Three years after a young woman was gang-raped and murdered in the national capital, her mother made an emotional appeal to the people of the country to acknowledge her name. The victim was called Nirbhaya (the fearless) in popular press because Indian laws do not allow the names of rape victims to be made public.
"I have no shame in taking her name. There is no need to hide her name. The shame should be theirs (the rapists). My daughter's name is Jyoti. Call her by her name," her mother Asha Devi told a cheering crowd at the heart of the capital.
In India, where rape still has a social stigma attached to it, on rare occasions survivors or their families willingly come forward to identify themselves to help others in the same situation cope and to give courage to the silent majority. The survivor in the Park Street rape case, Suzette Jordan, insisted people know her name and refused to be called a 'victim'.
On Dec 16, 2012, the young medical student was raped brutally, tortured and then thrown out of a public bus she boarded along with a man friend while returning home from a movie. She died days later of her injuries. Four rapists have been given the death penalty. But one of them, who was a juvenile at that time, has served three years in a correctional home for minors and is set to walk free on December 20.
Jyoti's mother urged the government not to release him.
As part of a rehabilitation plan by the Delhi government's department of women and child development (WCD), the rapist will be given a one-time financial grant of Rs 10,000 and a sewing machine so that he can set up a tailoring shop.
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"I have no shame in taking her name. There is no need to hide her name. The shame should be theirs (the rapists). My daughter's name is Jyoti. Call her by her name," her mother Asha Devi told a cheering crowd at the heart of the capital.
In India, where rape still has a social stigma attached to it, on rare occasions survivors or their families willingly come forward to identify themselves to help others in the same situation cope and to give courage to the silent majority. The survivor in the Park Street rape case, Suzette Jordan, insisted people know her name and refused to be called a 'victim'.
On Dec 16, 2012, the young medical student was raped brutally, tortured and then thrown out of a public bus she boarded along with a man friend while returning home from a movie. She died days later of her injuries. Four rapists have been given the death penalty. But one of them, who was a juvenile at that time, has served three years in a correctional home for minors and is set to walk free on December 20.
Jyoti's mother urged the government not to release him.
As part of a rehabilitation plan by the Delhi government's department of women and child development (WCD), the rapist will be given a one-time financial grant of Rs 10,000 and a sewing machine so that he can set up a tailoring shop.
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