It’s sad my 2012 Foreign Policy piece on India’s ‘woman problem’ remains relevant

It’s a matter of great sadness for me, an Indian woman, that a piece I wrote 12 years ago for Foreign Policy on India’s problem with its women remains so hideously relevant.

Back then, the focus of India and the world’s horror was the gang rape and murder in Delhi of 23-year-old Jyoti Singh. She was raped and mutilated with such brutality her internal organs spilled out of her body. And then her naked body was casually tossed out onto the street.

That 2012 case was considered, in the words of a BBC analysis 10 years on, “a watershed moment”.

Everyone thought that India had refocussed its attention on a massive problem: violence against women. As well as casual misogyny; constant harassment and contemptuous sexual objectification.

Yes and no.

Now, we’re back facing the horrific rape and murder of a trainee doctor in Kolkata.

The young woman had finished a gruelling 36-hour shift and was trying to get some rest in a seminar room because the state-run hospital did not have a designated rest area. Clearly, there was no place for female staff to rest.

According to the BBC, the young woman’s colleagues found her badly injured, half-naked body the next morning on the lecture podium.

Though the two cases are different they are hideously similar. In the utter contempt shown to women.

Originally published at https://www.rashmee.com