- Demonstrators hold candles during a candlelight vigil for a gang rape victim who was assaulted in New Delhi. A woman whose gang rape provoked protests and a rare national debate about violence against women in India died from her injuries on Saturday, prompting promises of action from government that has struggled to respond to public outrage. (Photo: Reuters)
After a gang rape victim dies in India, a widespread debate about violence against women in the region has reignited yet again.
An unidentified 23-year-old medical student died on Saturday of a severe brain injury and internal damage caused by a Dec. 16 attack. Beaten, raped and pushed out of a moving bus, the medical student had been flown to a Singapore hospital on Thursday. At the time, she was in critical condition.
"The need of the hour is a dispassionate debate and inquiry into the critical changes that are required in societal attitudes," Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said in a statement.
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"I hope that the entire political class and civil society will set aside narrow sectional interests and agenda 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 victim - who is now being called "Amanat," an Urdu word meaning "treasure" - has become a nationwide symbol for frequent and unrelenting violence against women in India. Rape and sexual assault are among the fastest-growing reported crimes in India, according to the National Crime Records Bureau. Yet rape is rarely punished, with only 26.5 percent of reported incidents successfully prosecuted in 2010, according to The New York Times.??
New Delhi has the greatest number of sex crimes in India, with a rape reported on average every 18 hours, according to police data. According to the government, reported rape cases increased by almost 17 percent between 2007 and 2011.
Since the horrific attack on Dec. 16, the protests have become deafening. It is believed that most sex crimes in India go unreported and unpunished - and many citizens are starting to demand change.
Following news of the gang rape victim's death, the government was panicked that protests would become chaotic - and even violent. So the administration placed thousands of policemen around key areas, closing ten metro stations and some main roads in New Delhi. But more than 1,000 people gathered to protest, screaming that justice must be served. Some protesters recommended the death penalty for gang rape suspects.
Hundreds of protesters also hit the streets in the northern Indian city of Lucknow. Groups also spoke out in Hyderabad, which is in southern India, Chennai, Kolkata and Mumbai.
Six men have been arrested in connection to the Dec. 16 gang rape, and according to India law they could receive the death penalty.
"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," Kelvin Loh, chief executive officer of the Mount Elizabeth Hospital in Singapore, said in a statement.
The latest gang rape is only one in a string of incidents that has fueled unrest in the country.?On July 9, a teenage girl in Guwahati, in the northeastern state of Assam, was recorded by a television crew when a group of 10 - 15 men surrounded, beat?and stripped her. The group of men grew to about 40, and the crew continued taping.?
After the footage went viral, there was an outcry around the world questioning how the crew stood filming without trying to help the gang rape victim. For those in India, the incident was a horrible reminder of a gang rape that occurred in Mumbai on New Year's in 2008 when two women walked out of the Marriott hotel with their friends.
Sonia Gandhi, president of the Indian National Congress and widow of former?Prime Minister of India,?Rajiv Gandhi?told protesters:?"Your voice has been heard. It deepens our determination to battle the pervasive and the shameful social attitudes that allow men to rape and molest women with such impunity."
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Source: http://www.idigitaltimes.com/articles/14056/20121229/gang-rape-victim-dies-india-protests-rage.htm
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