INDIA: The gang rape of a photo journalist in India's financial capital Mumbai has re-ignited the debate over the safety of women in India

Record ID: 1377128

  • Title: INDIA: The gang rape of a photo journalist in India's financial capital Mumbai has re-ignited the debate over the safety of women in India
  • Date: 27th August 2013
  • Summary: NEW DELHI, INDIA (AUGUST 27, 2013) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) WOMEN'S RIGHTS ACTIVIST AND SENIOR LEADER OF COMMUNIST PARTY OF INDIA-MARXIST (CPM), BRINDA KARAT, SAYING: "The question is you do not in this country even have the certainty of punishment and that is what is so critical here. If a person believes that he is not going to be punished, well he is going to be committing all kinds of criminal acts. And particularly as far as sexual assault is concerned, the conviction rate is dismal."
  • Embargoed: 11th September 2013 20:41
  • Keywords:
  • Location: India
  • Country: India
  • Topics: Crime,Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA9SQ2ECX430KRP0JQU4VUMXIGC
  • Aspect Ratio: 4:3
  • Story Text: The gang rape of a young photo journalist in India's Mumbai has sparked fresh debate over safety of women in a country still reeling from the brutal gang rape of a paramedic student on a moving bus last year.
    India's opposition criticised the government on Monday (August 26) for failing to deal swiftly and harshly enough with sex offenders, after the gang rape in Mumbai revived a national debate over women's safety in a society undergoing rapid social change.
    A 22-year-old photojournalist was raped on Thursday (August 22) in Mumbai while on an assignment with a male colleague. Her colleague was tied up with a belt and beaten.
    The crime has parallels with the gang-rape of a trainee-physiotherapist on a moving bus in Delhi in December. Both crimes were against young professionals in a society where many men believe women should remain in the home.
    The attack in Mumbai, widely considered to be India's safest city for women, has raised concerns that harsher penalties alone are not deterring sexual offenders.
    Tanvi Sood, a media professional living in New Delhi, is one of many Indian women concerned for her safety.

    "I think it's extremely unsafe, I think it is very unsettling what happened in Delhi as well as in Mumbai, it is unsettling because it is so close to home. We are talking in Delhi now but it's happening in Mumbai, it's happening in Srinagar, it's happening in the rural part of Bihar. So the thing is that it's happening all over the country."
    The Delhi rape, in which the woman died of her injuries, sparked nationwide protests and a revision of the country's rape laws. Repeat offenders or those whose victims are left in a "vegetative state" now face the death penalty.
    The verdicts on the four men accused in that case, which started in February in a fast-track court, are expected within the next three weeks.
    Under the new laws, the four men face the death penalty if found guilty. A juvenile suspect, whose verdict is due on Aug. 31, faces three years in juvenile detention.
    Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde promised the Mumbai perpetrators would be tried in a fast-track court.
    But for many in the country feel the justice system is failing to protect women.

    "There is no justice being meted out to the criminals and like after that, there is this Bombay rape case and again there is a huge uproar but then there is no fear of the justice system, no fear of police or any of that," said another New Delhi woman, Shahswati.
    This point of view was echoed by Brinda Karat, a leading women's rights activist.

    "The question is you do not in this country even have the certainty of punishment and that is what is so critical here. If a person believes that he is not going to be punished, well he is going to be committing all kinds of criminal acts. And particularly as far as sexual assault is concerned, the conviction rate is dismal."
    In New Delhi 643 rape cases were reported up to April 15 this year up from 179 during the same period in 2012.
    But the Additional Commissioner of Police of New Delhi said the rise in cases was a result of the police urging women to report attacks, not because the city was becoming less safe.

    "Women are feeling encouraged to come to the police station and lodge their FIRs. Our registration of crime against women, particularly molestation and rape, has gone up manyfold. But it doesn't indicate that the crime has increased, it only indicates that police is changing its mindset about registration and women are also coming forward to register their complaints," said Tejinder Luthra.
    For Karat, however, real progress would come only when Indian society changed the way it thought about women.

    "Why is there a conspiracy of silence among large sections of our people? Why do politicians for example continue in many cases to blame women?" she said.
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