Govt. lacks will to use available tools to prevent crime against women: Women activists

Recalling the horrific December 16, 2012 gang-rape of a 23-year-old woman, women activist Annie Raja on Friday said the government lacks the political will to use available tools to prevent crimes against women due to which till now justice has not been delivered to Nirbhaya.

"The Centre and the state government do not have the will to implement the available tools to prevent such crimes. It is important that the government use this tool to provide justice for Nirbhaya," said Raja.

She further said that the country has such stringent acts and legislation to prevent such crimes against women, but due to a lack of political will and social commitment on the part of the government, justice is being delayed.

Another women activist Abha Singh said that the frequency of such said that such incidents shows that the government is unable to protect women across the nation.

"The country has not forgotten the Nirbhaya brutal gang rape, but what is ironic's that on the eve of Nirbhaya's gang rape, again a young girl was raped. This clearly shows that the law has been unable to protect women not only Delhi, but also in India," said Singh.

Nirbhaya was brutally gang-raped on the intervening night of December 16, 2012, in a moving bus in South Delhi. The incident took place while she was returning with a friend after watching a movie.

She died 13 days after the incident at a hospital in Singapore.

Of the six men arrested in the case, one of the accused Ram Singh hanged himself in prison in March 2013, while another man, who was a juvenile at the time of the crime, was convicted in August and will serve the maximum sentence of three years in a reform home.

The other four -- Akshay, Vinay Sharma, Pawan and Mukesh -- were found guilty and sentenced to death by the Delhi High Court in September 2013.

The men have challenged the death sentence in the Supreme Court, which is currently hearing their appeal.