On December 16, a 23-year-old woman returning home with her boyfriend after seeing a movie, was brutally assaulted in a moving bus in New Delhi by seven men. She was gang-raped and physically assaulted for over an hour with an iron rod. She’s currently battling for her life in a hospital in the country’s capital. Her intestines badly ruptured, in addition to a number of other injuries, and she has undergone numerous surgeries already.
This however is not an isolated incidence, and it is not limited to this city. Rape and other forms of sexual assault against women and girls have reached epidemic proportions in India. Rape is fastest growing crime in India has seen an increase of 871% since 1971.
For the first two days the government of India had no response! The political leaders did and said nothing! And then there was an outburst. Women and girls poured into streets, demanding justice, government accountability and action! Twitter and other social media networks became a platform for this OUTRAGE!
It finally forced the government to respond. Women leaders finally spoke out. And where earlier the response from politicians, even the female politicians and heads of departments like The National Commission for Women has been to blame the female victim, saying they didn’t wear the right clothes, they shouldn’t be out at night etc. the government realized the mood of Indian women is changing. They are not going to take it lying down any more!! They are demanding harsher penalties and police action. It has forced the female politicians, even ones like Mayawati that have governed states with high rape rates and have consistently blamed and humiliated women, to change their tunes!! They too are mouthing what the female public is now demanding!
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