Women’s safety: Are spaces safer or are women asked to avoid them?

The Scale of the Problem: NCRB Data Insights

According to the NCRB’s Crime in India 2024 report, 4,41,534 cases of crimes against women were registered across the country in 2024, a marginal decline of 1.5 per cent from 4,48,211 cases in 2023. The figure, however, remained above the 2022 total of 4,45,256 cases. That translates to more than 1,200 registered cases of crimes against women every day. Rape alone accounted for 29,536 registered cases in 2024, an average of more than 80 cases a day.But rape is only one part of the broader picture. The largest share of crimes against women in 2024 came from cruelty by husbands or relatives, with 1,20,227 cases, followed by kidnapping and abduction of women at 67,829 cases and assault on women with intent to outrage their modesty at 48,303 cases.The judicial data provides another measure of the challenge. NCRB recorded 2,06,777 rape cases pending trial at the end of 2024, while the conviction rate for rape was 24.4 per cent. The report defines the conviction rate as convictions among cases in which trials were completed; it therefore does not represent the proportion of all registered rape cases that ended in conviction. The figures underline the distance between a crime being registered and a case reaching a final judicial outcome.Delhi’s own numbers show the scale of the challenge. Delhi City recorded 14,158 crimes against women in 2022, 13,366 in 2023 and 13,396 in 2024. The NCRB recorded a crime rate of 176.8 cases per lakh women in Delhi City in 2024, while the police chargesheeting rate stood at 73.6 per cent. The capital registered 1,058 rape cases in 2024. NCRB’s age-wise data shows 198 victims were girls below 18 and 860 were women aged 18 and above.The fact that the Aastha Kunj victim was 17 also places the case within the wider problem of crimes against children. Across India, 1,87,702 crimes against children were registered in 2024, up 5.9 per cent from 1,77,335 in 2023. Of these, 69,191 cases, or 36.9 per cent, were registered under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.

A Flawed System: Advocate Seema Kushwaha’s Critique

For Advocate Seema Samridhi Kushwaha, who represented Nirbhaya and her family and has subsequently represented victims in other high-profile sexual violence cases, the figures demonstrate why the debate cannot stop with tougher laws or security around parks. “On realistic grounds, at the grassroots level, the NCRB data only accounts for reported cases. The data itself shows that in nearly 94% of cases, the crime is committed by relatives or people known to the victim. Many girls cannot even raise their voice against their own people, and countless cases go unreported,” Kushwaha said in an interview with ANI.Her concern extends to whether the legal infrastructure created after the Nirbhaya case is capable of delivering timely justice. The 2012 Nirbhaya case resulted in sweeping legal changes, including the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2013, which strengthened provisions dealing with sexual offences and introduced or expanded offences including stalking and voyeurism. But Kushwaha said stronger laws have not necessarily translated into effective implementation. “We enacted strict laws, but their implementation is flawed,” she said.

Delays in Justice and Forensic Bottlenecks

She recalled a case before a Delhi Court that, according to her, had been pending for 18 years. “When it came to me last year, 17 years had already passed and prosecution evidence had not even concluded,” she said. She also pointed to delays in forensic examination as one of the structural problems affecting trials.“Statutory laws like the POCSO Act mandate filing a chargesheet within two months and concluding the trial within one year. But do we have sufficient forensic labs? DNA reports and forensic examination reports do not arrive on time. If an FSL report cannot arrive within a year, how can a trial conclude in that timeframe?” Kushwaha asked. “Writing strict laws in books and establishing nominal fast-track courts means nothing if we haven’t built the infrastructure or fixed institutional accountability,” she added.

Enforcement Gaps in Public Transport

Kushwaha said the gap between rules and enforcement is also visible in public transport. Referring to an August 4 incident involving a 17-year-old girl who was allegedly raped on a sleeper bus travelling from Greater Noida to Old Delhi’s Kashmere Gate, she questioned whether safety mechanisms introduced after the Nirbhaya case are being implemented effectively. “In that August 4 incident, when the girl traveled 47 kilometers from Pari Chowk, how many police check-posts must have been on that route? Did they check the bus properly? Had they checked it, that gang-rape might not have happened to that girl,” she said.Kushwaha also questioned the functioning of safety equipment on the bus. “When asked why mandatory CCTV cameras weren’t operational, he casually said, ‘I installed them, but they weren’t working.’ When asked about the thick yellow curtains, he said, ‘All buses have them.’ If a crime occurred inside his bus, which was being run by unverified drivers without police clearances, why is the media interviewing him while the police haven’t made him an accused?” she said.

Restricting Access: A Contentious Solution

For Kushwaha, accountability must extend beyond the accused to officials responsible for preventing and investigating crimes. “The biggest issue is that accountability is never fixed on anyone. Following the Nirbhaya case, the Verma Committee recommended that if any police personnel displays negligence on duty, an FIR, investigation, and trial must be initiated against them as well. In reality, that was never implemented,” she said.“My personal opinion is that while the accused must be convicted, dereliction of duty by an on-duty responsible person must also be treated as a crime and penalised. Only then will they take responsibility and work honestly without negligence,” she added. The Delhi Development Authority (DDA) has announced measures including tighter access after sunset, additional security, CCTV coverage, lighting and increased patrolling, alongside a wider safety audit of its parks.The stated objective was to address vulnerabilities in public spaces. But the measures also triggered a debate among students and women’s groups over whether restricting access after dark shifts the burden of safety onto women. Students from Lady Shri Ram College for Women (LSR), Gargi College and Miranda House subsequently protested, raising concerns over lighting, policing and routes around their campuses.

