Ten years of Nirbhaya case: DCW chief seeks discussion on women's safety in Parliament

New Delhi: Delhi Commission for Women chief Swati Maliwal on Friday wrote to the Lok Sabha speaker and Rajya Sabha chairman urging them to suspend the day's business in both houses of Parliament to discuss the issue of women's safety on the 10th anniversary of the Nirbhaya gangrape incident.

Crimes against women have reached an "epidemic proportion", she said, while highlighting that six rapes are reported in the national capital every day.

"An eight-month-old baby and a 90-year-old woman have also been raped in Delhi!" she tweeted.

Maliwal also highlighted the recent acid attack on a 17-year-old girl in west Delhi.

"The problem of increasing crimes against women and girls has reached an epidemic proportion and governments are failing to take steps to counter it. Even the Nirbhaya Fund that was set up for providing relief and rehabilitation for women and girls has been reduced substantially," she said.

"The increasing crimes against women and girls in a matter of great concern and needs to be urgently acted against. I, therefore, request you to kindly suspend today's business and ensure that the matter regarding the rising crimes against women and girls is properly discussed in the House," she said in a letter to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla and Rajya Sabha chairperson Jagdeep Dhankhar.

The physiotherapy intern, who came to be known as 'Nirbhaya' (fearless), was sexually assaulted in a moving bus in south Delhi on December 16, 2012. She died a fortnight later.

Six people, including a juvenile, were named as accused.

While the juvenile was released in 2015 after spending three years in a correctional home, four convicts were hanged on March 20, 2020. Ram Singh, the sixth accused, allegedly killed himself in Tihar Jail days after the trial began in the case.