New Delhi: Candle light vigils, prayer meetings, street plays and a series of other events on Tuesday marked two years of the brutal gangrape of a 23-year-old girl in a moving bus in the city that had triggered widespread nation-wide outrage forcing the government to enact stricter laws against sexual assault.
“That day, this very moment my daughter said she would come back within 2-3 hours. But that never happened. She never came back,” the mother of the girl said at a prayer meeting this evening. “We are yet to get justice. Nothing has changed. The society came together for a brief period. The case is in Supreme Court but we are not getting a date for the last six months. The system stays where it was,” she said.
By the time she finished her brief speech, eyes of the audience assembled, including a host of dignitaries, to pay homage to the girl had started welling. Union Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi paid floral tributes to ‘Nirbhaya’, at the poignant function organised by the Nirbhaya Trust, run by her parents. Gandhi charted out the governmental steps that were in the “process” against sexual violence.
“We have drafted a Juvenile Justice Bill that was introduced in Parliament and is now with the Select Committee. We will try to get it passed in the Monsoon Session.” (PTI)