A brief background
On December 16, 2012, a 23-year old female paramedical student, accompanied by a male friend, boarded an off-duty private bus in South Delhi. There were four other passengers, in addition to the driver and the cleaner. The other passengers passed several lewd remarks in the direction of the student and her friend, which resulted in an altercation. As the argument escalated, the six men assaulted the male companion with iron rods, after which they restrained the woman and brutally assaulted and gang-raped her. The entire incident went on for about 45 minutes, after which the two victims were dumped near a flyover, almost four miles away from where they boarded the bus. The victims were able to raise an alarm, and were immediately rushed to the hospital (The Hindu, December 17, 2012).
Incidents of sexual assault happen on a daily basis in India, and across the world. But this one stood out, due to a number of factors – the barbarity of the incident was extreme enough to make it stand out, and the rape happened in a major metropolitan city of India, under circumstances which could have befallen anyone. The aftermath of December 16, 2012 saw nationwide protests and riots, particularly concentrated in New Delhi.
I was in the city at this period, and can attest to the fact that the people were gripped by a fury I hadn’t personally witnessed ever before. People stormed the streets, conducted demonstrations, and clashed with the authorities for days on end after the incident. They demanded that justice be served against the perpetrators, onus be taken by the authorities, and changes be implemented in the system to make India a safer place for women. India had had enough. Things were going to be different.
Except, eight months down the line, it happened again.
An unnervingly similar incident occurred in central Mumbai on the evening of August 22, 2013. A 23-year old woman working with an English magazine was in the deserted Shakti Mills compound, accompanied by a male friend. They were accosted by five men, who lured them deeper into the compound, and assaulted the male companion. The five men then tied up the two victims, took the woman to a run-down part of the mill, and gang-raped her. They threatened her with sharp pieces of a broken bottle to keep silent, and let the pair go when they were done (The Hindu, August 23, 2013; The Indian Express, August 23, 2013).
Once again, the brutality of the incident was enough to set it apart from the daily occurrences of sexual assault. And the commonalities with the Delhi incident were picked up immediately: a day after the Mumbai incident, newspapers were juxtaposing the two – “Drawing a similarity with the infamous December 16 gang-rape case in Delhi, the men tied up the victim’s friend and raped the woman.” (The Indian Express, August 23, 2013). The rape victims were the same age, and both were accompanied by male friends who were also assaulted. Both incidents happened in major metropolitan cities of India, under circumstances that could have befallen anyone.
Sources: The Hindu (http://www.thehindu.com/); The Indian Express(http://indianexpress.com/)