‘Secure Spaces, Don’t Restrict Daughters’

For Kushwaha, restricting women’s movement is the wrong response to failures in public safety. “This is a failure of the DDA and the Delhi government,” she said. “After the Nirbhaya case, there were recommendations to monitor parks, identify dark spots, install proper lighting, and provide policing. They failed at all of that. So, their immediate reaction whenever a crime happens is: ‘Daughters must not step outside.’”“I completely condemn this decision to shut down the park. It is a terrible decision. Secure the crime scene, yes, but the message you must send is: ‘Daughters, step out day and night; we are standing here to protect you.’ Locking up parks is not a solution,” she said.She also raised a constitutional argument concerning women’s movement. “You are restricting our daughters! Under Article 21, it is their fundamental right to move freely anywhere, day or night, even through dark spaces. Does a dark spot mean that an offender is waiting and a daughter cannot pass through without being attacked? Whose failure is that?” Kushwaha asked. “On one hand, you leave the accused free to roam, and on the other, you restrict our daughters. What kind of message are you delivering?” she said.Kushwaha proposed a response focused on infrastructure and enforcement. “First, put up banners outside all DDA parks stating: ‘This park belongs as much to every daughter, day and night, as it does to the boys of Delhi. And if our daughters are unsafe because of boys, we will bar the boys from entering the park, not our daughters.’ That is the message that must be displayed,” she said. “Second, make police patrolling so formidable that the sound of a siren instills fear in criminals, making them realise that if they commit a crime anywhere in Delhi, they cannot escape.” “Third, implement preventive measures: identify and illuminate every single dark spot, run safety awareness campaigns inside the parks, ensure timely convictions in court, and conduct institutional workshops across schools and workplaces to teach men to respect women’s autonomy,” Kushwaha said.

Beyond Public Spaces: Violence Within Homes

The NCRB data, however, shows why the safety debate cannot remain limited to parks and streets. Cruelty by husbands or relatives was the largest crime category among crimes against women in 2024, with 1,20,227 registered cases nationally.Kushwaha said violence within homes and familiar surroundings requires greater attention, particularly when children are involved. “Yes, females are not safe even inside homes. Crimes committed by relatives predominantly target minors – both young girls and young boys, which isn’t even discussed in our country. When a child is abused inside the house by a relative and parents refuse to listen, the child is helpless,” she said.“We must teach children ‘good touch and bad touch,’ and schools must serve as safe spaces where sensitised women police officers regularly hold sessions and provide access to counselors. Parents must stop trusting relatives blindly out of family pride,” she said.She recalled an incident shared with her during her UPSC preparation in which a friend allegedly told her that a tuition teacher had abused her and threatened her. “Years later, she still suffered panic and trauma. Because families compromise and retract statements under social pressure, POCSO conviction rates remain abysmally low,” Kushwaha said. “Policy attention must focus on child protection, monitoring within families, and breaking the silence around abuse by relatives,” she added.

The True Legacy of Nirbhaya: A Call for Accountability

For Kushwaha, the legacy of Nirbhaya cannot be measured only by the execution of the four convicts in 2020. “Personally, I feel that executing Nirbhaya’s four convicts was merely the punishment they received for their crime. But in reality, what did Nirbhaya get? I do not consider that complete justice,” she said.“When a crime occurs and law and order fails, the government attempts to compensate by saying, ‘We will punish this perpetrator.’ But we need to think in a completely different direction,” she said. “Women’s safety is not a mere discourse or narrative; it is a fundamental human rights issue.”She said the experience had also changed the way she viewed women’s ability to navigate the system. “Women cannot merely rely on the system to protect them. They must be empowered mentally, emotionally, and physically, and they must know how to operate the system’s tools immediately in their own favour,” she said.Kushwaha also argued that institutional accountability must accompany punishment of offenders. “The biggest change I would make is that before punishing the accused, I would fix strict statutory accountability on the responsible authorities—whether police officers, judges, advocates, or guardians,” she said. “Everyone tasked with public duty must face strict legal liability and punishment if they exhibit negligence in preventing or investigating these crimes,” she added.The NCRB figures show the scale of the challenge facing the criminal justice system: more than 4.41 lakh crimes against women and nearly 1.88 lakh crimes against children were registered across India in 2024. The figures do not capture every incident of violence, as they reflect cases recorded by police. At the same time, they show the volume of cases entering the criminal justice system and the distance between registration, investigation and trial.early 14 years after Nirbhaya, the answer depends not only on how the law punishes offenders, but also on how effectively police, forensic systems, courts and public institutions prevent, investigate and respond to crimes against women and children. (ANI)(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by Asianet Newsable English staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)