A 23-year-old medical student from India was savagely gang-raped in a moving bus in Delhi and thrown out onto the street. She was transported to Mount Elizabeth Hospital in Singapore where she underwent three operations, including removal of intestines that had been damaged by a metal rod used in the rape. In the end, despite the efforts of her doctors, she died from her injuries.
“The patient had remained in an extremely critical condition since admission to Mount Elizabeth Hospital,” hospital chief executive Kelvin Loh said. “She had suffered from severe organ failure following serious injuries to her body and brain. She was courageous in fighting for her life for so long against the odds but the trauma to her body was too severe for her to overcome. We are humbled by the privilege of being tasked to care for her in her final struggle.”
Following her death, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh issued a statement: “It would be a true homage to her memory if we are able to channelize these emotions and energies into a constructive course of action. The need of the hour is a dispassionate debate and inquiry into the critical changes that are required in societal attitudes. Government is examining… the penal provisions that exist for such crimes and measures to enhance the safety and security of women. I hope that the entire political class and civil society will set aside narrow sectional interests… to help us all reach the end that we all desire – making India a demonstrably better and safer place for women to live in.”
The rape has been highly publicized in India and public protests demanding a stronger government response to crimes of rape and sexual assault have broken out across the country. Six men have been arrested and at least one police officer fired in connection with the gang-rape. Demonstrators are demanding the perpetrators be executed or at least castrated. “It is completely sad on the part of the government,” said one protestor, “especially since they are doing nothing about the innumerable rape incidents which are happening around us.” In the face of a furious public outcry, the government is proposing increased measures to counter violence against women in India such as more police night patrols, checks on bus drivers and their assistants, the banning of buses with tinted windows or curtains and the publicizing of the photos, names and addresses of convicted rapists. It is also setting up committees to examine ways to speed up the trials of cases involving sexual violence.
The reported cases of rape in India have increased by 25% over the last six years, reaching 24,000 cases last year. TrustLaw, a legal news service, ranked India the worst place to be a woman earlier this year. According to Google Trends, India tops the list of countries in the world that most frequently typed the word “sex” in web searches. On the flip side, sex is still, at least publicly, a very taboo subject in the country. “This makes for a debilitating sexual repressiveness,” said former Times of India editor Rashmee Roshan Lall, “which women’s organizations believe accounts for the high rate of sexual violence.” A 2011 survey conducted by International Centre for Research on Women indicated that one out of every four Indian men have committed sexual violence at some point in their lives and one out of every five has forced his partner to have sex with him. Indian lawyers and activists have said that many cases of rape go unreported as police and officials do not deal with the cases sensitively or effectively. One young woman reportedly committee suicide after her rape was not even registered for two weeks and, upon registration, no arrests were made. Her assailant continually stocked her and threatened to kill her and her family if she did not drop the charge. Village leaders pressured her family to settle the matter by taking money or by marrying her off to her assailant. “In India, the age-old code of conduct has been to keep men and women separate. So women are only viewed as sex objects,” said women’s rights activist Vibhuti Patel.
