14 years after Nirbhaya gang rape horror, has India progressed on women’s safety?

Bhavya Gupta was a Grade 4 student when the 2012 horrific gang rape and murder of a medical college intern who was on a private bus in New Delhi, which sparked nationwide outrage and led to the execution of four attackers, prompted her teacher to mention the case in class to raise awareness about women’s safety.

“My teacher gathered all the girls in the classroom and told us about it, and after that our school uniform changed from skirts to pants. I also remember adults around me talking about the case in a victim-blaming way, asking why she was out so late with a guy, as if she was partly at fault,” said Gupta, who is now a 25-year-old communications professional based in the Indian capital.

The victim, 23, who later died from her injuries, was dubbed Nirbhaya – the fearless one – as she could not be named under Indian law. The political fallout from the tragedy was swift, with analysts attributing the then ruling Congress Party’s losses at the local and national levels to the case.

Fourteen years later, another gang rape of a 17-year-old girl, along with a string of other similar cases, has raised questions about whether the country has progressed from the Nirbhaya case.