Grim reality of a country where rape is rampant
DAYS after an alleged gang-rape victim was set on fire, a note was left at the family home of an 18-year-old set to testify in her own case against a man she had accused of rape.
“Consequences may be worse than what happened in Unnao,” the note read, alluding to the city in northern India where a woman was allegedly doused with gasoline and set ablaze by five men, including two she had accused of gang rape who were out on bail.
The teen and her family took the note to police. The accused man was arrested in July 2018 on the rape charge and was quickly released on bail. He was taken back into custody on Saturday, according to police constable Sudhir Bhati.
Sexual violence against women and girls is so common in India, the case was given only a few lines in one of the country’s leading dailies.
There have been several high-profile rape cases that have shocked the country in recent weeks, including the woman in Unnao, who was about to board a train for a court hearing in her case when she was allegedly set on fire earlier this month.
The latest incidents come around the seventh anniversary of a gang rape on a moving bus in New Delhi that galvanized massive protests and inspired lawmakers to order the creation of fast-track courts dedicated to rape cases and stiffen penalties for those convicted of the crime.
In India, gruesome reports of rape and retaliatory killing are hauntingly familiar, and whether a report of rape rises above the din is largely determined by class and caste dynamics.
But even if a case does become big news, it could have little effect on how the country’s overburdened court system works for most people, experts said.
After she was set on fire, the 23-year-old woman from Unnao was medevaced to a burns unit in New Delhi, where she later died.
Her death came just a day after police fatally shot four men who were being held as suspects in the gang rape and murder of a 27-year-old veterinarian near southern India’s tech hub of Hyderabad. The woman’s burned body was discovered by a passer-by late last month.
Before an investigation into whether the police shootings were justified, many people across India were cheering the result. Others condemned it.
“Nobody wants to invest in changing the system,” said Sunitha Krishnan, an activist and gang-rape survivor in Hyderabad. “You’ve just done some instant justice, closure, everybody’s moved on. And for most people, this is finished. But life doesn’t move on for hundreds of thousands of victims who are languishing for justice. And that’s the pathetic reality of this country.”
According to the latest Indian government data, police registered 33 658 cases of rape in 2017 – an average of 92 per day and a 35% jump from 2012. About 10 000 of the reported victims were children. The real figure is believed to be far higher because of the stigma of sexual violence in India.
The conviction rate over the same period rose 33%, from less than a quarter to about a third of all cases filed. |