What should have been a leisurely walk by two Australian cricketers after their recent World Cup win turned into a painful reminder that for women, safety is still a gamble. In India, even a simple morning walk can turn into a nightmare.

A man on a motorcycle, later identified as Aqeel Khan, approached them and touched them inappropriately before speeding away. Within hours, the police tracked him down. He was a local man with a prior criminal record. The arrest came quickly, but the statements came even faster. And then came the usual spin.

Officials called it “a stray incident,” as if molestation were just a passing drizzle instead of the monsoon that keeps flooding this country year after year.

Statistics don’t whisper anymore. They scream.

And here’s what that really means:

In 2023, the National Crime Records Bureau recorded 4,48,211 crimes against women, a jump from 4,45,256 in 2022 and 4,28,278 in 2021. That’s roughly 1,200 cases every single day, and that’s only what got reported.

Nearly one in five are domestic cruelty, with 1,33,676 cases under Section 498A of the IPC at a rate of 19.7 per lakh.
Almost one in seven are kidnapping........

© The Financial Express