'My daughter's name is Jyoti Singh'

Dec 16 gang-rape

“My daughter was Jyoti Singh and I am not ashamed to name her,” said Asha Devi, mother of the December 16, 2012, gang-rape victim.

Asha made public her daughter’s name at a tribute ceremony organised three years to the day after the 23-year-old physiotherapy student was gang-raped in a moving bus in Delhi, sparking off national outrage. She died 13 days after the incident.

“It is the offenders who should be ashamed and hide their name. I want to tell everyone that my daughter’s name was Jyoti Singh. From today, everyone should know her as Jyoti Singh,” Asha said to a big applause from the audience at Jantar Mantar.

Her response was in reference to the restrictions on naming rape victims in the media. Noted personalities from politics, cinema, journalism and civil society gathered at Jantar Mantar to mark the third anniversary of the brutal incident.

Juvenile’s release

Asha and her husband Badrinath Singh on Wednesday also made an appeal against the release of the youngest of the convicts, who is due to be freed from a reform home.

“I’m totally against his release. He deserves no different punishment. Minor girls are being raped because people like him are let off,” Singh said at another event.

He slammed the Arvind Kejriwal government over media reports that the juvenile convict would get Rs 10,000 along with a sewing machine as part of government’s rehabilitation plan. “Delhi government is involved in criminal safety, and not women safety,” he said.
Singh also questioned the government over its alleged failure to step up CCTV surveillance. “Why the Nirbhaya Fund is lying unutilised?” he said.

Women right activists and National Commission for Women (NCW) chairperson Lalitha Kumarmangalam argued in favour of tweaking the Juvenile Justice Act.

Kumarmangalam said the NCW has recommended to the Ministry of Women and Child Development to lower the age of juveniles from 18 to 16.

She also said that the Home Ministry has plans of revealing the names of sexual offenders online. “The ministry has taken cognisance of what demands from people have been. If not the faces, at least the names of these offenders should be revealed. This will help the society and police to keep a tab on them,” she added.