Re: Indian court orders hanging of Delhi gang-rape attackers
I’m from India, but I’m still cautiously optimistic about the whole thing. The death penalty will hopefully serve as a deterrent to others. However this case got (relatively) swift justice because of the huge public outcry and demonstrations. The root cause of the prevalence of rape in India is far from being eradicated. It is going to take huge amounts of public education, police training (to register rape cases promptly and handle victims with sensitivity), and a sense of urgency in judicial proceedings to make a permanent change.
One of the positives to come out of this is that rape/sexual harrassment is being talked about openly, and the common man is genuinely outraged about it. To give you an example, in my own family rape/sexual crimes were hardly ever mentioned or discussed in public. It was a thing which everyone knew was happening in society, but it was never a dinner conversation topic. The media coverage and just the brutality of this crime created so much outrage, that even my super conservative relatives are openly condemning and talking about this.
As a side note, Farhan Akhtar has launched the MARD (men against rape and discrimination) campaign to create social awareness about rape. He has roped in celebrities to record the MARD poem in different Indian languages - the Marathi one is recited by Sachin Tendulkar. He is campaigning hard to include this poem in school textbooks. I absolutely agree that our kids need to learn to respect women as equals before they learn history and geography!