"Delhi has earned the inglorious title of the rape capital of India. A quarter of India's rapes are reported here, the National Crime Records Bureau says, despite the city comprising only 1.38 per cent of the country's massive population. A rape is reported in Delhi every 18 hours; many are never reported, it is believed...
Underlying the Besharmi march runs the broader issue of women's place in Indian society. A recent Thomson Reuters survey ranked India the fourth worst country in the world to be a woman, behind only Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Pakistan. Sex trafficking is rife and 40 per cent of the country's 3 million prostitutes are children, India's bureau of investigation estimates.
Those organising the march are not naive enough to think India will change overnight, or even over a generation. ''But,'' Ms Singh says, ''we can begin by saying 'we won't be treated this way any more'."
Underlying the Besharmi march runs the broader issue of women's place in Indian society. A recent Thomson Reuters survey ranked India the fourth worst country in the world to be a woman, behind only Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Pakistan. Sex trafficking is rife and 40 per cent of the country's 3 million prostitutes are children, India's bureau of investigation estimates.
Those organising the march are not naive enough to think India will change overnight, or even over a generation. ''But,'' Ms Singh says, ''we can begin by saying 'we won't be treated this way any more'."
- 'Sisterhood Marching for Shameless Rights' by Ben Doherty, The Age.
Girl With a Satchel
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