It Was 16th Dec 2012; This Is 16th Dec 2016. Another Day Another Rape In Delhi

Four years ago on this day, a gruesome incident shook the country from the depths of its reverie. It was the brutal gang-rape and murder of Jyoti Singh by six men on a bus in Delhi. This tragic incident enraged India and also made international headlines. She fought vehemently for her life in hospital for 13 days and succumbed to her injuries on December 29, 2012, at a hospital in Singapore.

This incident had drawn a visceral response from the people. People protested at the India Gate and organised candlelight marches. The pain of ‘Nirbhaya’ as Jyoti was called, had ignited so much outburst that thousands of students braved water cannons and even tear gas.

It has been four years since the barbaric incident. But even after four years, the situation has not improved. Women are still unsafe in the country.

Another barbarous incident has come to light from the capital of the country. It was 16th December 2012; this is 16th December 2016. Nirbhaya was raped in a bus; This girl was raped in the car. These lines haunt us and hurt our soul to the core.

A driver raped a 20-year-old woman from Noida in Moti Bagh, South Delhi late on Wednesday night. She was in Delhi to search for a job and was waiting for the bus around at 10 PM.

The accused approached and offered her a lift. The car had a Ministry of Home Affairs Sticker on the front windshield. She got into the car. It is reported the driver started molesting her. Before she could call out for help, he silenced and raped her in Moti Bagh area. He later abandoned the car and victim.

The victim approached a Police Control Room (PCR) and narrated her ordeal. The police took down her complaint against the driver and sent her for medical examination. The accused was nabbed by Delhi police from a friend’s home on Thursday morning.

The police have filed a case under section 357 and 376 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

According to India today, the car was owned by a CISF (Central Industrial Security Force) head constable, and the accused identified as Aman Kumar was the personal driver of the head constable.

The car had a Home Ministry sticker on it, but it was not used by any government employee, as indicated by The Financial Express.

Swati Maliwal, Chairperson of DCW (Delhi Commission of Women), wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi about the mounting numbers of cases against women in the capital of the nation. She quoted that minors, women all are being victims of predators and every day over six Nirbhayas are created in New Delhi, and that’s why the city has come to be known as the rape capital of the world.

Another incident also provoked anger in public when two classmates allegedly gang-raped a teenager at a birthday party in Delhi.

The girl was invited to a birthday party by her friend where she was forced to drink with him. Her friends forced and molested her and called his other friends to join him. They dragged the minor out of the house and left her by the roadside in extreme winters of Delhi. She borrowed a phone from a passer-by and informed her parents. The accused boys have been detained and sent to a juvenile rehabilitation, as reported by NDTV.

Even after a vigorous protest at India Gate in Delhi demanding stringent laws, surprisingly the incidents of rape have steadily increased from 706 in 2012 to 2199 in 2016, as reported by The Hindustan Times. Out of these 2199 cases, 295 were those of incest, 816 cases of friends and family friends and 345 cases of neighbours. It could be that the number of complaints lodged have risen exponentially. But this still does not solve the underlying problem.

Women live in constant fear that one day their story will be published in the newspaper, or that they will be dismissed by authorities like thousand of others across the country.

When will the country be safe for children and women? How can we make the country more safe for women?