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The legal protections have been ineffectual partly because the government has been lax about implementing the law and investing in mechanisms to properly handle cases of sexual assault, said Vrinda Grover, a lawyer and women’s rights activist.
She said investigations she had examined were often “unprofessional and shoddy” and were carried out by people with little training. The state’s approach, Grover said, was coloured by prejudice against women.
Doctors and paramedics protesting against the rape and killing of a trainee doctor at a government hospital in Kolkata gather in front of the Indian health minister’s office, in New Delhi on Monday.Credit: AP
If the government acts only after people organise protests, “then it is the system that has become dysfunctional and we will not see the end of sexual violence”, she said.
In the Kolkata case, Chandrachud identified a number of breakdowns in the official response to the rape and killing. He asked why hospital administrators and police officers had not followed protocol in reporting the crime in the hours after the victim’s body, which bore signs of rape and brutal injury, was discovered at R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital, where she worked. The top court also set up a national taskforce to recommend safety measures to protect medics, who are often subject to violence and abuse.
Three senior officials at the Kolkata hospital have been removed from their posts. A 33-year-old man, who was a volunteer at a police post at the hospital, has been arrested in connection with the killing, but as of Thursday, he had not been charged. The Supreme Court ordered the Central Bureau of Investigation, which is handling the case, to submit a status report on Thursday.
The ongoing protests — to which dozens of Bollywood celebrities and other public figures have given their voices — have morphed into widespread anger, not just at the plight of many in the medical profession, but also about workplace safety for women.
Engineers and engineering students attend a protest against the rape and killing of a trainee doctor at a government hospital, in Kolkata.Credit: AP
The millions of Indian women who have entered the workforce in recent years have challenged patriarchal norms to pursue the same opportunities that men have in one of the world’s fastest-growing economies. Women, along with men, are also increasingly migrating from villages to cities, seeking better earnings.
But India still has a low labour force participation rate among women compared with other countries, a figure that had been on a long downward slide until the past few years. Women make up less than one-third of India’s urban labour force, and men vastly outnumber women in both government and private sector jobs.
Safety in the workplace was essential if more women are to enter the labour force, said Gita Gopinath, the first deputy managing director of the International Monetary Fund.
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“No way that will happen if women in India don’t feel completely safe,” Gopinath, who is of Indian origin, told journalist Barkha Dutt in an interview posted on YouTube. “Not having to worry about your safety is absolutely a basic right” as a woman, she said.
The numbers tell a harrowing story for Indian women. In 2023, the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security ranked India 128th out of 177 countries in its annual index on women’s inclusion, justice and security.
According to the World Bank, 35 per cent of Indian women between the ages of 15 and 49 have experienced physical or sexual violence at the hands of their partners, higher than the world average of 27 per cent.
Nearly 45,000 rape cases were investigated in 2022, the latest year for which statistics are available from India’s National Crime Records Bureau. But among the cases that went to trial, there were convictions in just over 5000 – a rate of 27.4 per cent, lower than for cases of murder, kidnapping and other violent crimes.
Many more rape cases go unreported because of social stigma and other reasons.
Though gruesome incidents of rape continue to occur and sexual harassment remains a reality for many women, the Nirbhaya case and the #MeToo movement have changed how such matters are perceived, said Grover, the women’s rights activist.
“There is a marked change in how women across brackets of age, class and caste structures view themselves,” Grover said. “There is no confusion that this is a crime they are in no way responsible for.”
On Wednesday, hundreds of doctors wearing aprons and stethoscopes protested outside the federal Health Ministry and at Jantar Mantar, a designated spot for protests in the nation’s capital. They demanded immediate action to ensure the safety of doctors and other medical workers.
“Most of the incidents are not reported,” said one doctor, Pinky Verma. “That is because the attacks happen on women, and people can live with it.”
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.