How does the way young women are raised contribute to the progression rape and assault against women in India?

On December 17, 2012, Jyoti Singh and her boyfriend boarded a bus in New Delhi, India after seeing a movie. The bus driver told the two that he was driving the bus the direction in which they were headed. However, once upon the bus, Singh’s boyfriend was violently beaten, and Jyoti was dragged to the back of the bus and gang raped by six men who were friends with the bus driver. During the brutal attack, one of the six men sexually assaulted her with an iron rod, pulling her intestines out of her vagina and causing severe internal damage. After the assault, the men threw her off the bus,  leaving her on the side of the road to die. Jyoti was a young, strong college student who had wanted to become a doctor. She had always been a hardworking and kind soul, and she did not deserve what happened to her. Sadly, Jyoti Singh’s story is not unique. Her case mirrors those of the many other millions of rape and assault victims across India. However, the subsequent international media coverage of Singh’s brutal rape sparked a national movement. The day following her rape, thousands of Indian citizens protested against rape and assault; it was the start of a new revolution. The discrimination against and violence towards women in India have persisted for decades and can be traced back to deep rooted causes such as poverty, shame, and stigmatization; this oppressive culture of silence and violence against women will not change until the government not only changes its laws but also commits itself to enforcing them. 

Indian society, historically, has viewed girls as lesser than boys- especially at a young age, which leads to practices that subjugate women such as birth selection and the rape of many girls under the age of 18. Women of India are not only seen as unequal to men but also are blamed for the sexual assault or rape that they might endure. Every 20 minutes a woman is raped in India, a 83% jump in crimes against women from 2007 to 2016, yet most rapes still go unreported due to fear. Boys are traditionally far more favored by parents in India than are girls, and girls are often aborted quickly after the recognition of their gender. An average of about 879 out of 1000 aborted fetuses are female, which tipped the gender ratio to 914 girls to every 1000 boys, the largest gender gap since India’s independence in 1947. So many young girls experience rape or assault at some point in their lives. Most of these sexual assaults occur in urban areas: either on busy streets, on public transportation, or in large gathering spaces like movie theaters. The Indian police only registers fewer than 40,000 cases of rape and assault on children annually. In comparison, the United States reports around 63,000 cases of child molestation annually, even though the US has one third the amount of children India has. Not only are Indian girls disproportionately  sexually assaulted, but almost 200 children disappear every day, many of them girls. In only two years, the number of missing children who have not been found nearly doubled, from an average of 34,000 in 2013 to 63,000 in 2015. 

While violence against women in India has not subsided, Jyoti Singh’s brutal sexual assault and murder have prompted the Indian media to report incidents of violence against women and girls. In recent months, the news has been filled with the stories and cases of violence against young girls in India, with the torture and murder of an 8-year-old girl in Jammu, the gang rape and murder of an 11 year old girl in Gujarat, and the rape of a 6 year old girl in Uttar Pradesh. These new cases prompted the Indian government to fast track court cases for rapes of girls under 12 years of age. However, the court system continues to fail and does not win justice for victims, with only 1 out of every 4 cases securing a conviction.

Indian women, especially if raped in the past, receive far fewer job opportunities. India ranks 98 out of 128 countries on women’s economic opportunities, and around 97% of working women in India have jobs in the informal sector, mainly working in parts of the agricultural sector. In contrast, men not only have India’s labor laws to protect them but also hold most of jobs in the manufacturing sector and other higher paying sectors. Male dominance in these positions and jobs directly correlates to the fact that traditional Indian culture values women staying at home, along with many social norms and values that stigmatize men with employed wives. Rejoining the workforce after having children continues to create a struggle for women all over India. The 108th Amendment Bill, proposed in 2008, which would create a mandatory law of 33% of all legislative bodies to be filled by women, would allow women all over India to occupy positions of power and authority, thus taking a big step towards decreasing discrimination across India. Unfortunately, this bill lapsed in 2014 after the 15th Lok Sabha, one of the houses in India’s bicameral Parliament, was disbanded by the Indian government. Women all over India encounter sexual harassment and oppression during their lives, and this includes within the workforce. Women in all types of jobs and sectors in India have been sexually harassed, a fact that is only recently gaining media attention. For example, famous Bollywood actresses are now speaking out about being sexually harassed or assaulted by writers, producers, or actors. In the past, famous Indian actors and men have not had to protect themselves from anything, including rape allegations or assault charges, but women are now speaking out. While women continue to only make up only around 27% of the workforce, and still face the threats of sexual assault and rape, the women's movement in India of speaking out against the injustices perpetrated towards women signals a positive step forward.

