Protesters demand quick justice in pending Kolkata rape cases

Students and women organisations have asked the West Bengal Government to take action and deliver quick justice on the increasing number of rape cases in Kolkata.

Protesting on the streets of the state capital, they demanded one-stop redressal centres for rape victims.

A protester, Shashwati Ghosh, said: "We are asking for one- stop redressal centres, preferably in hospitals, because once an act of sexual violence takes place, it is very difficult for the girl who is already traumatized, to run from one place to another, going to the police station and then again for medical examination and then again to police for drawing the picture."

Women's safety in India has been under the spotlight since the gang-rape and murder of a student on a bus in Delhi in 2012, which provoked nationwide protests and the introduction of tougher sexual assault laws, yet an ongoing stream of high-profile attacks has raised concerns that little has changed.

The case turned a global spotlight on the treatment of women in India, where police say a rape is reported every 20 minutes.

However, even after two years of the tragic incident and enactment of stringent laws, India is struggling to tame violence against women and change the chauvinistic attitude of men.

The case led to the introduction of tougher rape laws, and for the first time open debates about gender crime were held on television debates and social media.

India has a clutch of powerful women politicians, including Sonia Gandhi, the chief of the ruling Congress party and arguably the country's most powerful lawmaker.

But the realities for many Indian women stand in grim contrast as the discrimination against girls and female foeticide are common.

Despite stringent laws, girls and women in a largely patriarchal India face a barrage of threats and these include forced marriage, rape, dowry-related murder, domestic violence and also human trafficking.

Most sex crimes in India go unreported, many offenders go unpunished, and the wheels of justice turn slowly, according to social activists who say successive governments have done little to ensure the safety of women and children.

United Nations figures show that 1.8 in every 100,000 Indian women is a victim of rape and social as well as physical exploitation.