Rape Cases Push Delhi Students Into Streets Demanding Justice

New Delhi (GNP): Hundreds of women students marched through Delhi on Wednesday, demanding justice and stronger action against sexual violence after a series of rape cases reported in the capital in recent weeks.

The marchers chanted “We want justice” and carried posters condemning sexual violence. Many posters also targeted restrictions placed on women in the name of safety, a complaint that runs through the whole protest.

The anger follows several cases that have shaken the city. One involved the gang-rape of a 17-year-old girl in a public park near Delhi University by three men who posed as police officers.

A week earlier, another 17-year-old girl was gang-raped and killed in the Swaroop Nagar area after going out to meet friends. Police said she was raped and stabbed, and her body was dumped in a field where it was later found.

Further cases involving an 11-year-old and a six-year-old girl were reported in the same month. A 16-year-old girl was also raped last month by a bus driver and a conductor after boarding a sleeper bus in Delhi.

The cases have revived memories of the 2012 Nirbhaya case, in which a young woman was gang-raped on a Delhi bus and later died of her injuries. That case led to widespread protests and to changes in India’s laws on sexual offences.

The Supreme Court has now made the same link. This week it said the recent cases starkly underlined a systematic failure and drew painful parallels with the 2012 incident.

Against this background, protesters say the official response has fallen on women rather than on offenders. Women in Delhi were advised to avoid parks at night, classes were temporarily suspended at a prominent women’s college, and some university hostels impose curfews on female students.

Aranya Rathore, a 25-year-old Delhi University student, said the authorities should go after criminals instead of telling women to stay at home. Vaishnavi Dhruw, a 21-year-old history student at the university, said she knows no woman in the city who feels safe.

Students say the fear shapes daily choices, from what they wear to when they travel and which institutions or jobs they pick. Ananya Wig, a Delhi University graduate and founder of the gender-equality initiative Her Huq, said many women choose opportunities by how close they are to home rather than by marks or aspirations.

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Their demands are specific. Students want better street lighting, stronger policing, and more effective ways to report and investigate sexual harassment and assault.

Campus conduct has also come under scrutiny. Devyani Sarkar, a 24-year-old English master’s student, said women at Delhi University had faced assault and harassment, including allegations involving professors. According to reports, the university has not responded to those allegations.

The marches come amid wider demonstrations by young Indians over education reform, which have drawn large numbers of Gen Z protesters. Seventeen-year-old student Subhani said her generation is willing to speak out because society has to change.

Dhruw said, “We are here to protest for our freedom.”