Delhi rape: City's women say once media spotlight dims, rapes will continue

New Delhi: As the 23-year-old rape victim struggles with her life and doctors try their best to keep her afloat, the capital’s women are confidently certain that things are not going to improve. “The only reason the rape of this girl is getting the response it is getting is because of the publicity of the case by the media. Once the media stops following this like they have been over the past few days, everyone — the police, the politicians and even the people — will forget about this. Rapes will continue and nobody will raise a voice or bat an eyelid,” a resident of East Delhi, Chandni, told Firstpost. [caption id=“attachment_566442” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Reuters[/caption] Chandni says she has often experienced men leeching at her in buses and that things are not going to change in a hurry because the police don’t care and even Delhi’s own citizens turn away from any involvement in making the city safer. “Those who rape should not just be given a death sentence. They should have acid poured on the part they are so proud of. Only then will such crimes stop. Anyone attacking a helpless girl the way those men did, are not just proving the opposite of what they want to, which is being manly. They are cowards of the worst kind and demons,” she said, “Not once did they think of how they have ruined the life of that girl.” Another student, Vaishali, studying to be a company secretary from the Institute of Computer Secretary of India, says aggressors don’t care for anything but their lust. “People like them — whether they are in buses or on streets — don’t see the age or state or clothing or anything of women. They just want to misbehave and they do. It has nothing to do with how a woman dresses or the time she is out. It has everything to do with satisfying their lust,” Vaishali told Firstpost. She is of the opinion that till things don’t change at home and in men’s mentalities, nothing will improve. “The situation can only improve when men start respecting women. In their homes they don’t respect their wives and outside they take it a step further and not just disrespect but violate other women. Things are not going to change if this continues,” she said, Vaishali also blames silent bystanders for allowing such cremes to take place. “Till people continue to be indifferent to others, Delhi is going to stay as unsafe as it is. If people want things to get better, they have to come together and be part of the fight,” she said. At 9.15 pm, last Sunday, a 23-year-old medical student who boarded a private bus from South Delhi’s Munrika towards Palam was brutally gangraped, while her male companion was assaulted with an iron rod. Both were then thrown out of the bus near the Mahipalpur flyover. The girl suffered intestinal damage and severe injuries on her head and face after being assaulted by a blunt object and is still critical in the ICU at Safdarjang Hosptal.