Rape numbers in India are a horror story: 39 rapes per hour, only 1 in 4 convicted
TOI reports that in 2016 itself, 11.5 percent of the 3.38 lakh crime cases against women were rape cases. And if you thought this was bad news, there’s worse – according to ADR India, nearly 30 percent of all legislators have a criminal background, 1581 of sitting legislators have a criminal record, 51 have been involved in crime against women.
Despite the public outcry during the Nirbhaya gangrape incident of 2012, not much has changed as far as women’s safety is concerned – the Unnao and Kathua rape cases stand testimony to that. TOI reports that in 2016 itself, of the 3.38 lakh crime cases against women, 11.5 percent were rape cases. And if you thought this was bad news, there’s worse – according to ADR India, nearly 30 percent of all legislators have a criminal background, 1581 of sitting legislators have a criminal record, 51 have been involved in crime against women.
To get a better understanding of how bad things are, here are a few infographics from TOI:
In a scathing letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, 49 retired civil servants had spoken out recently about the need for the PM to reach out to the families of the Kathua and Unnao rape victims and “seek their forgiveness”. “We have had enough of these belated remonstrations and promises to bring justice when the communal cauldron is forever kept boiling by forces nested within the Sangh parivar,” they added. The letter also called the times we are living in as post-independent India's "darkest hour" and slammed PM Modi for maintaining silence and only speaking up after massive public outrage. India Today reports that former bureaucrat Amitabha Pande has posted the letter on his Facebook timeline.
"In Kathua in Jammu, it is the culture of majoritarian belligerence and aggression promoted by the Sangh parivar which emboldened rabid communal elements to pursue their perverse agenda. They knew that their behaviour would be endorsed by the politically powerful and those who have made their careers by polarising Hindus and Muslims across a sectarian divide," the letter states in what is a scathing critique of the BJP and its ideological mentors.