- 1 hour ago
A debate on women's safety in the national capital focuses on the alarming rise of sexual assault cases in Delhi, including the gang rape of a seventeen-year-old girl in the back lane of Lady Shri Ram College. Congress MP and former Union Minister Renuka Chowdhury, former NCW Chairperson Lalitha Kumaramangalam, women's rights activist Yogita Bhayana, and LSR student union president Anusha Garg discuss systemic administrative and policing failures. Renuka Chowdhury questioned the inaction over persistent crimes, stating, 'the national capital has been the national capital of rape for many years now' and asking 'why are we still in this situation where girls are being raped, there are predators all around, we are being hunted, and we still keep talking about it?' Panelists called for strict accountability, urgent parliamentary intervention, and robust reforms to ensure public safety for women.
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00:00Because while, you know, one can get it kind of confused when you say, oh, it's happened in Kalkaji, South
00:05Delhi, let me break it down for you.
00:06How many of our viewers actually know about the Lady Sriram College?
00:10Every year, it makes it to the top three colleges of arts across the country.
00:16That's how big and popular this college is.
00:18I am myself an alumni from Lady Sriram College, and this incident happened in the back lane of Lady Sriram
00:25College.
00:25The back lane of one of the biggest and most sought after colleges, not just in the national capital, but
00:34across the country.
00:35It is an all women's college where the park where this incident happened in is dotted by PG's where young
00:42girls from the age group of 18 to 21 who go for classes to the Lady Sriram College live.
00:48So let's look at it from that lens.
00:50It's happened in the back lane, this incident of a 17-year-old young girl being gang raped in the
00:56back lane of the Lady Sriram College.
01:00Connecting now to Renuka Chaudhuri, member, Indian National Congress, union minister, former union minister for women and child development, member
01:09of parliament, now currently Raju Sabha.
01:12Lalita Kumara Manglam, former chairperson, NCW, BJP leader, Yodhikita Bhayana, women rights activist.
01:18And Anusha Garg, who is a student of Lady Sriram College, and she is also the president of Lady Sriram
01:25College.
01:27Ms. Chaudhuri, I'd like to begin with you.
01:29You know, to put this in perspective, nobody once is denying that we shouldn't be horrified what's happened in Jammui.
01:34We shouldn't be horrified.
01:35But because that was visual evidence that was documented, it shocks us that much more.
01:41In the national capital, Ms. Chaudhuri, there have been five sexual assault cases in five weeks.
01:46In just the last 48 hours, two minors, one 17-year-old girl gang raped behind Lady Sriram College,
01:53and one seven-year-old child, six-year-old child, I beg your pardon, raped in Central Delhi.
02:03Preeti, first of all, I'm speaking today as a woman, a mother, a sister, a daughter.
02:09Really, the rest of the rank and file doesn't matter what stage of life we've reached in our careers.
02:15But I am talking in all these roles because it's concerning us.
02:22And the national capital has been the national capital of rape for many years now.
02:27You go to see, I'm not going to politicize this.
02:30I don't want to put caste politics into it.
02:33I do not want to talk about the failings of all of us collectively.
02:38I can't believe that we are actually sitting and discussing yet another statistic of rape.
02:46Why?
02:47Why are we still in this situation where girls are being raped?
02:52There are predators all around.
02:54We are being hunted.
02:55And we still keep talking about it.
02:59Talking.
03:00And this government, it's supposed to be the capital of the country.
03:06So how do we?
03:07We've actually had people, countries giving notices to their tourists saying that don't go because it's not safe.
03:15Aren't we collectively ashamed?
03:16I can't believe that young girls, that these creeps and cops, what are we going to do about it?
03:24This is something we cannot keep talking about and we've got to do it.
03:28People don't understand.
03:30There's a whole cascade effect that happens.
03:33Female feticide, infanticide, gender discrimination, laws against women.
03:39All these come because parents find having a daughter is a liability and we can't look after them.
03:47Child marriages, all these practices continue today.
03:51Keeping girls away from schools and colleges, workplaces don't want to take women.
03:56I was a trade union leader.
