`India could be the rape capital of the world'

The vicious Delhi bus rape may help awaken the national conscience, but it will not change the lot of Indian women anytime soon.

As international attention focused on the vicious rape of a young lady on a Delhi bus last Sunday, the rape of a three-year-old child by the owner of her playschool – which also occurred in the national capital - has passed with little media notice.

The wee thing was drugged before the heinous crime was committed; it only came to light when she felt the pains of an act as vicious as the rape of the medical student on the bus.
Police said the child was raped on Monday inside the premises of the playschool by Pramod Malik, the school's owner.

Malik was arrested on Wednesday; his wife Poonam (who was the manager of the school) was arrested two days later on Friday. The police along with the civic authorities have now sealed the school premises.

Amid the din over the rape of the medico on a moving bus, the child rape incident didn't quite make the headlines it should have. But it is another pointer to the general perception (supported by statistics) that Delhi is India's 'rape capital'.

Noted columnist Jug Suraiya has in a recent article echoed the modern Western view of rape – that it is driven by the urge to prove power and control over the victim rather than sexual lust. But in the face of the rape of a three-year-old, this appears a simplistic explanation.