A 31-year-old doctor at Kolkata’s RG Kar Medical College was brutally attacked and killed after retiring to a seminar room for rest. Her body, found with multiple injuries, was confirmed to be the victim of sexual assault and homicide.

Sanjay Roy, a “civic volunteer” at the hospital, was arrested in connection with the crime, sparking public outrage and leading the Calcutta High Court to order the hospital’s former head, Dr Sandip Ghosh, to take a long leave. The case has spotlighted the systemic failures in protecting women in India, even in professional spaces.

This incident is not isolated; it’s part of a disturbing trend. In recent years, reports of rapes have become a daily occurrence, with 2022 seeing an average of 86 reported cases per day. From the gangrape of a Spanish tourist in Jharkhand to the assault of a young girl in Uttar Pradesh, these horrific acts continue to expose the deep-rooted issues of safety and justice for women in the country.

Despite legal reforms following high-profile cases like the 2012 Delhi gangrape, the problem has only grown more pervasive, with sexual violence increasingly characterised by extreme brutality.

In 2020, the country recorded an average of 77 cases per day. This number surged to 87 daily cases in 2021. By 2022, the average slightly decreased to 86 cases per day, but the figures remained significantly higher than those from 2020.

According to data from India’s National Crime Records Bureau, in 2022, there were 31,516 rape cases. Rajasthan led the nation with 5,399 reported rapes, followed by Madhya Pradesh with 3,029 cases, Maharashtra with 2,904 cases, and Uttar Pradesh with 3,690 cases. In Delhi, 1,212 rape cases were recorded in 2022.

The rate of rape (per lakh population) was highest in Uttarakhand at 15, followed by Rajasthan and Chandigarh at 14 each, Haryana at 13, and Delhi and Lakshadweep at 12 each. The national average stood at five.

In contrast, states like Tamil Nadu, Nagaland, and Puducherry recorded much lower rates, with only one victim per lakh. Delhi, known for its high-profile cases of sexual violence, reported 12 victims per lakh. Meanwhile, states such as Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, and Karnataka each had a rate of two victims per lakh, aligning with the national average of five.

However, these statistics likely understate the true scale of the problem, as many crimes go unreported due to fear of reprisal, societal stigma, and a lack of trust in police investigations.

The 2012 gang rape and murder of 23-year-old Jyoti Singh in Delhi sparked nationwide protests and brought the issue of women’s safety in India into the global spotlight. The outcry led to stricter laws on sexual violence, including the introduction of the death penalty for rape.

Despite these legal reforms, sexual crimes have not just persisted but have become more aggressive, more brutal, and increasingly resemble acts of vigilantism and gangsterism.

Underutilised Nirbhaya Fund and its bias towards big cities

After the tragic Delhi incident in 2012, erstwhile Finance Minister P Chidambaram in the 2013 Union Budget announced a Nirbhaya Fund to support initiatives protecting dignity and ensuring women’s safety in India.

This non-lapsable corpus fund does not expire at the end of the fiscal year and can be carried over if unused. More than 10 years since its inception, this fund remains under-utilised.

Against a total of Rs 7,213 crore allocated up to the financial year 2023-24, the total amount utilised out of the Nirbhaya Fund was Rs 5,119 crore as of December 8, 2023, which is approximately 70 per cent of the total allocation. Nearly one in every three rupees is still unutilised in the direction of women’s safety in a country that is witnessing an alarming rate of gendered crimes.

Of the utilised fund, the maximum, 28 per cent or Rs 1,435 crore, has been used in only eight major cities — Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Lucknow and Mumbai — for safe city proposals, according to the Ministry of Women & Child Development.

Rs 799 crore or 15.6 per cent was spent on “One Stop Centres” to support victims of sexual offences, which offer a comprehensive range of services under one roof. Setting up Fast Track Special Courts to dispose of cases pending trial under the Rape & POCSO Acts incurred a cost of Rs 735 crore or 14.4 per cent of the utilised Nirbhaya Fund.

DELAY IN COMPENSATION

The National Legal Services Authority set up a compensation scheme for women victims/survivors of sexual assault or other heinous crimes. A total of Rs 1,478 crore has been disbursed via this scheme from 2017-2018 till November 2023. However, there is a wide gap between the applications received (including those from courts) and the number of applications on which the decision has been taken to grant compensation.

In 2022-23, almost 30,000 applications were received but compensation was decided on only 20,900 applications, according to the Department of Justice.