03:58I used to have an industry telling me we don't want women quite blatantly.
04:02They'd say, you have to have systemic reforms.
04:05We've got to take good practices from other countries.
04:09People have to be afraid of rape.
04:13Being a girl cannot be discriminated against so much that we have hunted, poached on, knocked down, discriminated against.
04:26And the entire responsibility of being a girl in this society is on the woman.
04:31If you go to a pub and you are heckled or raped there, then it's your fault because you were
04:36out there 10.
04:37It's because of the dress you wore.
04:39It's because of this.
04:40Rape has been a war weapon in history.
04:44Rape has been power politics in states.
04:47Rape has been discriminatory against certain caste women.
04:52And now, it is a pastime.
04:55It is accessible.
04:57You can, anyone can go rape any girl.
04:59Because it doesn't matter.
05:01The law doesn't do anything about it.
05:03That is the failure.
05:05That is the failure.
05:07I want the Home Minister to come out and give an assurance.
05:11Miss Chaudhuri, thank you there for joining us.
05:13You know, I need to, I'm going to cut to President Trump, but I want to bring in all three
05:19of our guests, at least get a comment each from all of them.
05:21Miss Chaudhuri, thank you for putting your point forward and thank you for joining us.
05:25Miss Badhwar, I'd like to bring you in.
05:27You know, you have been the chairperson of NCW and it's beyond party lines.
05:32You're from the BJP.
05:33Miss Chaudhuri is from the Congress.
05:34The fact is something needs to change and it needs to change very quickly.
05:39And we need to figure out what's the way out.
05:41Policing, it's not happening.
05:43It's something that needs to take place.
05:45But what is the way out of this?
05:50There is no immediate, there is no immediate intervention that will decree this.
05:58But I think to start with, especially this time, the CM of Delhi needs to come out and make a
06:05very strong statement.
06:06Regardless of what party she may be from, she is the CM.
06:10And it's not about her being a woman.
06:12The fact is that unless he comes out and says that in some way I will take a personal interest
06:21in this and ensure that the perpetrators of these crimes are not only held responsible and accountable, but also see
06:29that the matter is past-tracked and justice is delivered.
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10:38time do we leave what route do we take should i share my location with my friends is my phone
10:43charged how will i manage everything so i think we are so accustomed to managing taking precautions
10:51everywhere we go for me real safety means women should be able to you know participate in ordinary
10:56public lives activities and stuff and i don't want to just beat around the bush i want to
11:02flag that we women's we the routes the actual routes that we use every day maybe the map that
11:10stretches students repeatedly flagged between colleges schools everywhere we bring this to
11:16concerns metro stations metro rooms but stops pgs and market area there are so many problems there
11:22is lightning problem there is a last mile transport problems as you mentioned there is problem of
11:29auto rickshaw wallahs openly people masturbating and stuff and i want to say that making and maybe
11:35having a proper auditory check maybe making reporting simple and trustworthy where students exactly know
11:42whom to reach out to what who to reach out to when what happens what goes wrong and third of
11:47all a civic
11:49sense a civic authority need a system where these reconcerning concerns are actually worked upon
11:55and not just you know every day we're having the gates how many how many young girls who go to
12:00lsr
12:00live around the astha kunj park because lots of pgs are still there mom around two to three k girls
12:08two three thousand girls live around the astha kunj park where this incident happened
12:12right yes and how many of them have now gone back home because their parents are so worried
12:16because i believe a lot of classes have also been cancelled i guess mom we are actually looking into it
12:22and right now we are trying to accommodate online classes in our college and hopefully
12:28we have tried our best we are also taking initiatives as students union so that's in way
12:35you know this is how bizarre it is yogita bhayana that lady sriram college the top women's college in
12:41this country the top three colleges across this country today has to resort to taking online classes
12:46because the girls are so scared to come to college what else we can discuss i mean for god's sake
12:54we
12:54have so many great international summits happening in our country where we're discussing and finding
12:59solutions for international problems and wars and whatnot we are unable to protect our own daughters
13:05we are unable to have a dialogue with each other different agencies under one roof different governments
13:11they are not able to find solutions because they are not ready to sit with each other we are ready
13:16to sit with other country members to discuss the international problems but we don't want to solve
