Though the governments, both at the Centre and the
city, claimed they have initiated a number of measures to end the culture of
crime against women, activists feel not much success has been achieved to make
women feel safe in Delhi.
Our tears haven't dried, Nirbhaya's father says
"Our tears have not dried. With each passing day her memories get more intense. Someone is always crying at home"- these words of the father of December 16 gang rape victim describe the pain and struggle of her family to overcome the tragedy that shook India a year ago. Since the fateful incident, the family of the girl remains in grip of shock, grief and anger though four of the rapists were sentenced to death by a court after a nine-month trial.
"We will never recover ever and she is very much alive within us," the 48-year-old father told PTI with tears welling up in his eyes.
He said that every time his wife cooks something, she remembers her daughter.
"Every time we sit to eat our meals, my wife says...'this is her favorite food and we are eating it without her'. She loved good food. My wife remembers the last time when our daughter left home saying that she will be back home in three- four hours...but our wait never ended as the hours turned into months and then into years," he said with a choked voice.
Fighting back tears, he said that their real battle has begun now as they have filed a petition in the Supreme Court against the juvenile accused who was "let off".
"We have not yet got justice. We want all the culprits including the one, who was a juvenile at the time of the incident, to be hanged and only perhaps then our minds will get some rest and we will be able to sleep in peace," he said with his wife nodding in agreement.
Her parents had moved the Supreme Court on November 30 seeking directions to put one of the accused who was then a minor on trial by a criminal court by quashing a law which bans such prosecution of juveniles.
When asked if the women in the country feel safe since the incident which triggered mass protests forcing the government to amend anti-rape laws and review measures to ensure security for them, the father said "as long as the mindset of the society will not change, women can never be safe out on the roads."
Delhi HC verdict on death for Dec 16 rapists likely in Jan
Sharing the same views, Suman Rajput said, "What kind of example has been set that the convicts will be sentenced but never hanged. And even if they are punished, it will happen years later. Isn't it the same as what has been happening in past. Then how can we say that 'something' has changed?"
The Centre had brought a legislation in April that provided for life term and even death sentence for rape convicts besides stringent punishment for offences like acid attacks, stalking and voyeurism.
The Criminal Law (Amendment) Bill-2013 was brought against the backdrop of the country-wide outrage over Delhi gangrape, and it was named the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2013.
The law, passed by Lok Sabha on March 19 and by Rajya Sabha on March 21, has replaced an Ordinance promulgated on February 3.
It amended various sections of the Indian Penal Code, the Code of Criminal Procedure, the Indian Evidence Act and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act.
With an aim of providing a strong deterrent against crimes like rapes, the new law stated that an offender can be sentenced to rigorous imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than 20 years, but which may extend to life, meaning imprisonment for the remainder of the convict's natural life and with a fine.
It has provisions for handing out death sentence to offenders who may have been convicted earlier for such crimes.
The law, for the first time, defines stalking and voyeurism as non-bailable offences if repeated for a second time. Perpetrators of acid attack will attract a 10-year jail.
In September, death sentence was awarded to the four convicts in the case by a court which said the "beastly" and "hair-raising" manner in which the crime was committed against the girl falls in the rarest of rare category.
Jyoti Bhardwaj, a law-student said, "The fast track court took more than 8 months to come up with justice in a single case of the gangrape victim while there are innumerable other cases that remain practically unattended."
"We must remember that the girl was not killed by a group of horrifically misguided individuals, but it was a result of an existing culture of having scant respect for girls and women," says Vijaylakshi, a Delhi University faculty and convener of Women's cell.
Dr Ranjana Kumari, Director, Centre for Social Research, believes that the Congress government had to bear the brunt of the unfortunate incidents of rape in the last few years in the recent assembly election.
"The voters had all the reasons to feel cheated by the government. The results are available for everyone to see, " she says.
According to another women activist, Kavita Krishnan, "Giving death penalties would not satisfy those lakhs of women who have to deal with issues of their security and violence against them in their day to day life and find no answers to what the government is doing about them."
However, a section of women activists also believe that ice has definitely being broken and there are high hopes of improvement of situation in the coming years.
"It has given strength to women at least. They are no longer afraid of coming out and accepting what they are suffering from. This is the situation unlike the past years," says Kamla Bhasin, founder member of Jagori, an NGO for women.
Delhi girl raped by facebook friend
BHOPAL: A 19-year-old dalit girl was raped by her facebook friend for around a month when she came to Bhopal trusting him that he would get her a job. A case in this regard was registered at the Ashoka Garden police station.Police officers said the girl who studies in class XII in New Delhi had come in contact with accused Sandeep, 26, two months back through a common friend in Vidisha. Sandeep, who hails from Sagar worked with an NGO in Bhopal and lived at a rented accommodation in Pantnagar, Ashoka Garden area in the city.
The duo became friends over the social networking site and exchanged their mobile numbers. Police said girl asked the man to assist her in getting a job. Promising that he would be able to get her a job, the accused persuaded her to visit Bhopal.
On October 10 the girl boarded a train for Bhopal and the accused went to Bina to receive her instead of waiting for the train to reach Bhopal. Police said the accused took her to his rented accommodation in Pantnagar and other places, including Mandi Bamora and Kolar. He kept outraging her modesty and threatened her of dire consequences if she revealed about it to anyone.
Police said the girl who hailed from Shivpuri district of Madhya Pradesh was rescued after she managed to inform her brother, who contacted the police. Police rescued from a locality in Kolar area. The rape survivor, in a state of shock due to her month-long ordeal, did not gave up to threats of accused and approached the police and got register a case of rape against him.
The accused has been taken into custody on girl's complaint, the police added.
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