THE abduction, rape and murder of an 11-year-old girl in the eastern Indian town of Baruipur has once again thrust India's long-running struggle with sexual violence into the national spotlight, highlighting what activists describe as systemic failures that continue to leave women and children vulnerable despite years of legal reform.
Reuters reported on Wednesday that the girl disappeared after leaving home to attend a friend's birthday party earlier this month. According to the investigating police officer, she was kidnapped, raped, placed in a sack and thrown into a pond while still alive. Her body, bearing bite marks and bruises, was recovered the following morning.
"My mind is not working. I have not been able to think straight in days," the girl's father told Reuters.
The case has intensified scrutiny of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which recently formed the government in West Bengal after campaigning on improving women's safety.
However, campaigners argue that political change alone cannot address the structural causes of sexual violence.
India recorded 29,536 rape cases in 2024, equivalent to more than 80 reported rapes each day, according to National Crime Records Bureau data. Crimes against women have more than doubled since 2010, while offences against children have increased more than sevenfold over the same period.
Cases registered under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act reached a record 69,191 in 2024, underscoring the growing scale of child sexual abuse across the country.
Activists say the official figures represent only part of the problem, with many victims choosing not to report assaults because of stigma, victim-blaming and fear of social repercussions.
They also point to deeply rooted patriarchy, chronic shortages of police personnel, lengthy court proceedings and gender bias within law enforcement and the judiciary as factors that embolden offenders.
The latest case comes more than a decade after the 2012 gang rape and murder of a student on a bus in New Delhi, which prompted nationwide protests and sweeping legal reforms, including tougher penalties for sexual offences and the establishment of fast-track courts.
Despite those measures, campaigners say implementation has fallen far short of expectations.
The government had planned to establish 2,600 fast-track special courts for sexual offences by 2026. However, the latest official data show only 755 have been set up nationwide, including 410 dedicated POCSO courts.
Karuna Nundy, a lawyer involved in drafting India's anti-rape legislation, said governments have failed to tackle the underlying social attitudes driving violence against women.
"There needs to be a sustained effort towards changing behaviour at the community level," she said.
"It is crucial to recruit the right kind of police personnel and appoint judges who have a gender progressive understanding of these issues."
Gender rights activist Satabdi Das said the persistence of such crimes reflected a much deeper societal problem.
"Nothing is going to change simply because the regime changes. This is a deep-rooted problem embedded in our patriarchal culture, not just in West Bengal but across India," she said.
The National Commission for Women said another recent case involving the abduction and gang rape of a 12-year-old girl in Rajasthan exposed "serious administrative lapses, policing gaps and inadequate monitoring mechanisms that allowed such criminal activities to continue."
Police have arrested 22 suspects in that case.
Meanwhile, another incident reported this week involved the alleged rape and murder of a seven-year-old girl in Ghaziabad, whose body was found inside an empty shaft at an unfinished shopping complex.
The Baruipur case has also raised questions over the speed of the initial police response after relatives claimed officers failed to launch an immediate search when the child was first reported missing.
"Apart from asking a few locals about her whereabouts, the police did not do much," a close friend of the family told Reuters.
Local residents subsequently gathered and reviewed CCTV footage themselves in an effort to trace the child's movements.
Arvind Kumar Anand, a police officer in Baruipur, said authorities were reviewing the department's actions.
"We are looking at internal reports to see who made what mistake," he said.
The case has also reignited debate over so-called police "encounter" killings after one suspect died during a confrontation with officers. Police said the suspect was shot after attempting to seize a weapon from officers escorting him.
West Bengal BJP leader Agnimitra Paul defended the government's response.
"The message is very clear from our government that we are not going to tolerate any kind of nonsense," she said.
Human rights advocates, however, warned that extrajudicial killings undermine the rule of law and fail to address the root causes of sexual violence.
"The police shooting of suspects is a spectacle designed to assuage the anxiety of society; that instant justice will make the crime disappear," said lawyer and human rights activist Vrinda Grover.
"Far from deterring crime, it gives impetus to the arbitrary powers of the police and the state over the lives of citizens." - July 15, 2026
