On June 7, 2017 Times of India reported an incident of gang rape and murder. On May 29th a 19-year-old woman was traveling by auto rickshaw late at night with her eight-month-old baby. The two men who shared the auto with her, and the driver all took a turn gang raping her, in the process killing her baby by throwing her at the concrete median verge of the road. “I became numb from that point. All I remember is seeing my child’s head hitting the road divider,” she reported. The woman walked to the metro with her dead baby in her arms and traveled for help, once arriving at her in-laws place the doctor informed her baby was dead. Not wanting to believe him she traveled by train to Delhi, the doctor in Delhi also informed her the baby was dead. Finally the women returned to her hometown, Gurugram, to file a police report. While her husband mourned the death of their child she expressed that she was gang raped. Using an auto rickshaw daily, and being a woman, this article really puts into perspective how unsafe traveling can be.

 

    Out of the 27.5 million women affected by sexual violence, only 1% of the victims report the crime to the police (Raj, A., & McDougal, L., 2014). In this case the woman reported the death of her child first, but it was only after hours that the husband said, “I was mourning my daughter when my wife revealed about the gang rape” (Times of India, 2017). The woman could have been severely hurt, having internal injuries or acute post-traumatic stress disorder but decided to wait over 24 hours to report the sexual assault. This raises the question of the kind of support women are receiving in India in terms of sexual assault. Rape in India only came to light after the fatal gang rape of a student in Delhi in 2012 and the village council-ordered gang rape of a young woman in West Bengal in 2014 (Raj, A., & McDougal, L., 2014). Although a lot of stigma still surrounds this subject, women all around India are protesting for equal rights and justice. This article responds well to the rise of women’s rights movement by posting sketches of the men responsible, and working towards a quick arrest instead of holding the victim liable.

 

    The Times of India does well by quoting the victims directly and holding the perpetrators accountable. The data on crimes in India are incomplete, the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) publishes it annually complied from records of police stations all over the country (Mukherjee, C., Rustagi, P., & Krishnaji, N., 2001). If women are too scared to report crimes against them how are we going to receive correct data? News sources like The Times of India brings to light the atrocities happening in the country, bringing awareness to the problem is the first step in a solution.

 

    The woman was traveling by auto rickshaw past midnight, and shared it with two strange men. Many people would say “she shouldn’t have been out late,” or “she shouldn’t share autos,” in this case I say the men should not have gang raped her and killed her child. It does not matter that it was late, or that she shared an auto. The law should hold the three men accountable for the events that happened that night. A study reveals that sexual assault commonly occurs inside the house (87%) and usually by close acquaintance (61%), and victims found to mentally fit (97%) (Sahu, G., Mohanty, S., & Dash, J. K., 2005). In those cases would you blame the victim? Should she have not been in her own home, the safety of her family? No matter the scenario, victims of sexual assault should not be blamed. The rapist should be held responsible.

 

    After reading this article for the first time, I had to take a step back from my computer in order to process it. Being a mother I cannot imagine the loss of my child. The woman was only 19-years-old, she has so many years ahead of her, and took a loss at a such a young age. The article refers to her as a woman, but in other societies she would just be a teenager, maybe in college, enjoying her youth. She now has to recover from a gang rape and child loss. I was exceptionally angry towards those men, and not once did I second-guess the actions of the victim. I learned that although most people will hold a victim responsible, in any situation I would always hold the criminal at law.

 

Works Cited

 

Mukherjee, C., Rustagi, P., & Krishnaji, N. (2001). Crimes against women in India: Analysis of official statistics. Economic and Political Weekly, 4070-        4080.

 

Raj, A., & McDougal, L. (2014). Sexual violence and rape in India. Women, 2001, 124.

 

Sahu, G., Mohanty, S., & Dash, J. K. (2005). Vulnerable victims of sexual assault. Medicine, science and the law, 45(3), 256-260.

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​Yadav, S. (2017, June 7). Gurugram: After rape horro, woman takes Metro with dead baby. The Times of India.