The Delhi police filed charges with a local district court on Thursday, setting in motion a trial for the horrific rape case that has gripped the nation in recent weeks. Five of the six men accused of perpetrating the rape are being charged with murder, rape and kidnapping among other charges. If convicted the defendants are nearly certain to be given the death sentence. The sixth man being accused of the rape is a juvenile and will therefore have his case handled by the Juvenile Justice Board.
Late in the evening on December 16th a 23-year-old paramedic student was brutally attacked and raped in a private bus that was driving through the busy streets of the nation’s capital. She died weeks later in a Singaporean hospital as a result of the injuries she sustained during the senseless and barbaric attacks.
The death of Damini, as the victim is popularly known as (her real name has been withheld from the public), has enraged the entire nation and prompted near-continuous protests throughout the capital over the last three weeks.
Faced with constant and relentless pressure from protestors, politicians and the media, the police acted swiftly in preparing the charge sheet in just twenty days, something extraordinary by the standards of the Delhi police force.
But there are cases not very far from Delhi where victims search in vain for justice for months after the incident.
A case in point is a 16-year-old girl from the state of Haryana in northern India, who was gang-raped by at least eight men in September. The girl was from a poor, lower caste Dalit family, and her multiple attackers were primarily from higher class families who held positions of power in the rural village in which she lived. They raped her for three hours, video-taping their crimes, and threatened to kill her and her family if she told anyone about the attack.
For over a week the girl kept silent out of fear for her life and social prestige in her village. She also doubted that anything would come of telling people of the atrocity she had suffered, given her family’s social status relative to those of her attackers.
Reddit
Digg
StumbleUpon
Delicious
Technorati
Yahoo
Google
Plurk
Ben
Letting women carry guns seems like a good first step.
EAM
I have been following this story closely. I have also travelled a lot in India (with women friends and family) and agree that there is a problem. However, I do not think the problem is uniquely Indian at all.
Some years ago here in Australia, there was a similar case, which in the end became a film "The Boys".
Italy seems to be undergoing a similar problem with a spike in deaths of women due to domestic violence, with this priest providing his "answer" if you call it that, quite similar to what an Indian priest has said about the Delhi rape case.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/28/piero-corsi-italian-priest-provocative-women-to-blame-domestic-violence_n_2376702.html
The flak that our Prime Minister has been copping on account of her gender (even if there are plenty of things she really can be taken to task for) shows that the problem is not confined to any part of the world.
It is impressive to see the large numbers of men coming out and joining women in protests. Womens’ rights protests have been around for at least five decades mostly in the West but I am not aware of any situation before large numbers of men joining in – and if so, as this US commentator says, India may be leading the way.
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/india-inspiring-others-to-fight-violence-against-women-us-playwright-activist-eve-ensler/articleshow/17928016.cms
The response in China has also been interesting – with an unexpected turn.
http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/in-china-delhi-gang-rape-spurs-online-debate-then-censorship/article4259878.ece
What is also I think accepted by economists increasingly are the economic and national security ramifications of the status of women in a country. Put simply, keeping “half of heaven” out of productive work outside the home and under the thumb puts you at competitive disadvantage to countries than do better – so that this is not simply a human rights issue. There is a bigger picture in all if this.
.All the best with moving forward on this, India!
dave
this is why i roll my eyes when someone proudly boasts about "karma", its hip and cool to say it on reddit or with younger circles. but karma is exactly why Indians look down at the poor,they really believe it is karma that others are poor so they deserve what they are getting. if you go to india you will see poor children begging for food and the rich walk by with their heads held high. "its your fault you are poor. in the past life you did something horrible".
they do not marry people more poor then thier "level" or "cast". when the student got raped she and her boyfriend were thrown naked on the sidewalk. no one helped for about an hour, they just walked and drove by. karma. its your fault.
but with most other issues, the hip redditors and the toking surfer do not realise karma is a horrible thing to believe in for the cast you were born into , you will never get out of. it sucks to be you.
but then again the top redditors know it all, and slam the Bible frequently – even when they are in great error and look like fools to those who know the Bible. just like they proudly endorce karma, and dont realise what they are
endorsing
Rajat
@dave: Indians believing in Karma is as true as most of them being snake charmers and living on trees! Those who took to India's streets either to protest for lax proceedings in this case, or against corruption weren't those who believed in fate! They were today's Indians who realise they live in an imperfect country, but who also want to bring about a change.
What Soumik said above is an admission most Indians will make out of frustration- We know we live in a society which is finding it difficult to break away from its past. But today we don't just want to ignore a problem; but rather want to face it and solve it.
Changing the way a society thinks takes generations (and not years, as the US has experienced with introducing democracy in Iraq/Af-Pak). Only time will tell if we can make this country a better place or not.
Soumik
India is a sick nation and in the garb of heritage we tend to promote primitive culture. We are down below in the ladder of civilisation and will take a century to be a civilised country.
Raithe
Almost every country in the world is like this. Most prostitutes in the world are sex slaves, children are sold as sex slaves in most countries. India is no worse than anyone else. At least their people are trying to fix the problem, at least their angered by it. Go to Asia and check out the five year olds being forced to have sex with adults.
Ryan
Raithe, you are deeply mistaken if you believe such behaviour is widespread in other societies. It simply isn't, unless you intend to compare yourself to a limited sample consisting of just Somalia. Whilst abuses do sometimes occur in other countries, it is not socially tolerated, it is not apologised for, it is isolated and is dealt with the full force of the law.
It is not possible to protect everyone in society, however it is possible to enforce justice on the criminals who do cause human suffering. That Indians not only have a breath-taking hatred of women and the simple right to human dignity is shocking enough, that they do not deliver justice for such incidents however is condemning. India is an utter disgrace, please never compare yourself to the East Asian states, Indians should stick to comparing their society to others on their level. You will find them in sub-saharan Africa.