Delhi, India — On August 15, as India prepared to celebrate its 78th Independence Day, thousands of people took to the streets across the state of West Bengal, to protest women’s lack of freedom from sexual violence and harassment.
There had been other protests before (less than two days before the Independence Day marches, thousands of doctors went on strike) and there’ve been many more since – all sparked by the brutal rape and murder of a 31-year-old trainee doctor in West Bengal’s capital, Kolkata, on August 9. By Indian law, rape victims cannot be named.
India has been here before. In December 2012, the gang rape and murder of a 23-year-old medical student shocked the nation and drew out thousands demanding both justice and change.
December 22, 2012: Thousands of students gathered in front of the Presidential Palace in New Delhi after the brutal rape and murder of a 23-year-old woman who became known as 'Nirbhaya'. Daniel Berehulak/Getty Images
Justice came for Nirbhaya – as the 23-year-old became known – when all five people (four adults and one juvenile) responsible for her death were found guilty. But despite the creation of the Nirbhaya Fund in 2013, through which the government makes several hundred million dollars available to fund initiatives that improve the safety of Indian women, change has been more elusive.
One of the Independence Day protestors told Indian newspaper The Telegraph that there are “a wave of protests” after such high-profile rapes. “But the atrocities against women do not stop,” the protester said.
The most recent stats from India’s National Crime Records Bureau show that 31,516 rape cases were reported in 2022. That’s an average of 86 reports of rape a day.
Ahead of the next hearing of the Kolkata case at India’s Supreme Court on September 17, CNN takes another look at how rape is addressed by India’s institutions and asks experts: is enough being done for rape victims and to deter sexual violence?
