Grim 'Justice' for a Grisly Atrocity

Joyti Singh, who was fatally assaulted by six men on a bus in Delhi. Photographs: Arkaprava Ghosh / Barcroft India via Getty Images and Natisha Mallick

"Today is dedicated to the daughters of the country,"
"As soon as I returned from the Supreme Court I hugged the picture of my daughter and said, 'Today, you got justice'."
Asha Devi, mother of Jyoti Singh

"Justice has prevailed."
"[I hope to] build a nation where the focus is on women's empowerment."
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi

"The horrific gang rape has shocked the entire nation, the crime was so brutal that an entire country was outraged."
"We welcome the hanging of the rapists and believe that the country needs to now work on stricter laws to ensure no one ever dares to commit such crimes again."
Swati Maliwal, chairwoman, Delhi Commission for Women

The victim's parents Badrinath Singh (left) and Asha Devi (centre) celebrated what they said was justice for their daughter's murder

India, with its vast population rivalling that of China's, is a huge democracy, whereas China is a communist, police-state. China and India both, each of them with well over a billion people and on the increase, are known for the brilliance of their scientists, that among their populations are people with distinguished careers in medicine, technology, biology. But there is nothing to explain the disparity between the two nations in the plight of women. Where, in India, so many women and girls are victims of male violence. The caste system?

The world was aghast in 2012 when news circulated of a horribly vicious attack that took place on a bus in Delhi, an attack whose malevolent bestiality was beyond comprehension. Physiotherapy student, 23-year-old Jyoti Singh, was gang-raped and her internal organs destroyed by the insertion of a metal rod by the attackers who had raped her. She and a male friend had boarded what they thought was a public bus.

There were five men and a teen on the bus and they started taunting and then abusing the two students. The escalation in violence began when an iron bar was used to beat them, and then developed into a mass rape, and finally the use of the iron bar to express their hateful malice against a defenceless young woman who died shortly afterward, in hospital. The two students had been tossed out of the bus and left to die. The young woman's male friend survived, she did not.

The brutal attack on Jyoti Singh sparked weeks of demonstrations in India.

India now knows her as 'Nirbhaya'; fearless in Hindi. This atrocity aroused the anger of India's women and the men in India who support the right of women to be safe and secure within society. Rallies were held, protests loudly demanded the government act to stem the tide of femicide. Stricter legislation was enacted to punish acts of violence against women. And despite that, nothing appears to have impressed upon misogynistic Indian men that viciously abusing women is a crime for which they will pay, dearly.

In 2018, over 34,000 rapes were reported to Indian police, representing one every 15 minutes, but no one is under the illusion that this is a reliable number, since most rapes go unreported as a result of shame and fear and threats. Rapes are so common, of girls and women that police often fail to take them seriously. There are estimates that up to 99 percent of sex assaults go unreported, according to the 2014-15 Indian National Family Health Survey. Males of rank in the caste system abuse young Dalit women; rape and often kill them but are 'protected' from reprisal.

In the case of the five men who faced the death penalty, one committed suicide while in prison. The under-age teen who had taken part in the rape and beatings of Jyoti Singh and her companion had been sentenced as a minor and spent three years in a reform facility, reflecting the maximum sentence under natioal law for his age. The other four men were executed at the high-security Tihar prison, where a crowd gathered outside, chanting: "Death to rapists".

An Indian man holds a placard reading ‘morning of justice’ outside the prison complex before the hangings in Delhi on Friday. Photograph: Rajat Gupta/EPA