four upper-caste men gang-raped a 19-year-old Dalit woman in Uttar Pradesh following which she died, rocked the nation.
In November 2018, a 26-year-old veterinary doctor in Shamshabad, near Hyderabad, was gang-raped and murdered. Her body was discovered on 28 November 2019, in Shadnagar, the day after she was murdered. Four suspects were apprehended and confessed to raping and killing the doctor.
In January 2018, an eight-year-old girl was abducted, gang0raped, and murdered in the Rasana hamlet near Kathua in Jammu and Kashmir, India.
Another horrific incident took place in May 2014 when two young girls’ bodies were been found hanging on a tree. Investigations revealed that the cousins from the Dalit Maurya community were gang-raped and then hanged. The CBI investigation concluded that there was no gang rape and the five suspects were released, which was later rejected by the POSCO court.
Clearly, the situation on the ground needs much improvement. As Singh’s father said in an IANS interview, “Since the day Nirbhaya happened so many daughters have been brutalised and murdered in a similar manner. We cannot call Delhi or any place for that matter safe for women until these kinds of incidents do not come to a halt.”
With inputs from agencies
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