Campaigners reject government claim that Indian women are now safer The Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government is expected to claim significant advances in women's safety in a report card to mark its ninth year in power, including measures to curb sexual harassment at work, fast track trials in rape cases and a new law to impose 20 years to life imprisonment for convicted rapists and the death penalty where the victim dies from her injuries. The ruling alliance is also expected to claim it has tackled corruption with moves towards greater transparency and accountability in government. Its claims, however, were ridiculed by women's rights campaigners who said it was wrong to claim it has made any impact on sexual violence when the number of assaults and rapes have risen significantly since the Delhi gang rape and murder caused widespread anger throughout India. The victim, a physiotherapy student, had been returning from watching a film at a shopping mall when she was gang-raped by six men who inflicted fatal internal injuries with iron rods. She died two weeks later in a hospital in Singapore where doctors found she had suffered brain damage, severe injuries to her internal organs, a heart attack, and lost 95 per cent of her intestines. In the 12 weeks following the attack 127 more rapes were registered in the capital, and a number of gang rapes of young children. Campaigners said in one of the child rape cases the police had refused to help the parents of a five year old girl who complained their daughter had gone missing. When she was discovered two days later after a 40 hour ordeal at the hands of two men who tried to kill her, the police offered the father around 25 pounds to keep quiet about it. Women's rights campaigner Vrinda Grover said the government had no right to claim India's streets were any safer for women. While it had flown the Delhi gang-rape victim to a top hospital in Singapore, most victims of sexual violence get no help from the government. Where are the shelters, compensation, rehabilitation? They are using gimmicks like helplines, encouraging women to complain but there are no facilities available. When a woman says she needs alternative accommodation, the helpline says nothing because there is nothing in place," she said. Police officers still resist registering rape cases, she added. "The government is still not giving a signal to the system or to police that impunity will not be tolerated," she added.