Women speaking out about sexual violence on social media and elsewhere in recent times marks a significant departure from the norm. Just how much so, can be gauged from the government-backed National Family Health Survey.
The latest installment of the data that the International Institute for Population Sciences helped collect, was released in December 2017. It shows that that less than a fifth of women ever even told anyone about instances of sexual violence (see chart 1). There is also no distinction in reporting between urban and rural areas despite the former having better access to facilities like education.
The median urban female completes seven years of schooling compared to 3.1 years for rural women. Less than 15 per cent of either category sought help following sexual or physical violence (see chart 2). Wealth also doesn’t seem to matter when it comes to such instances. The percentage of those seeking help is the same for both the poorest and the richest-less than two out of every ten cases (see chart 3).
The reason for this is not too difficult to find. The National Crime Records Bureau shows an abysmal rate of conviction for even instances of the most serious of crimes against women. Around 75% of rape cases have not seen convictions.