Understanding social and legal impacts of Nirbhaya movement, India (2012)

Protests… peaceful and violent erupted across India after the brutal gang rape of a young girl in a moving bus in the heart of India’s capital, Delhi. Masses, with simmering anger, across all sections and classes and age groups, erupted in absolute disgust over the apathy of the police, political class and government. Demonstrations were held in all major cities. The Nirbhaya movement across the country certainly foxed the authorities. They were wondering how so many people could come out and protest, there must be someone organizing all this, trying to foment trouble. The authorities did not know how to respond and the public anger justifiably grew. There was no leader for this movement, there was no common ideology shared by all the protestors, yes there was outrage but there was no ideology or concrete solutions and yet the protests gained more strength. This paper aims to study the recent history of sexual violence against women, sometimes constitutionally supported and at other times culturally propagated. This paper aims to understand the Nirbhaya incident and its social and legal impact in India.