Another factor contributing to India’s pervasive “rape culture” is the fact that women are not encouraged to speak up for themselves and are many times forced to withdraw allegations or even marry their rapists to avoid “bringing shame upon their families.” The women of India often feel burdened by just being themselves. The differences between how women view themselves and how men view themselves can be seen in the words each uses to describe their own lives with women using words like “mother,” “sacrifice” or “giving”, while men often describe themselves with words like “leader” or “powerful”. At this point in time, women are naturally internalizing these words and are filled with doubt of their own abilities to be anything other than a mother or wife. Often times, their own fathers or brothers are unsatisfied with their sisters’ or wives’ achievements and continue to disregard their dreams and futures. Women have ingrained these unspoken rules of their lives, which include being a heterosexual female with a husband. The notion of a woman’s “honor” has contributed to the oppression of women in Indian society. For example, most  rapes will result in the practice of  a “compromise,” where the family of an underaged victim will receive an out of court settlement, and the victim will be forced to “save her honor” by marrying her rapist, thus causing her case not to be registered. With these unfair and unspoken rules, women have not had the voice of their movement until now. Women all over India have been reclaiming their voices and speaking up against rape and assault.

The oppression of women in India can also be tied to poverty and a lack of education. Poor women in India receive limited schooling, and thus do not have the resources or education needed to create a life within Indian society. Because of low job rates for women, many live in poverty and do not have enough money to provide their children with an education. The lack of money also constitutes for overpopulation in urban areas. Girls also have a lower rate of nutrition and health. While access to primary education is almost equal among the two sexes, only 41% of college students are women. This leaves only around 66% of girls literate from ages 15 to 24 and only 50% of adult women literate. A lack of education can directly correlate with rape and assault, and is one of the many excuses used when backing up a rape or assault case. A disproportionately high 70% of the women who are uneducated come from the poorest parts of India, tribal groups, or Muslim communities. Many religious places in India do not have a secure schooling system, and their religion is also used as an excuse for rape and assault on women and children. Many religions, including Islam and Hindu, push for the age of allowed marriage for young girls to be lowered to 15 years old, based on the fact that most girls reach puberty in India before the age of 11. While some believe that lowering the age of consent would assist in the decrease of rape, these young marriages are merely trapping girls with strange men and forcing them to become a wife and even bear children at terribly young ages. This practice ignores the mental and emotional maturity of girls in favor of just acknowledging physical maturity. Not only is this practice of child marriage immoral, but it also carries significant biological risks for the mother and child. Rape and early marriage cannot be justified by religion or lack of education, but are still used as excuses for discrimination and rape.

The lack of enforcement of laws, trials, and significant jail time in regards women's rights makes it extremely easy for perpetrators to get away with rape and assault, thus perpetuating the cycle of violence and victimization against women. The Indian criminal justice system is underfunded and overburdened, leaving only a third of sex crimes that go to trial end in a conviction, and even then, it will most likely will take up to 10 years for the case to go through. As of 2015, 90% of cases are still pending in court, even though only around 4 out of 10 rape or assault cases get reported. Not only is it extremely difficult to get a trial in India, but the laws in which are represented in their constitution or amendments are unenforced. India’s constitution prohibits bias of sex or discrimination based off sex, yet women continue to be subjected to rape, sexual harassment, and assault across India. The Indian government only officially recognized crimes against women including rape, kidnapping or abduction, molestation, torture, sexual harassment, homicide for dowry, and the importation of girls in 2011. Even while these crimes are now recognized, the government has received many critiques on the vagueness of its definitions of these terms, especially that of rape. This vagueness makes it difficult to prosecute these crimes effectively in court. The Indian government also has yet to create a national registry for sex offenders, meaning women all over India could have no idea they could be living next to a rapist. This has created an unsafe environment for women and needs to be changed, along with a updated court system or the registry could create an even more dangerous environment. In 2013, India’s parliament passed a new law criminalizing stalking and voyeurism, along with imposing the death penalty for repeat offenders and rapes that lead to death. In 2014, the new government pledged “zero tolerance” for violence against women. While these steps are important for the Indian government to take, they have not proven to greatly improve the quality of life for women in the long term. It is most important for the Indian government to recognize the struggles their women go through daily and to find ways in which they can be helped as soon as possible. The Indian government needs to make the protection of its women citizens a priority. 

Even though the women’s movement towards equality in India pushed forward with Jyoti Singh and her devastating story six years ago, the terrors continue to pursue against women and girls. Indian culture and society show unfair standards when it comes to women’s rights. Women all over India live through hardships and destruction, but there are ways in which India can change efficiently and effectively to progress women’s rights immensely. By properly funding their criminal justice system, India would be able to successfully incarcerate rapists and criminals who now, with an unfunded system, get off with no extreme repercussions, thus sending the message that rape is not a serious offense. If India, as well as funding the court system, enforced and made laws in which the government would follow through with, so many women and girls would not have to suffer the extreme devastation that rape and assault causes. Unfortunately, India has a long way to go in reaching actual gender equality, and poverty, lack of education, familial and societal pressure to not speak up, and a lack of laws and law enforcement in India continue to make the issue of violence against women worse.