13:21our own problems which is the major problem our daughters are being raped every now and then here and there
13:28i'm from miranda house i resonated what exactly you said whatever you described happened outside my
13:34college even then and this girl i can understand this young girl's you know experience why do we have to
13:40follow a drill to even step out we have a proper sop for our girls for ourselves why do we
13:46suffer
13:47why do we go to online classes what is this nonsense going on why can't we protect our daughters as
13:53simple as that and this particular spot six months ago i rescued a girl why she was being live because
14:00some of the volunteers are very active to alert me they tried to drag her in an auto yoghita that's
14:05what
14:05that was the case where this young girl was somebody tried to drag her into an auto no she was
14:11raped inside a
14:12juggi oh wow okay that's another incident which was never quite reported because two months ago a young girl
14:18outside behind lsr in that road where anusha speaking of where this incident has happened somebody tried to drag that
14:24girl in an auto yes that also happened but this we we actually rescued her while she was being raped
14:30and we
14:31took her to the police station amer colony police station exactly the same spot where this incident
14:35happened and uh you know to my surprise when we we took her and they they kept her overnight because
14:43she
14:43was from best bengal young girl 16 year old and they she was she was an orphan and they kept
14:49her with
14:49the accused and left out next day the accused while we being involved i understand yoghita this country is
14:56broken where it comes to women's safety and how they understand women's safety and how they try to
15:02implement the laws around that uh miss chowdhury i want to bring you back into this conversation you've
15:07been wanting to make a point thank you for the patience both uh miss mangalam and miss chowdhury but
15:11miss chowdhury we've come to a place today because this is not news lady sriram college today is
15:16looking at conducting online classes because the young girls who go to that college are so scared
15:21and the administration hasn't been able to instill that faith in them
15:30pretty there's a rape that's happening one in 18 minutes every day across the country lady sriram is a
15:39privileged college and it's happening even there there are hundreds of educational institutes
15:44which don't have the prestige or the recognition governments of india hire the air force to transport
15:51exam papers for neat you can't secure the girls
15:58why are we so helpless that's the point i'm asking why are we so helpless you have to have capacity
16:05building in judiciary you've got to have prosecutors you have got to have forensic setups
16:11and you have to address chemical castrations we already have sexual offenders registries across the
16:19country as a law how many sexual offenders are reporting there in a police station when a man is
16:25renting his property to someone he should know whether that fellow is a sexual offender or not
16:30a repeat sexual offender has to have be chemically castrated there are laws applying all over the
16:36world nobody rapes and gets away with it in uae or united states or they do they have other
16:43loopholes which they look at but their best practices japan other countries that have practiced it
16:50in some countries they ask for consent of the guy for chemical castration if he can't keep his fly
16:56zipped baby then get to the root of the problem that's how i see it i mean we're just sitting
17:04by
17:05the wayside wilting away and we've got to protect our daughters it is the responsibility of the state
17:12it is the accountability of anyone sitting in governance i don't care which government i don't
17:18miss mangalam would you want to weigh in on this and ensure that message is given every police station
17:25now as an exercise pretty as an exercise you have to bring in all the police have to call in
17:32all the
17:32sexual offenders i don't care whether they're today or yesterday that they've done it good point
17:37i want to i want to bring in miss kumara mangalam into this conversation as well you know miss kumara
17:44mangalam the fact is yes we are appalled i am appalled that nothing much has changed and i am
17:48appalled that we are in 2026 and india's top women's college is contemplating online classes
17:54but you know miss chowdhury has a point there's privilege attached to lady sriram college yet we
18:00are having this conversation what about the others i quite agree with her i went to stephen's many many
18:06years ago we were the first batch of girls the prestige of the college where you study
18:11uh has a direct bearing on you know the opportunities that are given to anybody and when girls are
18:18prevented from studying in what is called a good college you are curtailing their freedom you are
18:24curtailing their empowerment all these big words that i use every day mean nothing if they cannot be
18:31safe in public spaces especially educational places uh india needs a huge mindset change we still
