JOIN USDelhi remains same: 64 rape cases in 17 days
The national capital appears to remain as unsafe for women as it has always been, notwithstanding an unprecedented national outrage and angry calls for death penalty to perpetrators of sexual assault against them in the wake the tragic death of a young woman following her brutal gang-rape in the city on December 16.
The statistics are alarming. In 17 days since December 17, the city police control room has received 64 calls to record complaints of sexual assaults, mostly rape, and 501 calls to record complaints of molestation and eve-teasing. That is almost four cases of sexual assaults and about 30 cases of molestation and eve-teasing each day! These, of course, are only the reported cases.
The numbers for the 17 days are also worrying as they show a spurt in violence against women right in the midst of the national anger and outrage over the brutality against the young woman. The numbers are higher as compared to the daily average cases reported for the entire year, which, according to police records, is around two — 650 rape case for the year 2012.
Government’s assurances on women’s safety and intensified police patrolling in the national capital have seemingly not deterred the perpetrators of the violence. Rape, molestation and harassment of women continue unabated in the city.
On Tuesday itself, around 10 cases of molestation, eve-teasing and sexual assault were reported from various parts of the city, though some of these cases were reported earlier this month. While a 19-year-old woman was gang-raped by five men — three of them have been arrested — at Alipur in north Delhi on January. A doctor was arrested on Monday for sexually assaulting one of his employees for the past four years at Patel Nagar.
In the heart of the city, in the Mandir Marg area, two people were arrested for attempting to sexually exploit a woman. Two army officials were detained for teasing a theatre actor at New Delhi Railway Station, on Monday.
“Two cases were registered at Ambedkar Nagar where a property dealer and a hotel manager sexually exploited girls for the past one year on the pretext of marrying them. Both were arrested and sent to jail,” said a senior police officer.
At Govindpuri in south Delhi, two cases of sexual exploitation were reported. In one case, a woman alleged that her neighbour sexually exploited and threatened her and, in the other, a 51-year-old alleged that her brother-in-law assaulted her.
A minor girl alleged that her uncle abused her sexually at his house in Greater Kailash. The man was later arrested. At Shakarpur in east Delhi, a girl was sexually exploited on the pretext of marriage for the past one year.
“These figures reveal that perpetrators have no fear of law. Such incidents will increase till police reforms and speedy trial of such cases are put in place. Last year, around 24,000 cases of sexual assault were reported from across the national capital and 7,500 cases are still pending in various courts,” said Ranjana Kumari, director of Centre for Social Research.
She said such incidents “can be stopped only if the patriarchal mindset in society is changed and speedy conviction takes place. Till the time gender inequality remains, things will not change and all the stakeholders must unite to combat the crisis,” she said.