Delhi rape: Ansari calls for rapid legal, social steps

Describing the gruesome gang-rape of a young lady on a New Delhi bus in mid-December that led to her death as an incident that "has made us hang our heads in shame", Vice President Hamid Ansari today sought immediate steps for comprehensive corrective measures in law and social behaviour.

Addressing NCC Republic Day Camp 2013 in Delhi, he told the youths of the National Cadet Corps that one must remember that full respect for human rights of all and on all occasions, inclusive of gender equality and gender justice, are prerequisites of a modern, progressive society.

"A recent event on the eve of the New Year gave all of us occasion for remorse and sorrow. It made us, as a people, hang our heads in shame.

"The expressions of anguish and anger, fully justified, must now be speedily translated into comprehensive correctives in laws, procedures, societal norms and values, and social behaviour," Ansari said.

The 23-year-old victim, a paramedical student, was brutally raped and assaulted in a moving bus on the night of 16 December and died of her injuries on 29 December after having been moved to a Singapore hospital.

The vice president said this responsibility must be shouldered by all and discharged by all. "As a disciplined corps of young men and women, you can be the vanguard and trend setters," he told the NCC.