The December 16, 2012, gang rape and murder of young women on a Delhi bus shocked India and the world, shining a spotlight on sexual crimes against women.
This year marks the 10th anniversary of that event. AFP examines what actually happened and what consequences resulted.
The incident
In the evening of Sunday, December 16, 2012, Jyoti Singh, 23, boarded a bus after watching “Life of Pi” at the cinema with a male friend.
During the bus ride through Delhi’s dark streets, six attackers knocked out the male friend and dragged Singh to the back of the vehicle. They raped and assaulted Singh with a metal rod.
She and her friend dumped dead after approximately an hour.
Although Singh survived for a fortnight, she died a fortnight later in a hospital in Singapore from injuries sustained during the attack.
As a result, she dubbed “Nirbhaya” (“fearless”) by Indian media and became a symbol of the socially conservative country’s failed efforts to combat sexual violence.
Analyses of gang rape and murder
A police investigation led to the arrest of the bus driver on December 18 along with three other people. Approximately a week after the first attack, the two remaining attackers arrested.
As a result of a fast-track court proceeding in February 2013, five adults and one juvenile charged with 13 offenses.
In his prison cell, Ram Singh found dead one month later.
As a result of the judgement, that August, the juvenile convicted of rape and murder and sentenced to three years in a juvenile detention center.
During a fast-track hearing the following month, the four remaining adults found guilty and sentenced to death.
A few years after the court appealed their convictions, they hanged in 2020.
Rape victims and rapists
It was Singh’s father’s job as a baggage handler at Delhi Airport that brought his family from the village to the bustling capital before the attack.
They channeled all their funds into her studies at physiotherapy college because they hoped she would become the first professional in the family.
Besides working at a call center, she also taught children private lessons to supplement her family’s meager income.
Ram Singh, Mukesh Singh, Vinay Sharma, Akshay Thakur and Pawan Gupta were slum dwellers who included a bus cleaner, a gym assistant, a fruit seller, and a school dropout.
Assaults on women
A recent report published by the Indian Ministry of Law shows that 31,677 rape cases registered in India in 2018, an average of 86 cases a day – a near-13% increase from 2020.
The number of victims who come forward is likely to be much higher, but they are probably too afraid to speak out.
Thousands of people demonstrated in Delhi and elsewhere over Singh’s case, at times violently.
In India, patriarchal attitudes still rule and girls are frequently treat as financial burdens, the event sparked much soul-searching. Arrangements are the norm in most marriages.
Getting justice can be difficult if women are often blamed for violence they suffer when they come forward. A disproportionate amount of suffering is experience by girls and women from lower castes.
Sanctions that are tougher
When the government faced pressure, harsher penalties introduce and the death penalty introduced for repeat offenders.
As a result, several new sexual offenses have introduced, such as stalking and jail sentences for officials who do not file rape complaints.
CCTV cameras and street lights have installed, and survivors of rape can access medical and legal resources at the rape survivors centers.
India’s overburdened legal system continues to deal with tens of thousands of rape cases, and crimes against women are report on a daily basis.
