Despite some improvements, domestic abuse remains rampant
December night ten years ago a 23-year-old physiotherapy student on her way home from the cinema boarded a bus in the south-western suburbs of Delhi. As it rattled around India’s capital, Jyoti Singh was raped and mutilated by six men, including the vehicle’s driver, and dumped by the roadside. She died of her injuries two weeks later. The case provoked global revulsion and sober promises from Indian politicians to make the country safer for women.
For a few years, reporting rates of sexual crimes went up. They have since levelled off. Some states are at least trying to tackle this, for example by hiring more female police officers and creating women’s help desks or all-female police stations. There is some signs that harassment in public spaces is becoming less acceptable, particularly in cities. “Urban women no longer take any nonsense,” says Ranjana Kumari, the director of the Centre for Social Research in Delhi. Things look bleaker in the home. Over half of Indian men and women say it is acceptable for husbands to beat their wives on occasion. The marital exemption for rape has been challenged in the Supreme Court but continues to enjoy majority support.
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