Hundreds of women students in Delhi have taken to the streets in a series of protests, demanding justice and an end to sexual violence, following a spate of brutal rapes in the city. Chanting “We want justice,” the protesters condemned what they described as a systemic failure to protect women, drawing direct comparisons to the notorious Nirbhaya gang-rape case of 2012.
The protests were triggered by the alleged gang-rape of a 17-year-old girl in a public park near Delhi University by three men who reportedly posed as police officers. Just a week earlier, another 17-year-old was gang-raped and murdered in Delhi’s Swaroop Nagar neighbourhood. The accused allegedly raped her, stabbed her to death, and dumped her body in a field, where it was found days later partially eaten by dogs.
Rapes of an 11-year-old and a six-year-old were reported in the same month. Last month, a 16-year-old was allegedly raped by a bus driver and conductor after boarding a sleeper bus in Delhi.
Fourteen Years After Nirbhaya, Women Say Little Has Changed
The protests come 14 years after the Nirbhaya case, when a woman was gang-raped on a bus and died from her injuries. While that incident provoked international outrage and led to new legislation and government promises, women say little has changed. According to statistics, a woman is raped in India every 20 minutes, though the real scale is believed to be far worse due to chronic under-reporting.
This week, the supreme court said the five successive rape cases “starkly underlined a systematic failure” and drew “painful parallels to the Nirbhaya incident of 2012”. Vaishnavi Dhruw, 21, a history student at Delhi University, was among the protesters. “I don’t know a single woman who lives in this city and feels safe,” she said.
While some protest demands have included better lighting and policing, Dhruw stressed that a deep societal shift is needed. “We are not marching for safety, we are here to protest for our freedom, for the most basic right to walk in our own streets,” she said. “Again and again, women are told to stay indoors, to not go out at night, to cover ourselves, to protect ourselves. When will society tell men in our country not to rape?”
Authorities’ Response Focuses on Policing Women’s Freedoms
Much of the anger driving the protests has also been prompted by the authorities’ response, which women say has been to restrict their freedoms. Women in Delhi were told to stay out of parks at night, and classes were temporarily halted at one of Delhi’s most prestigious female colleges. Many hostels where female students stay impose strict curfews preventing them from going out at night.
“Instead of going after criminals, you’re going to tell women to sit at home,” said Aranya Rathore, 25, a student at Delhi University. “A demand for more surveillance is not a solution. In fact, it’s going to curtail our freedom more.”
Female students say much of their time is taken up by safety logistics, from wearing modest clothes to reorganising their days to avoid travelling alone or at night and always having a trackable live location on their phones. There is widespread awareness that should anything happen, the onus of blame tends to fall on women. As one poster at the march pointed out, “no one ever asks what the rapist was wearing”.
Harassment Remains a Daily Reality on Campus and in Public
Despite their best efforts, many women said it was almost impossible to avoid harassment. Aanya Wig, a 26-year-old graduate of Delhi University and founder of the gender equality initiative Her Haq, recounted an incident where a driver rolled down his car window and began masturbating as she and female friends got off a rickshaw and walked through the college gates. “This wasn’t at night, it was in the middle of the day,” she said. “I’ve always lived in Delhi and the city has not changed.”
The protests have highlighted a dilemma faced by many Indian women, who are educated in greater numbers than any time in the country’s history and have better job opportunities than ever before, but still have to navigate constant threats to their safety and conservative pressures from their families. “I know so many girls, not just 10 years ago but even today, who end up choosing educational institutions and jobs and other employment opportunities depending on how close they are from their home,” said Wig. “Not on the basis of their marks, not on the basis of their aspirations, but simply, ‘OK, the shorter the distance is, the more likely it is that I will be safe’.”
Many Delhi University students who took part in the marches said sexual harassment had become prevalent on campus and demanded better accountability mechanisms for reporting assault. The university has not responded. Devyani Sarkar, 24, studying for a master’s in English, said: “Delhi University is one of the most prestigious universities in India right now but there are various cases of women being assaulted by professors, sometimes unfortunately also for grades. It’s despicable, but it’s also a living truth.”
Many on the marches said it was no coincidence that they were taking place in the aftermath of India’s “cockroach” movement, in which hundreds of thousands of young Gen Z Indians took to the streets over education reform. “My generation is not afraid to stand up and protest. We know that society has to change,” said 17-year-old Subhani. “The days of women being silent is over.”
