As I woke up to this pink-clad day with seven messages in my inbox and three men wishing me at the gym and cafe with the most cheerful voices, "Happy Women's Day," I thanked them. I thanked them for the moment of solace they were offering, the day of solace our society is offering to women.

However, all I wanted to do was shout at the top of my voice, "Don't wish me Happy Women's Day because I am not celebrating, I am mourning this day." I am mourning the loss of being a woman, the loss of lives of fellow women, the loss of dignity, the loss of freedom, and the list goes on.

Before you guys tag me as an "angry pseudo-feminist who is always PMSing and ranting," let me tell you that on average, our beloved country reports 51 cases of crime against women every hour.

And these are just reported crimes; forget about the crimes that go unreported due to fear of the law, courts, family, and society.

These crimes include rapes, harassment, molestation, harassment at the workplace, domestic violence, and more.

More worrisome than these numbers is the conviction rate in the country, as for rape, it ranged between 27%-28% from 2018 to 2022.

248 murders with gang rapes in a year

According to the 2022 National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) report released in 2023, there were 248 murders with gang rapes, 3,288 attempts to rape, 8,972 incidents of outraging modesty, and a whopping 31,516 rapes. The latest report of the NCRB, which will surely have more worrisome numbers, is still in the pipeline and expected soon.

While the 2022 NCRB report shows 4,45,256 cases reported under crimes against women, in 2021, this number was 4,28,278.

In India, rape always........

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