Mass protests followed the gang-rape of a young woman London – Caroline Kent In the wake of countrywide protests following the gang-rape and brutal beating of a 23 year old woman on a Delhi bus, Indian police will begin publishing the names, addresses, and photos of convicted rapists online. Ratanjit Pratap Narain Singh, the country\'s junior home minister told Sky News that the database will be initially implemented in New Delhi. In 2010, there were 22,172 rapes reported in India, according to statistics from the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime. According to the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN) 54 percent of sexual assaults are never reported to police and 97 percent of assailants never spend a second in jail.
The victim of the Delhi attack which sparked the demonstrations and debate underwent three abdominal operations and went in to cardiac arrest before being transported to Singapore\'s Mount Elizabeth Hospital for further treatment. The horrific attack has inspired widespread anti-rape protests across India, activists exasperated by routine police response and a culture of victim-blaming are calling for tougher sexual assault laws. A rape is reported every 20 minutes in India and the offense is the fastest rising crime in the country. It is an issue that penetrates to the core of the authorities; six members of India’s legislative assembly are currently named under rape charges.
Kavita Krishnan, Secretary of the All India Progressive Women\'s Association (AIPWA), criticised the Delhi Police Commissioner Neeraj Kumar this week, saying: “When Neeraj Kumar was newly appointed as a police commissioner, he held a press conference where he said \'look, how can the police do anything about incidents of rape?\' There is a huge gap in the police’s investigations of rape, there is an inconsistency, they have no procedure in place for how to deal with a victim. All the women here know is that the Delhi Police has only one way of dealing with such a situation- if you walk into a police station today and complain that you have been a victim of sexual violence, the first thing they will tell you is not to file a complaint.”
Beside criticising police procedure she also swiped at a widespread tendency to blame victims of assault rather than its persecutors, perpetuating a victim-blaming culture that sees women helpless to stop the barrage of sexual violence they suffer on the streets every day, “I feel that the word ‘safety’ with regard to women has been used far too much. All of us women know what this ‘safety’ refers to, we have heard our parents use it, we have heard our communities, our principals, our wardens use it. Women know what ‘safety’ refers to. It means ‘You behave yourself. You get back into the house. You don’t dress in a particular way. You do not live with personal freedom.’ This is how they tell us to stay ‘safe’. A whole range of patriarchal laws and institutions tell us what to do in the guise of keeping us ‘safe’. We reject this entire notion. We don’t want it. No one is talking about protecting her freedom to live without fear.”
She concluded by condemning the reaction to demonstrations: \"our rage will not be washed away with water cannons, or beaten out of us with sticks? It is shameful that the government and the police who are ever willing to defend the actions of rapists are now poised to attack those fighting for the rights of women.\" Police have been trying to disperse protesters with live ammunition, and cameraman Bwizamani Singh was killed on Sunday by police while covering the demonstrations.