Four Men Convicted of the Rape and Murder of Indian Student

In December last year, the world watched horrified as a 23 year old student clung to life in a Singapore hospital following a brutal gang rape in the Indian capital, Delhi. Two weeks after the attack, the young woman died of injuries inflicted by her attackers. Today, four of her attackers have been convicted of her rape and murder.

The young woman had been studying physio at university, and last year, on December 16, she and a male friend boarded what they assumed was a regular bus, only the bus was not actually in service. The six men accused of the brutal attack had been driving the vehicle and tricked the pair into boarding the bus where they brutally beat the male companion with an iron bar, incapacitating him whilst the girl was savagely raped. When they had finished with the pair, the attackers discarded them on a roadside, leaving them both for dead.

Following the attack, an unprecedented wave of protests throughout the country brought the world's attention to India's archaic attitude towards women. However, this year, politicians have attempted to clamp down on attacks on women, and in March a law was passed that meant rape could be punishable by death. 

 As one of the attackers was a minor at the time of the attack, he was spared the death penalty and instead sentenced to the maximum sentence for a juvenile; 3 years in a reform centre. The supposed 'head' of the gang, and instigator of the attack, Ram Singh, was found hanged in his prison cell in February in what is widely believed to be a suicide, a claim that his family have disputed. The remainder of the attackers have been convicted and Mukesh Singh, Vinay Sharma, Akshay Thakur and Pawan Gupta now await their sentence, expected to be delivered on Wednesday. 

Upon hearing the accused had been convicted, chants of "Hang them! Hang them!" came from demonstrators outside the court as the parents of the deceased girl told reporters they are "Happy with the conviction. Now we expect the judge to sentence them all to death." The male victim in the attack also voiced his desired outcome of the conviction stating "They wanted us to die. Now, I want them to die and she also wanted them to die." With a harsh punishment for rape now enforced and the high profile nature of this case, it is highly likely these men will face the death penalty. 

This year, a number of high profile gang rapes have caught worldwide attention including the attack on a Swiss tourist and her husband as well as an attack last month on a 22 year old female photojournalist. However, it is not only India in which these brutal attacks are prevalent. On Tuesday, the UN released the results of a study of 10,000 men in Bangladesh, Papua New Guinea, Sri Lanka, China, Cambodia and Indonesia and the results are startling. More than 70% admitted to forcing themselves upon a woman because of a sense of 'sexual entitlement' with 60% also admitting they did it for 'fun'. Whilst a number admitted to forcing themselves (the word rape was never used) onto strangers, a huge number said they had used excessive force on their partner.

It is apparent that there is a massively distorted view of women prevalent throughout Asia. Whilst India have imposed harsh new sentences for convicted rapists, there is still a tiny minority of men actually prosecuted for their actions. There is a stigma attached to the woman for being raped and, more often than not, the men are not prosecuted for their attacks. The only way this can change is if social attitudes towards women change across Asia, with women treated with the same level of respect as men. It may be a slow process but the unprecedented outrage at the death of the student last year has shown the tide is beginning to change in India as more people wake up to their social conscience. Let's just hope this continues.

Lora.

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