Despite protests and laws, sexual violence remains pervasive. India’s misogynist patriarchal culture is holding women back
With a rape occurring every 16 minutes, violence is one of the biggest deterrents to women working in India. On the eve of India’s independence day, 14 August, tens of thousands of women took to the streets across the eastern Indian state of West Bengal in a “reclaim the night” march, after the brutal rape and murder of a trainee doctor in Kolkata.
But we have been here before – too many times. Most notably in 2012, when we protested at the murder of a young paramedic in Delhi. Jyoti Singh was raped in a moving bus by several men and left to die on the streets.