Protests Erupt in India Following Woman’s Death in Rape Case
- Data show nine lower caste women raped each day in India
- Family say police cremated her body without their presence
Protesters demonstrate following reports that local police cremated the victim’s body, in New Delhi, India, on Oct. 1
Photographer: Sajjad Hussain/AFP via Getty Images
A series of brutal rapes committed against women from India’s lowest castes are making national headlines across the South Asian nation of 1.3 billion, fueling street protests and social media outrage that’s put Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s administration under the spotlight.
A 19-year-old woman from the Dalit caste -- the lowest rung in Hinduism’s complex social hierarchy -- died in a New Delhi hospital on Tuesday, two weeks after she was allegedly gang raped by upper caste men from her north Indian village. Her mutilated body was found by her mother in the fields of her village in Hathras, in Uttar Pradesh.