Outrage over the 31-year-old doctor’s death on August 9 sparked nationwide protests and a week-long national strike by the Indian Medical Association that ended last week.

The doctor was found murdered in a hallway of the hospital where she worked. Reports say she had likely gone there to take a break after a long shift. Authorities have arrested a volunteer police officer for the crime and federal police have taken over the investigation.

After the terrible attack, doctors called for improvements to the offices, more security and for hospitals to be declared “safety zones” in which staff on duty could feel protected.

Activists point out that such cases are still common despite legal reforms to combat sexual crimes.

“We see cases like this and receive calls to our helpline every day,” said Yogita Bhayana, an activist with People Against Rapes in India (PARI).

The scale of the problem is evident from official data. In 2012, police recorded around 25,000 rape cases across the country, according to India’s National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB). The latest NCRB data from 2022 shows that the number has risen to over 31,000 reported cases despite stricter laws following the Nirbhaya case.

The 2022 figure equates to a rate of about 1.8 rapes per 100,000 people in India. Globally, countries such as Sweden, the United States and the United Kingdom have reported higher rates, although experts attribute this in part to broader definitions and more comprehensive reporting practices. For example, Sweden reported an average of 64 rapes per 100,000 people for the years 2013-2017, but the country is also known for its broad legal definition of rape.

Veteran criminal defense attorney Rebecca M. John, who represents rape victims in her practice, said published statistics on sexual violence in India do not reflect its true extent.

The cases of sexual violence documented nationwide may be just the “tip of the iceberg” given that attacks on women from the country’s rural and underprivileged communities are widely underreported, she said.

“Rural women, women from tribal communities and women from oppressed classes face this kind of violence on a daily basis and no attention is paid to them,” she added.

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“I hope he gets the harshest punishment”: Father of murdered Indian doctor demands justice

“I hope he gets the harshest punishment”: Father of murdered Indian doctor demands justice

Women in urban areas also face workplace reprisals if they raise such issues, says Praveena Kodoth, a professor of gender studies at the Centre for Development Studies in Kerala.

“Women who complain are targeted and fear being excluded because the men in question are powerful,” Kodoth said. “Women need a safe infrastructure in the workplace. This is a huge problem.”

Significant steps are urgently needed to better educate the public on these issues and strengthen workplace grievance systems to encourage women to speak out against sexual crimes, she added.

Ineffective police work

Since the Nirbhaya case in 2012, authorities have introduced harsher penalties for sexual crimes. Rape carries a minimum sentence of ten years in prison. In cases where the victims are younger than twelve, the sentence can be extended to life imprisonment or even the death penalty.

Lawmakers have also introduced other reforms, including expanding the definition of rape to include non-penetrative acts, establishing fast-track trials to speed up the processing of rape cases, and lowering the age limit so that 16-year-old offenders can be tried as adults for such crimes.

However, John noted that there are still problems with prevention, effective policing and adequate investigation of violence against women, as reflected in the low conviction rate for such rape crimes.

Government data shows that the conviction rate for such cases in India was 28 percent between 2018 and 2022.

Activists say many of these cases have been overturned by the courts due to a lack of evidence. They attribute this to inadequate police investigations and evidence gathering beforehand.

According to Bhayana, there is also a bottleneck in the number of cases that are yet to be concluded in court.

“Although there are new reforms in our law, the implementation seems to be very poor,” she said. Politicians and authorities have often paid only lip service when there has been nationwide outrage over cases like the one in Calcutta, she added.

“We are looking for answers and actions. We are not just looking for pity.”

Deep-rooted problem

After the gruesome murder in the Calcutta hospital, India’s Supreme Court said the brutality against the victim had “shocked the conscience of the nation”.

“If women cannot go to work safely, we are denying them the basic prerequisites of equality,” said Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, presiding over a three-judge bench that also ordered the setting up of a national task force to study how to improve the safety of health workers.

According to criminal defense lawyer John, cases of sexual violence in India are partly due to social, political, economic and cultural factors.

“The bigger problem, however, is that we are still dealing with a patriarchal society that is unable to cope with women exercising their agency and autonomy now that they are employed and economically independent,” John said.

“I think men find it difficult to accept this new ‘Indian woman’ and rape becomes a weapon,” she added.

Ultimately, activists say the root of the problem lies in the fundamental perception and value of women in Indian society – a problem that needs to be addressed at the family level and through education in schools.

“Families need to think differently about how they treat their sons versus their daughters. If that doesn’t change, unfortunately we will continue to see cases like this,” John said.