Hundreds of protesters clash with police outside their headquarters in New Delhi.
They’re trying to remove the barricades and are demanding the immediate removal of the Delhi police commissioner.
“There’s no fear, it’s not stopping somehow we are seeing insensitivity of the police,” says Ranjana Kumari, one of the protesters. “They have just closed their minds and this is not going to be acceptable at all.”
Similar protests were held outside Parliament, the Prime Minister’s residence and in several
other cities.
The protests broke out following the rape of a 5-year old girl in Delhi.
According to her parents, she was playing outside her house when she was abducted. Her family found her two days later locked up in a neighbour’s house, soaked in her own blood.
A medical examination confirmed that she had been raped and was suffering from severe injuries to her genitals.
“We found a 200 ml bottle of hair oil and a few candles inside her. It has completely torn the posterior wall of her vagina and the wound is deep, right up to the anal canal,” says R K Basal, a surgeon at New Delhi’s Swami Dayanand Hospital.
Bansal also said that other marks on the child’s body indicate that the rapists had tried to kill her.
The parents say the police initially refused to register a missing person’s report. The police then offered them a bribe to keep silent after they’d discovered what had happened to the child.
“They said ‘why are you making so much noise about this? What can anyone do? Don’t tell anyone, they can’t do anything. Then they gave us some money and said ‘just keep this money, get some food and take care of your child’,” recalls the father.
The issue has also shocked Parliament, with the opposition parties condemning the government for the deteriorating law and order situation in the capital.
Simriti Irani is an MP from the main opposition party, the BJP.
“I’m also a mother of a 9 year-old girl and I can’t sit here in peace unless I phone to find out if my daughter is safe. All working women like me, or for that matter all housewives, are anxious about whether their daughters will come back home safely from school or college. Every Indian today is scared and is asking whether their children will be protected? Whether they will have the right to live without fear, in the knowledge that their children will be safe where ever they are?”
The police have now arrested both the accused rapists.
Authorities have also taken action against some officers for not responding to the rape victim’s parents’ complaint, for offering them a bribe, and for mistreating female protesters.
Many lawmakers are also demanding the resignation of the Delhi Police Commissioner.
But Commissioner Neeraj Kumar has refused to resign...
“The problem is of mental depravity, psychopathic and mental sickness and that will not be settled out by anyone resigning, least of all the leader of a police force.”
India recently introduced harsher laws to deal with the rising cases of sexual crimes against women.
The government has also implemented several other public safety measures for women following the public outcry over last year’s gang rape of a young woman in Delhi.
But the number of sexual assaults has dramatically increased... and minors have become victims.
Social activist, Albeena Shekel, says that what is happening now is a response to women’s increasing participation in public life.
“There has been a great role reversal for women. For thousands of years they were confined to their homes, looking after children and other family members, but now they participate in public life as intellectuals, professionals and leaders. On the one hand, they’re demanding their rights in the outside world, while on the other hand they’re raising their voices against the extra burden of work at home and are seeking change. There’s a strong resistance to this change and sexual violence is a way of reminding them again and again that they’re only made for sex and nothing else.”
In all the recent protests, including those that erupted in response to last years’ gang rape, public anger has been directed at the police.
There has been a growing public demand for the introduction of radical police reforms, but analysts say it is unfair to blame the police for all the latest incidents.
“When we protest about these issues, we shine a spotlight on a number of institutions like the police, politicians and parliament, to highlight their weaknesses,” says Manoj Kumar Jha, professor of sociology at the University of Delhi.
“But what is equally important is that we hold a mirror up to ourselves too, because we know that more than 90 percent of these incidents happen behind closed doors, within the four walls of our homes, involving people known to the victims. That is not the failure of the police; it’s our failure to change a particular mindset.
