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From Our Own Correspondent

The despair over India's failure to confront sexual violence. Why are the victims blamed?

From Our Own Correspondent

BBC

News, News Commentary

4.41.3K Ratings

🗓️ 14 December 2019

⏱️ 29 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

India's Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, announced a zero tolerance policy towards violence against women when he took office. But Rajini Vaidyanathan says that for many victims his promises ring hollow. According to the latest figures from India's National Crime Records Bureau there were 33,658 female rape victims in 2017 which means one woman was raped every 15 minutes - and those are just the official figures. Myanmar's civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi has been defending her government from accusations of genocide at the United Nation's top court in the Hague this week but Anna Holligan finds the former Nobel Peace Prize winner tight lipped when it comes to two words - rape and Rohingya. Viktor Orban's government has stopped funding for gender studies, calling them 'an ideology not a science'. The move has sent a chill down the spines of Hungarian academics says Angela Saini. In Haiti Thomas Rees tunes into the intimate and intense relationship between music, politics and protest And from the archive a memorable dispatch from the late Alex Duval Smith .... if you are worried whether your Christmas cards will arrive in time, spare a thought for Mali's most dedicated mailman who has to make deliveries in a city without postcodes.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

BBC Sounds, music radio podcasts.

0:04.7

From heroine to Pariah, Aung San Suu Kyi has been in court in the Hague,

0:10.0

but our correspondent finds her tight-lipped when it comes to rape and the Rohingya.

0:15.0

In Hungary, Victor Orbán has stopped funding for gender studies.

0:20.0

His government calls them an ideology, not a science, sending a chill down the spines of Hungarian academics.

0:28.0

There are many ways to change a government, the ballot box, the protest, and in Haiti we hear they put great store in music.

0:37.0

And the usual question at this time of year, done the cards yet?

0:41.0

From our archive we retrieve a dispatch about the dedicated postman who has to make

0:45.8

deliveries in a city with no post codes. Hardly a day goes by at the moment without another violent incident involving rape in India.

0:56.0

The country's parliament had to be adjourned yesterday during a heated row,

1:00.0

not about the crime itself, but an off-the-cuff remark by an opposition leader.

1:06.3

Prime Minister Nerendra Modi may boast about his manufacturing campaign, Make in India,

1:12.2

said Rahul Gandhi, but nowadays wherever you look it's rape in India.

1:17.0

Accused of insulting the country, he refused to apologize, pointing out instead that the Prime Minister himself had described

1:24.8

Delhi as the rape capital several times when in opposition.

1:29.7

When he took office, Mr. Modi announced a zero tolerance policy on violence against women.

1:35.8

But Regini Vaidu Navan says that for many victims his promises ring hollow.

1:41.2

Seven years ago as the city twinkled with festive lights and the harsh

1:46.7

Delhi winter began to set in. A young woman was brutally

1:51.5

ganged and murdered. A group of men took turns to

1:55.3

assault her at the end of what had seemed like a normal evening. She'd just been to

2:01.0

see a film with her friend and she boarded a bus to go home.

...

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