TW: Rape, graphic details.
On the 16th of December 2012, one of India’s most horrendous and infamous gang rape cases occurred in Munirka, a neighbourhood in South Delhi. A 23-year-old female physiotherapy intern and her friend boarded an off-duty charter bus with tinted windows after watching the film ‘Life of Pi’. While on the bus, she was beaten, gagged, and knocked unconscious. The attackers then proceeded to beat and assault her with an iron rod, leading to serious injuries in her abdomen, genitals, and intestines. The two victims, who were thrown out of the moving bus, were admitted to Safdarjung Hospital. She died thirteen days later of her injuries. The torture and rape of the young woman, commonly referred to as Nirbhaya, gained extensive international and national media attention and led to multiple public protests around India.
The Nirbhaya case and ensuing protests led to the passing of one of the most significant laws to protect women: the Criminal Law Amendment Act in 2013. The law provided harsher disciplinary actions to those who attempted to harass or violate a woman. It also provided amendments related to sexual offences in the Indian Penal Code, Indian Evidence Act and Code of Criminal Procedure. It recognised many more acts, such as acid attacks, sexual harassment, and voyeurism, as punishable offences. However, this law has also been criticised for ignoring key suggestions recommended by the Verma Committee Report (a committee formed after the 2012 Delhi gang rape to suggest amendments regarding criminal laws in order to protect women) such as the criminalisation of marital rape and reducing the age of consent. The law is also considered to be gender-biased as it gives women the legal authority to perform the same crimes of harassment and violence against men from which they are protected by.
Although acts such as the Criminal Law Amendment Act have been passed, the safety and protection of Indian women is yet to be assured. According to the National Crime Records Bureau, there were 32,260 rape crimes and 3,91,601 crimes against women in 2019. That amounts to 45,612 more cases of crimes against women in 2019 compared to 2017. According to a Financial Express article, there are meant to be an average of 89 rape cases in India daily. Furthermore, the Nirbhaya Fund, which has a trust of around 2,050 crore rupees, has only used 20% of its money in order to achieve its mission of providing for the safety of women in India. Although Nirbhaya did finally see justice this year when five of her six rapists were sentenced to death by hanging, it took eight long years for the government to finally enact this punishment. Till this date, one of her rapists, the minor, walks free after serving only four short months in juvenile prison. With this dismal rise in reported crimes, so few of which end in justice for the victims, and paltry resources being allocated to the cause, the answer is clear: India is failing its women when it comes to their personal safety.
The sheer visibility of ‘Nirbhaya’, which means fearless, did encourage more women to come forward with their own harrowing stories of sexual harassment, rape, and violence. The brutal event helped remove the taboo on women speaking out about their own brushes with misogynistic violence and suppression; it became a symbol of a woman’s resistance towards rape and harassment around the world. But the platform to share these traumas is not enough, if it is not backed by the iron hand of the law. India’s girls and women must know that, in sharing their stories, they will be met with acceptance and belief, which will translate into swift justice against their transgressors. Otherwise, Nirbhaya’s sacrifice will be in vain, and India’s daughters will continue to scream into a vacuum.