How gang-rape horror has rocked India
Gang-rape victim’s bus ride to death has brought anger over the plight of India’s women to boil, and reflection on an all too common crime
After watching Life of Pi in a New Delhi mall, the 23-year-old student and her male companion were looking for a quick lift home when a bus with tinted windows pulled over.
Once on board, the pair were subjected to a catalogue of violence and sexual depravity that has evoked comparisons with Anthony Burgess' novel A Clockwork Orange and brought simmering anger over the plight of women to the boil across India.
The Indian news channel NDTV greeted news of her death in the early hours of yesterday morning in a Singapore hospital with the banner headline, "RIP: India's Daughter" - a reflection of how her plight moved the nation.
Since the brutal attack on the night of December 16, the country's leaders have lined up to offer their prayers and condemn the violence as well as paying for her treatment in Singapore.
Although the identity of the young woman has not yet been released, reports said she was a medical student who hailed from a rural area of Uttar Pradesh, India's largest state, which borders the capital New Delhi.
Her parents, who travelled to Singapore after she was flown out by air ambulance on Wednesday night, are said to have sold their small piece of land to fund their daughter's education, often limiting their own meals to little more than rotis with namak (salt), according to NDTV.
"These are simple, rustic people, who have never dreamt of boarding an aircraft, much less travel to a foreign country in an air ambulance," a source at the hospital told Singapore's Straits Times after meeting her relatives.