Madhavi Rao ’24
Staff Writer
Content warning: The following piece discusses the sexual abuse and murder of women and of a minor. It also includes brief mentions of suicide.
“How much longer can we look away! Women’s rights are human rights,” Indian journalist Faye D’Souza declared on Instagram. “Enough is enough.” D’Souza’s post referred to a series of cases in the news surrounding sexual violence against Indian women. The most recent of countless such cases was the rape and murder of a 34-year-old woman in Sakinaka, a suburb of Mumbai on Friday, 17 September. The case bears a striking resemblance to one of the most famous and protested rape cases in Indian history, which has come to be known as the Nirbhaya rape case of 2012.
In 2012, a 23-year old woman was gang-raped on a bus by six men and brutalized with an iron rod, eventually dying of her injuries. Due to Indian media laws which prevent news journals from publishing rape victims’ identities, newspapers gave the woman a pseudonym — Nirbhaya, meaning “fearless” in Hindi.
The Nirbhaya case led to mass outrage across the country as people protested for women’s rights and an end to sexual violence. Of the six men, four were hanged in March 2020. One of the men was found dead in his prison cell, having apparently killed himself, as reported by BBC News. The sixth perpetrator was 17 at the time of the crime and served three years in a juvenile delinquent center before being released in 2015.
Less than two years after the execution of the Nirbhaya rapists, the 34-year-old woman was found raped and unconscious in the back of a bus in Sakinaka. According to CNN, she was also assaulted with an iron rod. The victim was admitted to a hospital in the city, but later died of her injuries. The rapist has been arrested and confessed to the crime.
“The case will be tried on fast track and the culprit will be severely punished, ensuring justice to the woman who lost her life due to this dreadful crime,” Uddhav Thackeray, Chief Minister of the state of Maharashtra, Mumbai, said.
“It’s pretty horrifying that abuses like this are taking place, and I think the main problem in such a context is that swift justice is promised, but is usually not kept,” Maahi Jaiswall ’24 said. “The legal system and processes in place take too long.”
When first reading about the case, Isha Ela Chinniah ’24 was shocked at the similarity to the Nirbhaya case.
“Having to witness such a cruel crime repeat itself for a second time within a period of nine years was sickening,” Chinniah said. “To top it all, the man accused of rape and murder commented on the woman's caste to justify his actions. No words can express the anger and sadness I felt on hearing this.” Chinniah continued, “This barbaric crime was the result of a patriarchal system coupled with a long-standing caste system that allowed an individual to believe they could violate a human being in the most cruel way.”
The threat of sexual violence and death is statistically more pronounced for lower caste and Dalit — formally known as “untouchable” — women and children. According to The Diplomat, close to ten Dalit women or girls were raped every day in 2019. The journal emphasizes that this number is likely much higher since 99 percent of rape cases in India go unreported.
In August 2021, a nine-year-old Dalit girl was raped and forcibly cremated in the Indian capital of New Delhi. The girl was raped and killed by a Hindu priest, part of the uppermost caste, and three other men while she was fetching water.
“This is not an isolated incident. It’s just that it came to light,” Suman Dixit, a women’s rights activist, told Al Jazeera. “Sexual violence against women, particularly those from [lower] classes, is common in this country and they have to struggle hard to get justice.”
In a report, Equality Now, a global NGO which works to uphold women’s rights, stated, “Violence, including rape and gang rape, [has] been systematically utilized as [a] weapon by dominant castes to oppress Dalit women and girls and reinforce structural gender and caste hierarchies.”
“There isn't a day that goes by when a woman in India isn't violated in the most horrifying way,” Chinniah said. “Unfortunately these crimes against women are normalized in areas of India and simply don't receive the attention they deserve. As horrendous as this crime was, it is necessary to have it brought to the spotlight in order to spread awareness about sexual assault in India.”