18:39target girls who have been sexually molested raped etc somehow the other somewhere or the other maybe
18:46dogamas who come on tv we are the very few ones who actually say loudly that it's not the girl's
18:52fault
18:52it's the state's fault it's the perpetrator's fault it's the mindset the mindset in india also needs
18:59to change we need to really seriously look at value education in every school across the country
19:07regardless of politics we need to make it part of the curriculum where boys are told that
19:13look but buster you're also going to get really badly you know i don't i can't use the word i'd
19:20like
19:20to on national television but you're going to get really badly treated and punished if you continue
19:25with your contempt for girls all of this stems from the mindset where we think girls i don't mean as
19:32much
19:32boys that they have they have don't have that much work when i see the president of elsa i'm sitting
19:38on
19:39this uh this panel and saying what she does it takes me back to my student days 50 years ago
19:46nothing much has changed and it is now according to me in some ways much worse because we make no
19:53promises to the girls and we're not able to deliver it so there has to be a systemic change across
19:59the
20:00board and like i said without the coordination of every association organization government
20:06non-government everybody without finding fault in each other yes everybody has made mistakes and
20:13must be turned up for it we need to sit down and see how accountability can be enforced
20:20everybody's up to bottom unless an environment in a country like india it's impossible i just want to
20:26bring in my mom i want to bring in anusha and yogata right before we get into a break because
20:30we have to cut to the unja but anusha what is it that it will take to pacify the many
20:35girls who
20:36are now fearful of coming back to college some of them i know have gone home many of you are
20:41very
20:42scared and worried for yourselves is there counseling which is going on right now in your college
20:49mom guess my college is taking proper steps for everything there has been proper support from
20:55our mentors from the faculty from principal from our students union and i just feel that this is
21:02this should be an eye-opener because reportedly there have been 13 000 cases in delhi just talking
21:08about delhi and i think this is high time that we maintain proper audits we ensure that women's
21:14safety is not a joke people are actually taking steps we have pink booth near our college but
21:18still concerns are coming up and is that pink booth ever manned anusha is there ever a woman cop
21:25in that pink booth because i'm told that booth is only there which is pink and nobody's inside that
21:30booth ever no mom there is a woman inside there is okay good which is which is good to know
21:35anusha
21:36how many classes have been canceled till now mom classes okay so it's it's regarding the departments
21:43and some professors are trying to get it online some are just canceling the classes but yeah hopefully
21:50things get better and it's the fear that is you know propagated no i hear you and i'm sorry because
21:57i know you're the president you also somewhere down the line have to uh stand up for your faculty
22:03you know for your you know students there i understand you want to protect the the repute of
22:10your college as well and i get all of that and i understand you're struggling with uh you know
22:14come you know saying what you are also saying but i'm glad that you're here today and anusha
22:18because you sitting there and saying for what it is is more than any of us on this panel so
22:24thank you
22:24you know for having the courage and coming out and saying what you are because rarely has it ever
22:29happened that girls from affected colleges or presidents of colleges come out and verbalize what
22:36they are fearing or what's happening inside the college because what stays in college what happens
22:41in college stays inside the college thank you for verbalizing it on national television uh yogita you
22:46wanted to come in i just want to say one thing pretty one day in parliament across party line just
22:53discuss this issue how we can resolve it without having any bias any any particular party preference just
23:00talk about solutions can they do that we have chosen them for these things only you know if they can't
23:08do that i've been asking it for last seven years none of them have shown any interest one day in
23:14parliament at least they can discuss these this is a very important issue we have a girl who will be
23:18in swaroop nagar last week raped and killed to that level that you could not even know the gender
23:24her body's body was eaten by animals i mean are we talking about our power capital our our capital of
23:34the country we are so proud of i am not so proud of as of now we need to secure
23:40our daughters and on
23:41mission mode repeatedly i keep saying operation baby ko lana padega mission sindoor ki tarah mission baby
23:54you are right forget about the brick summit because you know we have one member of parliament
