India’s women suffer gender-based violence. ‘We have to create better systems,’ says Delhi Commission for Women Chairperson Swati Maliwal.
India’s women are subjected to some of the world’s most perilous situations. According to India’s National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), the country registered 77 rape crimes every day in 2020, for a total of more than 28,000 instances for the year. That was during a year when the government imposed a nationwide lockdown on much of the country.
India’s women suffer gender-based violence. According to the National Family Health Survey (NFHS) in India, about 30% of women have suffered physical assault since they were 15 years old.
These numbers simply reflect the reality of life for many women, said Delhi Commission for Women Chairperson Swati Maliwal. She argued they also reflect a failure of law and order: “The justice systems are so bad that people actually have no fear. They feel that they can get away with all kinds of violence and crimes.”
The solution, according to Maliwal, lies in ensuring that “systems are in place, that police get resources, that accountability is set”.
Violence against women (VAW), also known as gender-based violence and sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV), are violent acts primarily or exclusively committed by men or boys against women or girls. Such violence is often considered a form of hate crime, committed against women or girls specifically because they are female, and can take many forms.
