Girl, 15, raped and set on fire

Women's rights activists hold banners and placards as they mach on International Women's Day in New Delhi. Picture: AP

The attack is just one of several recently reported cases of rapes of women or children in India - underlining the persistence of such violence despite a public outcry three years ago that led to stronger laws against sexual assault.

In the latest case, police have arrested a 20-year-old man suspected of raping and attempting to burn the girl to death in Tigri village, near the New Delhi suburb of Noida in the state of Uttar Pradesh, according to constable Yadram Singh of the Bisrakh police station.

Singh said the man “had burns on his hands” and was charged with several offences, including rape, attempted murder, assault of a minor and causing grievous injury.

The girl was in a critical condition with severe burns over most of her body, Singh said.

Singh’s police report on the case describes how the girl’s parents found her after hearing her screaming from the rooftop terrace a few hours before dawn on Monday. The girl later told police that she was raped, beaten and then set on fire by a man she said had been stalking her for months.

India’s women and children are considered particularly vulnerable to sexual violence and harassment because of widespread social taboos against speaking about sexual assault. The stigma is enough to keep many from even reporting crimes, while many others face police resistance in filing complaints.

Experts say that has started to change since the fatal gang rape of a 23-year-old woman on a New Delhi bus in 2012 triggered national anger and demands that more be done for women’s safety. The government rushed through legislation to double prison terms for rape, and to criminalise voyeurism, stalking and the trafficking of women.

The public debate has also increased Indian newspaper reports of rape and assault.

On Monday, police in the financial capital of Mumbai said they were investigating whether a four-year-old girl whose body was dumped in the bushes on the city’s outskirts had been raped before being killed.

In other cases in Uttar Pradesh, police arrested a 20-year-old man suspected of raping a six-year-old on Sunday night, and were separately investigating nine people for allegedly gang raping a woman last month.

And last week, three boys reportedly kidnapped a teenage girl from her home and raped her repeatedly in a field in the northern state of Haryana and later in New Delhi before she escaped.