Nothing has changed

Very little has changed since the brutal rape of a paramedical physiotherapist trainee two years ago on a moving bus in New Delhi led to her death of horrific injuries.

The conscience of the country was jolted awake. On the day of homage two years on, the news emerges that a student was raped in her school uniform in Tamil Nadu.

The rising incidence of rape across 2013 and 2014 also shows there has been no perceptible change in the attitude of men towards women.

A few activists had even gone so far as to suggest that the lurid media coverage given to terrible rape cases is somehow encouraging sexual predators.

A non-lapsing fund of Rs 1,000 crore was set up, but very little of it seems to have been used constructively.

The promised CCTVs in buses and GPS in autos, besides safety devices like panic buttons simply remain on paper. Lip service was also paid to lighting up streets well, setting up rapid response teams and running real-time helplines.

None of the measures promised even for the capital has been assiduously tackled save the framing of more stringent laws.

Exemplary death sentences were handed down in the Nirbhaya case, although the execution of two of the perpetrators has been stayed.

A young New Delhi finance executive was raped in a call taxi recently and the knee-jerk response was to ban a particular company.

While it may take eons to educate people about gender equality, we can only pray that each time a girl or woman steps out, she will return home safe.