Oit is cold On a December night ten years ago, a 23-year-old physiotherapy student returning from the cinema boarded a bus in suburban Delhi. As she shook the Indian capital, Jyoti Singh was raped and mutilated by six men, including the driver, and thrown to the side of the road. She died of her injuries two weeks later. The case prompted global revulsion and restrained promises from Indian politicians to make the country safer for women.
Yet a decade later, the murder of another young professional woman in Delhi underscored the peril that millions of Indian women still face. Shraddha Walkar, a 27-year-old call center worker from Mumbai, disappeared in Delhi six months ago. It emerged that she had earlier filed a complaint with the police against her partner, Aftab Poonawala, accusing him of beating her and threatening to dismember her. He was arrested this month and, according to police, confessed to killing Ms Walkar and cutting her into 35 pieces, which he stored in a specially purchased freezer before scattering them around the capital. (His lawyer denied confessing to the crime.)
The murder of Ms Walkar, which dominated national news, is a reminder that most violence against Indian women happens in the home. Reliable statistics are hard to come by, but those that do exist suggest that domestic violence is common. Some 30% of currently or previously married women aged 18 to 49 told the National Family Health Survey that they had been subjected to it. Of those who said they had experienced sexual violence, 96% said a husband or ex-husband was the perpetrator. Delhi recorded six cases a day of rape and 15 of cruelty by a husband or in-laws in the first half of this year, which activists say is a tenth of the total. Obtaining a conviction in such cases can take years.
The backlash from Jyoti Singh’s murder led to progress. “It forced members of the elite and middle class to consider that it could be them,” says Shrayana Bhattacharya, an economist and author of a book on Indian women. The case led to the creation of a special commission, on whose recommendation parliament passed several laws making it easier to prosecute sexual assault and related offenses such as harassment or voyeurism. Fast-track courts have been set up to try rape cases.
In recent years, the share of victims who report sex crimes to the police has increased. Then it stabilized. Some states are trying to address this issue, such as hiring more female cops and creating women’s help desks or all-female police stations.
Recent efforts to strengthen the status of women could be even more beneficial. The Supreme Court has played a special role in promoting equality. He expanded women’s right to inherit property, expanded access to abortion for single women, and emphasized sexual autonomy in relationships in a ruling that decriminalized adultery. He also ruled that the Muslim practice of “triple talaq”, an easy divorce option for men (but not women), was unconstitutional.
However, the legal and institutional responses do not go further. Social attitudes matter more and are harder to change.
There are signs that harassment in public spaces is becoming less acceptable, especially in cities. “Urban women don’t take nonsense anymore,” says Ranjana Kumari, director of Delhi’s Center for Social Research. Yet things look bleaker at home. More than half of Indian men and women say it is acceptable for husbands to beat their wives occasionally (see chart). The marital rape exemption was challenged in the Supreme Court but continues to enjoy majority support.
Laws designed to protect women are often used against them. Research by Rukmini S, a journalist, suggests that women are often pressured into making false rape allegations against a partner their loved ones disapprove of. Several states have passed laws against “love jihad”, a conspiracy theory that Muslim men seek to hijack Hindu women from their faith, making interfaith relations even more difficult than it already is.
On the other hand, where women are at risk, social pressures can get in the way of the law. Ms Walkar later withdrew her police complaint against Mr Poonawala, allegedly under pressure from him and his family.
The best response to violence, ultimately, is the empowerment of women. The more women are educated, free to choose a spouse and economically independent, the less they are abused. This suggests that big improvements will take time.
Indian women are increasingly well educated, albeit from a very low level. The number of university entries increased by 18% between 2016 and 2020. And if more than 90% of marriages are arranged, there too there is progress; middle-class women increasingly decide who they marry. Yet the share of working Indian women was among the lowest in the world even before the pandemic brought it down even further. He is only beginning to straighten up. “A wife, a mother holds the highest position, the highest consideration in our country,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi once said. If only it was true. ■
