More needs to be done to protect women - Indian PM
INDIA: Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Sunday
underlined the need for more action to tackle crime against women as the
country reels under a spate of sex attacks that have made global
headlines.
Singh said his government had moved quickly to bring about
significant amendments in the criminal law dealing with sexual offences
against women following the December gang-rape of a 23-year-old student
in New Delhi. “But, notwithstanding the steps that have already been
taken, a great deal more needs to be done as far as offences against
women are concerned,” he said at a conference of chief ministers and
chief justices in Delhi.
Attacks on women in India have been in the spotlight since December
16, when the student was brutally attacked and raped by six men on a
moving bus in the capital. She died two weeks later of her injuries. The
case triggered outrage at home and abroad, prompting parliament to
toughen laws to make the country safer for women.
The new law was passed the same day that a British tourist jumped off
her hotel balcony in the Taj Mahal city of Agra in a bid to escape an
alleged sex attack.
That incident came just days after a Swiss cyclist was gang-raped in
Madhya Pradesh state in a brutal assault commentators said underscored
risks women face in the country of 1.2 billion people.
AFP
Last week, four sisters walking home in northern Uttar Pradesh state
suffered severe burns after being attacked with acid by two men on a
motorbike.
Singh said the need for speedy and affordable justice had come into
sharper focus in the wake of the growing crimes against women.
“Presently, over three crore (30 million) cases are pending in
various courts across the country and 26 percent of them are over five
years old,” Singh said, urging speedy trials to reduce the backlog.
|