The barbarous assault drove mass protests and tougher sex laws but the tide of violence against women shows little sign of abating.
Four men have been convicted today for December's fatal gang rape of a student on a moving bus in Delhi. The barbarous assault drove mass protests, tougher sex laws and police reforms but the tide of violence against women shows little sign of abating.
Activists say the collective outrage over the attack on the 23-year-old has helped persuade some victims to break their silence. "People would never even utter the word rape earlier, but the silence is ending now," said Ranjana Kumari, director of the non-profit Centre for Social Research.
She cited a recent case when widely broadcast reports of the gang rape of a photojournalist in Mumbai last month spurred another woman to testify for the first time that she too had been attacked in July by some of the same suspects at the same location -a deserted textile mile in the heart of a city often considered India's safest for women.
While the four convicted on Tuesday of the student's murder and rape had their cases dealt with in a fast-track court, the trial sprawled across more than eight months.
Other rape trials are still waiting to be heard years after the alleged attacks while campaigners say that the mindset of judges needs to be changed as well.
"We have tens of thousands of rape cases pending and very few convictions, which doesn't send a strong message at all," cautioned Ms Kumari
A Delhi judge who cleared a defendant last month of sexually assaulting his domestic help upset campaigners when he talked of the "unprecedented surge in filing of false rape cases" after the December gang rape.
Police in Delhi, dubbed "the rape capital' of India, registered more than 800 rapes during the first six months of 2013, more than double the number recorded during the same period the previous year.
Campaigners acknowledge that the government, stung by outrage over the December 16 attack, has taken an important step forward by strengthening anti-rape legislation. Sex offenders can now face the death penalty if a victim dies and it includes provisions to punish police officials who fail to register assault or harassment cases.