23:59with us from rajya sabha and miss chowdhury for somebody like you who's a member of parliament this
24:04is something that you can bring up because while there might be talks of a special session for
24:08whatever it might be i think this warrants a special session of its own urgent session yes i totally agree
24:16in
24:17fact as of now parliament hasn't been prorogued from the last session so there's nothing stopping
24:23government of india from calling for a three-day five-day session to discuss this issue it's no less
24:29important than your nuclear treaties or your brick summit or whatever we are more than we are 50 percent
24:35of this population and as empowered by the constitution as every man in this country why is it that we
24:42are
24:42being treated like this why is it that our safety is not a concern a national concern
24:48that we keep brushing it under the carpet you want our votes but you don't want to talk about what's
24:53bothering us of course we should take it up i have given enough notices i'll take out my entire
24:59parliament history where i'll show you i was the one who brought in the laws as woman and child minister
25:04when i said domestic violence also has to be reported and the headway i made and the threats
25:10i got at that time was not funny and believe me each one of us as women who have reached
25:16where we have
25:17have been mauled have been assaulted have been abused we've gone through that fire and we've reached where we
25:26have and it is our business that we turn around and reach and hold hands of other women and ensure
25:32that
25:32the part thank you for saying that and thank you for you know mr augury thank you for saying that
25:36and can i just like to say this on national television uh you know you know for what you've
25:41said thank you for saying that but importantly thank you for being a current member of parliament
25:46and agreeing to sit on a panel with the president of lady sriram college because usually we have
25:51mps who say we will only do one-on-ones you know and that's where it it just doesn't matter
25:56because then it's never a conversation it's always a monologue but thank you you know for doing
26:00that but mr kumara manglam i want to bring you in because i think now it's up to the parliament
26:04as well there is so much in focus where we talk about bringing a special session but i think this
26:09is as urgent as any anything else in this country ma'am yes it is uh about time that parliament
26:16sat up
26:17and took a much much much greater notice and interest in this and again i'm not in parliament but i'd
26:23like
26:23like to request all the women parliamentarians especially who need to sit down and make a lot
26:29of noise together parliament will don't will not have a choice but to respond take it to the pm take
26:35it to the home minister take it to whomever you want to take it to leader of the opposition who
26:40you feel
26:41will you know pay enough attention but the problem also is that even in parliament hierarchy exists
26:47and often that defeats uh the good intentions of you know people who have the best intentions
26:52and i'd like uh you know i'd like to make an appeal to all the male parliamentarians also regardless of
26:58what force they may be in or not that for god's sake every one of you have women in your
27:04family
27:05sisters fiancées wives mothers grandmothers friends colleagues etc put us first for months and sit
27:12together like i keep saying coordination unless in this even the men are drafted nothing much is
27:19going to change even after another 50 years yes so in parliament if this could be done i mean please
27:25it's a personal request across the board it doesn't matter uh if this could be done somebody needs to
27:32take it up and do it i think all of us the rest of us should also come together to
27:37you know get some
27:3850 000 signatures or whatever we think and move i agree ma'am and you know we are going to
27:43see that
27:44it's picked up you know we are going to we're going to follow this yeah very quickly miss chowdhury i
27:49need to get into a break i have a suggestion i have a suggestion
27:56yeah yeah miss chowdhury make your point your suggestion very quickly
28:01no i was saying that i have a suggestion i think women police should be in civil clothes and hang
28:09around all the vulnerable areas there should be a backup plan behind them a supporting group and
28:15the minute a man misbehaves pick him up and put his photograph in the papers name them and shame
28:22them name them and shame them i think that's also the victim please expose yes yeah yoghita come
28:29in quickly i i have one like signature on this particular campaign i have one like signature on
28:35the same campaign on women is in cvs all right okay that's a good one you know we're going to
28:40try
28:40we're going to take this conversation further in india today i promise i thank all three of you
28:45i thank all three of you for joining us and young anusha thank you for being brave and saying i
28:51will come and i will speak on national television thank you there thank you all for joining us
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