SALON

Wednesday, Jan 23, 2013 1:47 PM UTC

Police often part of the problem for rape victims in India

Many Indian women say a powerful force stands in the way of justice for victims of assault: The police

By

Topics: Rape, Sexual assault, Violence Against Women, delhi gang rape, Women's Rights, ,

Police often part of the problem for rape victims in India

The brutality of the gang rape and murder of Jyoti Singh Pandey on a Delhi bus last month has thrown into stark relief the problem the violence against women in India. But even as the country struggles to bring the men responsible to justice, many Indian women say a powerful force stands in the way of bringing about real change.

The police.

Often corrupt and overwhelmingly male, the presence of local police does not make women feel any safer on the streets, many say. “If you’re a woman in distress, the last thing you want to do is go to the police,” Vrinda Grover, a human rights lawyer based in New Delhi, told the New York Times.

A woman who spoke anonymously to the Times said that not long after telling the police that she had been raped, she looked out her apartment window to see the man who had attacked her joking with an officer who had given him a ride home from the police station.

In fact, the treatment of women by the police is such a problem that laws now forbid officers from even bringing women in for questioning at night. In case after case, police opt to seek “reconciliation” between the attacker and his victim, often delivering the abused women back into the hands of her abuser.

As reported by the Times:

On Dec. 26, an 18-year-old Punjabi woman committed suicide after police officers refused for five weeks to arrest the men who were suspected of gang raping her and instead pressed her to marry one of the men. So many Indian women end up marrying their rapists that the police often squander the first hours and days after a woman reports a rape seeking just such a resolution, said Ravi Kant, president of Shakti Vahini, a nonprofit advocacy group.

Even police who try to prosecute assault cases can be stymied by political pressure. Officers have few civil service protections, and politicians can punish them at will. And many low-level officers, making as little as $100 each month, for constables, have turned to demanding bribes on everything from routine traffic violations to major crimes as a way to make ends meet. It’s behavior that shatters public trust, and perpetuates a cycle of insecurity and violence.

But the problem isn’t unique to India. The conversation about rape, law enforcement and greater accountability in the aftermath of the Delhi rape and murder case has sparked a larger conversation on social media about the culture of prosecuting rape and sexual assault cases everywhere — including the United States.

In the summer of 2011, two officers were fired from the NYPD — but faced no jail time — for entering an intoxicated woman’s home and groping her while she wore only a bra. Earlier this month, a lawsuit filed by a former assistant dean of students against the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill alleges that UNC officials pressured her to underreport sexual assault cases on campus.

 

 

 

Katie McDonough is an assistant editor for Salon, focusing on lifestyle. Follow her on Twitter @kmcdonovgh or email her at kmcdonough@salon.com. More Katie Mcdonough.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 0 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

vote
New Yorker launches tool by Aaron Swartz to protect leaks: Strongbox, co-created by the late technologist, is an open-source drop box for leaked documents
228 points229 points | 8 comments
vote
New Yorker launches tool by Aaron Swartz to protect leaks: Strongbox, co-created by the persecuted late technologist, is an open-source drop box for leaked documents
167 points168 points | comment
vote
Loaded terminology like "entitlements" and "welfare" skews the debate and alters America. How right-wingers use semantic tricks to kill government.
141 points142 points | 38 comments
vote
Obstruction will ruin the GOP: Playing politics and abusing the system can excite the extremes, but it's a recipe for long-term political disaster
53 points54 points | 8 comments
vote
With the help of Photoshop, artist Yao Lu has made shanshui — traditional ink paintings — of China's landfills
27 points28 points | 1 comment

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: So long, Sookie Stackhouse

Recommendations