international survey ranked India the world’s fourth most dangerous
country for women, behind only Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic
of the Congo, and Pakistan. The treatment of women in public has been a
frustration for generations, but it was the case of Jyoti Singh, the woman
also known as Nirbhaya, that caused something to break in India—a long-
held willingness to accept danger to women as part of daily life.
Nirbhaya means “fearless” in Hindi. She became known to the world
in 2012 as the young medical student who was gang-raped in a private
bus by six drunken men who twisted a rod inside of her after the rapes,
and then threw her out of the bus. She later died. Her adult killers were
arrested, convicted, and sentenced to death, an unusual outcome in a
country where only one out of four rape cases leads to a conviction. (A
juvenile served three years and is now living under a different name.)
More remarkable was Indian society’s reaction to Nirbhaya’s attack—
day after day of women protesting in the streets, chanting “Freedom
Usha Vishwakarma
demonstrates self-
defense techniques
to students in
Ramgarh, a rural part
of Rajasthan state.
Vishwakarma started
the Red Brigade after
she was attacked and
the local police failed
to act on her report.
Now the group orga-
nizes marches, aware-
ness campaigns, and
self-defense training.A RIGHT TO BE SAFE 101