INDIA’S MINISTER FOR women has been criticised for saying the country’s rape culture has been grossly over-exaggerated.
Despite being listed as the worst place in the world to be a woman in 2012, Maneka Gandhi, claimed India was in the bottom four countries in the world when it came to rape.
Speaking to a group of women at a journalism workshop, Ghandi said the story of a gang rape victim in India two years ago had painted the country in the wrong light.
She told The Times of India: “I went to Sweden two years ago when, because of the Nirbhaya incident, cases were being reported every day.
Someone said to me that no one wanted to travel to India. I had data with me and I took a look at it and then showed it to him. As per that data in the world, we ranked among the lowest four countries in terms of rape cases. Sweden was number one.
Ghandi laid the blame at the feet of the press and said India’s newspapers reported rapes every single day whereas European journalists don’t cover them as often.
She added that her country has zero tolerance to rape.
In India, there is a culture of fear when it comes to reporting rapes. Many women are labelled as ‘dirty’ by their peers for supposedly allowing themselves to become a victim. Marital rape is also not a crime in India.
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