Anti-rape protesters brave cold and hunger, demand death penalty for rapists

Braving the wintry chill and hunger, protesters on Monday continued to demand death penalty for the accused involved in the December 16 gangrape of a 23-year-old woman, who eventually died after battling for survival for 13 days.

Rajesh Gungwar, who is on a hunger strike for the last eight days at Jantar Mantar, described the movement for the safety of women as "historic", and said the perpetrators of the rape should be hanged without delay.

"It is important to raise a voice against the issue of rape that has come up. This is a historic movement against atrocities on women. The government must amend laws and all rapists should be hanged till death," said Gungwar.

"Being a woman, I feel it is not just about these six people who have been arrested. It is about everything that goes wrong against women. It is about child abuse, it is about domestic violence, it is about rape, it is about molestation, even teasing. And a very simple thing that we can do, both men and women, is that we need to raise our voices," said Anjali, a protester in Bangalore, Karnataka.

"If we see anything wrong happening, we need to raise our voice. If it is happening with us, we need to raise our voice. If it is in our surroundings that something wrong is happening, we need to raise our voice," she added.

"Actually we are not just protesting against the rape case that took place in Delhi. Many more rape cases are occurring daily all over the country. We have to stop this. So some changes must be made in the judiciary system and the administrative setup must be changed or strengthened," said Atul Pathak, from Guwahati, Assam.

Meanwhile, the authorities have arranged for ambulances to take some of the protesters to hospital because of their deteriorating condition, but none of them have agreed to go.

... contd.

ALSO READ

Siddaramaiah: From die-hard anti-Congressman to Cong CM

Man arrested for slashing throats of woman, mother-in-law

PML-N will revisit Pak foreign policy on India: Nawaz Sharif's aide

MCA to discuss proposal to name Wankhede box after Bal Thackeray