India's women demand freedom and safety after another rape and murder

Harsh punishment has not deterred crimes against women, activists and lawyers say

- Rohini Mohan

A Bollywood horror film showing to packed cinemas across India features a demon that hunts and kills "modern women".

The headless bogeyman, the literal embodiment of patriarchy, targets women who work or study, wear Western clothes or simply use smartphones.

The roaring success of this campy movie aptly titled Stree, or Woman, is in part because it resonates deeply with Indian women who feel preyed upon at work and in public.

Its release coincided with a horrifying tragedy hitting the headlines.

On Aug 9, a 31-year-old trainee doctor, resting after a 36-hour shift in a government hospital in eastern India's Kolkata city, was raped and murdered.

The incident unleashed protests across the country, as it was a graphic reminder that India has not become much safer for women in the past decade.

And just a few weeks before, a 33-year-old nurse in Uttarakhand state was raped, robbed and murdered, allegedly by a labourer, as she walked home.

"Why does this keep happening? When will this stop?" a teacher friend texted this reporter, echoing the existential question Indian women are asking today in family living rooms, hospitals, classrooms, offices and WhatsApp groups.

Women in India are constantly on high alert. Obscene comments from strangers on the street, molestation on buses, workplace harassment and intimate partner violence have schooled most women not to expect respect from men, even those who are friends or family members.

The Aug 9 attack has been a painful deja vu, reminding most Indians of the brutal gang rape of a 23-year-old physiotherapy student in a moving Delhi bus in December 2012.

She succumbed to her injuries about two weeks later in Singapore, where she was receiving emergency treatment.

The media, prohibited under law from disclosing the victim's name 12 years ago, had called her Nirbhaya, which means "fearless".