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Nirbhaya's mother says ‘daughters still not safe’ 12 years after Delhi gangrape case
Asha Devi questioned the functioning of the criminal justice system and said that circumstances have not changed despite the implementation of harsher laws.
Asha Devi, the mother of the 2012 Delhi gangrape victim, said the country is still not safe for its daughters and claimed that circumstances that perpetuate crimes against women have not changed.
She made an emotional appeal, with her voice choking, at the first “National Convention on Prevention of Violence Against Women and Children”.
“It is with great pain that I want to say that even after 12 years, the circumstances have not changed. The daughters of the country are not safe. When I was struggling to get justice for my daughter, I knew that she was no more and that she would never return, but I remembered her words that the perpetrators should get such punishment that such an incident is not repeated,” news agency PTI quoted Nirbhaya's mother as saying.
She also referred to the rape and murder of a 31-year-old postgraduate doctor inside the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata on August 9. “No one still knows what actually happened,” she said.
Asha Devi also questioned the functioning of the criminal justice system and said that circumstances have not changed despite the implementation of harsher laws. She also noted that her participation in countless events and discussions regarding women's safety since her daughter passed away has been futile.
She also urged the Centre and state governments to ponder over the question of women's safety despite the elaborate ‘system’ of police, laws and more.
Also read | Delhi 2012 gang-rape: A decaying witness to a crime that left India shocked
“I am unable to understand some incidents where parents have lost their daughter, but the case does not reach the court. It takes anything from six months to one year to identify the culprit. How can we then expect that our daughters will be safe and the parents who have lost their daughters will get justice?” she asked.
“I got justice, and this is my solace, but what good is such solace when a life has been lost, and the system continues to remain the same,” she added.
Asha Devi also said that she is worried about women's safety in villages where, she said, “most incidents go unnoticed”. “I am not blaming anyone, but I am pained that our daughters are not safe, be it in school, office, or anywhere. Usually, for small daughters, things are even worse,” she noted.
Nirbhaya's mother also stressed that she was yet to get over her daughter’s loss, and her smiling face was often a facade, which she put on like an actor. “I still feel suffocated,” Asha Devi said.
(With PTI inputs)
