WHAT WORLD ARE WE LEAVING BEHIND FOR HER?

Despite stronger laws, crimes against women continue to rise in India. The International Day of the Girl Child is not one for celebration, but instead, one for igniting concern, awakening, and reformation

- SAKSHI MEHTA

On the International Day of the Girl Child, celebrated on October 11 annually, the conversation around gender-based violence in India feels more urgent than ever. Despite the presence of stringent laws, women across the country continue to face brutality, from gang rapes to domestic violence.

But why does this violence persist, even with landmark legislation in place? According to lawyer and women's rights activist Abha Singh, the problem does not lie in the laws themselves, but in their weak enforcement and societal mindset that still condones or ignores violence against women.

"Even on days when the world is celebrating women and talking about empowering young girls, in India, a rape still happens every 15 minutes, and 23 women are killed in the name of dowry every day. These statics are given by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), not me. Despite having laws like the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act (2005) and the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace Act (2013), the real issue is that they aren't being enforced effectively. Here is a doctor at her workplace, after working a 36-hour shift, in the confines of a government hospital, a place where it is her right to be safe - by law. Yet it's all blown to smithereens when that doctor doesn't even have a safe place to lay her head down to rest.

She has to go up to a room without a working light, without a door latch, to try and sleep, and is instead brutally raped and killed," says Singh.

This is not the first, second or even the last time that the system has failed to protect the women in this country.

THE GAPS IN THE LAW