Incidents such as the one that occurred March 12, 2014 are a great example of how ignorant Indians are to the problem of sexual abuse of women in India.  Something needs to be done about these constant headlines; it is not okay that rape incidents have become more regular than meals in India.

Two girls were on their way home when they realized they had no money to pay their taxi driver. As one girl left to find her friend to lend them cash, twelve men attacked the girl who was left alone. They teased the young woman until she finally decided to walk away. When she realized they were right behind her, she started to sprint. They finally caught her and began to strip her clothes. Keep in mind this was happening at 4 p.m. in broad daylight near Aman Welfare Society at Hindustan Naka, Kandivli. No one stopped to help this young woman. In fact, she even tried to get help from a restaurant manager, but was denied and kicked out of his restaurant. She once again tried to get help but was denied by yet another store. This shows nothing but apathy in India. A woman has been kidnapped and is yelling and pleading for help but the restaurant manager is too worried about how many customers are walking in and out of his restaurant. This is a scary example of the ignorance in India and a perfect example of why men get away with their actions.

Another example of how this shows that there are probably many more rapes in India than we think is how the police describe the woman’s reaction to the event. This woman, who denied wanting to report a file against the men must have thought the same thing every other sexually harassed woman, does: “They won’t do anything about it,” or “they’ll probably blame it on me.” Several cops have been known to blame the victim for the rape incident. This attitude for women has been incorporated into the very culture causing men to be insensitive. Although she was devastated it took the police a few hours to convince her to report a file against them. A woman who should want to make sure these men get the highest penalty possible is hiding and not wanting to report sexual harassment.

A significant number, 24,000, of rape cases were reported in India in 2012. Only 1-4% of women actually report being raped, meaning this number is probably much larger and even more significant. There’s a 24.21% conviction rate for rape in India, and this number only gets lower every year.  Conviction rates in 1937 were 44.3% but plummeted all the way to 26.4% in 2011. People are only becoming more and more complacent to the issue of rape, which is ironic because after the amount of reported incidents went up, one would think there would be actions taken.

A huge chunk of rape cases are simply just disposed of. In 2012, of the 23,792 cases related to rape, 8,772 were disposed of. Also, just the police encouraging woman to report files against these men isn’t enough. Men will continue until they think there’s a harsh consequence.  The staff from Firstpost state, “For there to be progress in India, we need to know where rape happens, who the perpetrators are and how they chose their victims.” These are all things that can be easily sought out with the proper amount of effort and research. If we know what we have to do to stop it, why aren’t we trying to stop it?

Incidents such as these are the perfect reason why Indian women and government need to start taking actions. No more lives can be lost or ruined anymore and someone needs to take actions against the cruelty happening to women in India. Indian society has become a depressing and dehumanized atmosphere for women and will continue to be until major steps are taken- before it gets worse.

[Image Attribute: Wikipedia]