A report found women are more willing to report rape, but that may not translate to justice.

Nearly 5 years ago horrifying gang rape of a 23 year old woman on a bus in New Delhi. But a
new Human Rights found that despite improves laws and policies, stubborn attitude towards
and denigrating views of rape victim still posses barrier to victim getting both support
services and justices. In 2013, India amended its laws, imposing harsher punishments on
rapists and reclassifying crimes offences like stalking and acid attacks as crimes. Perhaps
most importantly, the new laws are no longer required a physical struggle between a victim
and her attacker to qualify as rape. Since the laws were strengthened, there has been a 39%
increase in rape complaints reported to the police, which implies that the new laws have had
some positive effect. However, that despite an increased willingness to report sexual
violence, there are still glaring gaps in the enforcement of these policies and cases are still
frequently handled inappropriately, so survivors are not necessarily getting justice. The
stubbornness of the problem can be attributed, in part, to the social stigma that is pervasive
not only in Indian society at large, but also among medical professionals and members of law
enforcement. “Rape is still constructed as women’s shame and there are so many social
barriers for women to talk about it,” a professor at the School of Gender Studies at Mumbai’s
Tata Institute of Social Sciences says.

Human Rights Watch interviewed more than 65 victims, doctors, activists, police officers,
and government officials to produce the report, which details 21 rape cases and their
handling. The women who were not even 18 years were raped — share stories of being
beaten and pressured by the police to change statements, and being subjected to invasive tests
by doctors trying to determine whether or not they have been sexually active. The rights
organization found that law enforcement officials have often failed to take action in a timely
manner after receiving sexual violence and assault complaints — and at times failed to take
any action at all. The bus driver in the 2012 incident attempted to appeal his death sentence
for the crime by arguing that the victim was to blame. Argument made by the accused

"A decent girl won't roam around at nine o'clock at night. A girl is far more responsible for
rape than a boy" and when you talk to them, you realize these are not extraordinary men, they
are really ordinary. What they’ve done is because of upbringing and thought process.

Many still found that they did not understand that what they had done was wrong. There were
only three or four who said we are repenting. Others had found a way to put their actions into
some justification, neutralize, or blame action onto the victim. It’s been a matter of fact that
after getting raped the husband abandons her or leaves her into a dilemma where peer
pressure is there onto the victims head and this not only turns her life havoc but also led them
to a trauma to those who are not a part of the family anymore or being driven out by the
villagers. Fear and shame are still major issues for rape victims in India. Women are afraid to
report rape not only because they may not be believed, but because of the stigma that would
be attached to them as a result, and the humiliation they would have to endure to try to bring
their attackers to justice.

Even criminalising marital rape could "destabilise" marriages and make men vulnerable to
harassment by their wives, said India's government in response to a plea in the capital's high
court in 2017. Victims and rights groups are seeking to change the law on marital rape, but
the government said husbands risked being falsely accused of rape if the changes were to go
ahead. It compared the proposal to outlaw marital rape with India's tough anti-dowry law,
which men's rights groups say women are misusing to settle personal vendettas.

"It has to be ensured adequately that marital rape does not become a phenomenon which may
destabilise the institution of marriage, apart from being an easy tool for harassing the
husbands," said an affidavit filed in the Delhi High Court. Here, Narendra Modi's right-wing
government also said that the country should not blindly follow Western countries that have
criminalised marital rape, as illiteracy and diversity make India unique.

2012 murder and gang rape of a 23-year-old women forced the government to set up a panel
to amend laws relating to violence against women. While India's parliament passed some of
its recommendations, such as criminalising stalking and making acid attacks a specific
offence, it did not agree with the panel's proposal to outlaw marital rape. More than 50
countries, including the United States, Nepal, Britain and South Africa, criminalise marital
rape.
In cases of child marriage, young brides are often sold or traded to men to settle disputes,
repay debts, and to unload the financial burden of having a daughter at home. Other times,
they are traded for household items, animals or even in a human trade. Here are some of the
most ridiculous things that young girls have been known to be traded for a goat, 50 cattle,
opium debts and another wife or can be any religious offering as well. In addition to this we
have gender based laws in India where a posh act of 2013 does sensitizes law on women or a
girl but here boys or even men are not having any harassment laws on them in legislation but
the matter of fact is that we are not even having RTI to be filed if any such deterioting things
happen in the society like in case of adultery where the institution of marriage is sacrosanct,
here supreme court judge said that husband is not the master of wife. If we compare the
relative number of cases which are coming to the courts are more of men harassing the
women not women harassing the men this is completely vague in terms of comparison, there
are possibility of fake cases which are never been seen in the society.