As the Hathras rape case has shocked the entire country, conversations around the safety of women in India have become pertinent.
According to a report in Times of India, the state of Maharashtra has recorded a 62 per cent rise in cases of rape of women belonging to scheduled caste or scheduled tribe between the years 2017 to 2019, as per the data released by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB). Moreover, in the 378 SC/ST rape cases, in 48 per cent of the cases, the survivors were minor girls.
In addition, the city of Mumbai has reported the second-highest number of crimes against women after Delhi in the year 2019. Moreover, the city reported 6,519 crimes against women last year which is marginally higher than 6,058 in the year 2018 whereas Delhi reported 12,902 cases against 11,724 in 2018. However, Mumbai ranked third in India with regards to rape cases, falling behind Delhi and Jaipur.
It becomes important to talk about the precarious situation in the country at the moment with the incident of the horrific Hathras gang rape shocking the entire population at large. The victim who was brutally raped by four men in Hathras on September 14, suffered spinal injuries, paralysis, and cuts in her tongue as she succumbed to her injuries at Delhi's Safdarjung Hospital.
However, in recent developments, four people have been arrested by the police in this case. The UP government initially constituted a three-member SIT to probe the case to be tried in a fast-track court. On October 2, it suspended Hathras Superintendent of Police Vikrant Vir, Commanding Officer Ram Shabd, Inspector Dinesh Kumar Verma, Sub Inspector Jagveer Singh and Head Constable Mahesh Pal on the basis of the first report submitted by the SIT. A day later, UP CM Yogi Adityanath recommended a CBI probe into the case.