text: We ask if the 2012 rape and murder of a New Delhi student changed attitudes in a land that has long favoured its sons. 
   
   The first anniversary of a fatal gang rape in India has been stirring fresh debate on women's rights. 
   
   The savage sexual assault in December 2012 shook the nation, and the world, setting in motion nationwide protests and much soul-searching about attitudes towards women. 
   
   The 23-year-old victim suffered appalling injuries at the hands of six men, after being attacked on a bus while travelling home with a friend. 
   
   I do not feel so unsafe in travelling in busses, or walking, anymore. I have developed confidence in the people around, not much in the security forces but in the people around me … I would say [that] what has happened is that people have come out to the streets … there has been an expression that this cannot go on, and I think that is now contributing to women like me, even younger women, to start to feel a little more confident that they can protest against harassment, and they expect that people will understand and will support. Sehjo Singh, the director of programmes and policy at ActionAid India 
   
   She died 13 days after her terrifying ordeal in India's capital, New Delhi. Prosecutors said it was an assault that shocked India's collective conscience. Women's groups spoke out about what they called a rape epidemic, and a widespread sense of impunity, in the country. 
   
   Four of those convicted were later sentenced to death by hanging. 
   
   The government has since passed tough new laws, carrying a minimum 20-year sentence for rape, and making stalking, voyeurism and sexual harassment a crime. 
   
   Twelve months on, it has also introduced fast-track courts for rape cases, and vigils have been held across the capital. Campaigners, rights activists and supporters prayed and lit candles. But there have been mixed emotions. 
   
   "I don't think things have changed. It's just that women are less fearful of saying what's happening. I still feel scared to go out beyond 11 at night." one woman told Al Jazeera. 
   
   Another protester said: "I am here today because I have a mother, a sister, a sister-in-law, a girlfriend, who are not safe. In the days to come, my wife-to-be will not be safe and neither will my [future] daughter. Because in this country, where a rape occurs every 20 minutes, no woman can be safe." 
   
   But commenting on the new laws, Naresh Agrawal, a leader of India's regional Samajwadi Party, said: "We are not in the favour of this bill. We talk about the safety and security of women, but the way the bill has included stalking, staring and other small crimes to be punishable as non-bailable offences, it seems that the society is being divided by them." 
   
   And Farooq Abdullah, India's new and renewable energy minister, added: "Today we feel scared to even talk to a girl; such is the condition right now. Now I feel none of us is going to employ a female secretary, because god forbids, if such a complaint is lodged against us, we would be imprisoned." 
   
   One of the hopes is that the publicity generated by the 2012 attack will embolden women to speak out. As such, the police say they expect to see a rise in the number of reported cases. 
   
   The National Crime Records Bureau says the number of reported rapes almost doubled from 706 in 2012 to 1,330 in the first nine months of this year, and cases of sexual assault quadrupled in the same period, to 2,844. 
   
   
   
   Looking further back, reported cases of rape rose by more than 50 percent between 2001 and 2012, but the conviction rate dropped from 41 percent to just 24 percent. 
   
   So, one year on, has the shocking rape and murder of a young woman helped change attitudes in a land that has long favoured its sons? Can perceptions casting women as the weaker sex be successfully challenged? And in a land of 1.2 billion people, is real progress being made? 
   
   To discuss this, Inside Story, with presenter Sohail Rahman, is joined by guests: Sehjo Singh, the director of programmes and policy at ActionAid India; Srila Roy, a lecturer in sociology at the University of Nottingham, and author of books on gender violence; and Rajeev Awasthi, a lawyer in India's supreme and high courts. 
   
   "I think after the Delhi rape case there was a tendency ... to talk of it as a specifically Indian problem … media seem to present it as a uniquely Indian problem, or a problem of Indian culture, and then question why are Indian men raping Indian women, and obviously that is a very dangerous discourse, because we all know that violence against women is a global phenomenon … What I would say [is] it isn’t exceptional to the Indian context but in every context." - Srila Roy, a lecturer in sociology at the University of Nottingham 
   
   Source: Al Jazeera ||||| Students, Bollywood actresses and women's groups held rallies and candlelight vigils across India on Monday in memory of a young woman whose fatal gang rape on a moving bus one year ago shook the nation's conscience. 
   
   Flowers and candles are placed near a placard reading: “Damini”, a symbolic name given to a gang-raped victim, in New Delhi, India, Monday, Dec. 16, 2013. The victim, a 23-year-old physiotherapy student,... (Associated Press) 
   
   An Indian woman adjusts her head scarf in New Delhi, India, Monday, Dec. 16, 2013 during a protest to pay tribute to a victim who was gang-raped on a bus on Dec. 16 last year which led to the woman’s... (Associated Press) 
   
   An Indian girl places candles to commemorate last year’s gang rape and murder of a young woman in New Delhi, India, Sunday, Dec. 15, 2013. Public anger against crimes against women exploded after a fatal... (Associated Press) 
   
   A young Indian woman holds a candle as she joins others in commemorating last year’s gang rape and murder of a young woman in New Delhi, India, Sunday, Dec. 15, 2013. Public anger against crimes against... (Associated Press) 
   
   An Indian woman places flowers on the floor reading "Condolence to Damini," a symbolic name given to a gang rape victim, in New Delhi, India, Monday, Dec. 16, 2013. The victim, a 23-year-old physiotherapy... (Associated Press) 
   
   Indians light candles as they commemorate last year’s gang rape and murder of a young woman in New Delhi, India, Sunday, Dec. 15, 2013. Public anger against crimes against women exploded after a fatal... (Associated Press) 
   
   The victim, a 23-year-old student, was heading home with a male friend after watching the movie "Life of Pi" when six men lured them onto a private bus. They beat the man with a metal bar, raped the woman and used the bar to inflict massive internal injuries. 
   
   The two were dumped naked on the roadside, and the woman died two weeks later. 
   
   Protesters and politicians at a public meeting in New Delhi spoke of changes in social attitudes, tough new laws and police reform adopted after the massive street protests that followed the gang rape. 
   
   In New Delhi, Bollywood actress Swara Bhaskar led a group of musicians on a bus that performed street plays at several places along the same route taken by the rape victim's bus. 
   
   In central Delhi, a candlelight vigil was held by dozens of students in memory of Nirbhaya, or "fearless," the name given by the Indian media to the woman because rape victims cannot be identified under Indian law. Prayers were held in a temple in a southern suburb. 
   
   The attack sparked protests across the country. Tens of thousands of people held daily rallies, and newspapers gave intense coverage. The outrage spurred the government to adopt more stringent laws that doubled prison terms for rape and criminalized voyeurism, stalking, acid attacks and the trafficking of women. Fast-track courts were created for rape cases. 
   
   Rape, rarely talked about in India's deeply conservative society, became front-page news, with demands that police do more to protect women and that courts treat sexual violence seriously. 
   
   Nirbhaya's assailants were tried relatively quickly in a country where sexual assault cases often languish for years. 
   
   Four of the defendants were sentenced to death. Another hanged himself in prison, though his family insists he was killed. An 18-year-old who was a juvenile at the time of the attack was sentenced to three years in a reform home. 
   
   There has been a surge in the number of rapes being reported: Between January and October this year, 1,330 rapes were reported in Delhi and its suburbs, compared with 706 for all of 2012, according to government figures. 
   
   But the victim's father said that although laws on crimes against women have changed, Indians need to change social attitudes toward women. 
   
   "Social mindsets have to change. Only then can we say a difference has been made. Only then can I say my daughter did not die in vain," he told the public meeting. ||||| NEW DELHI—An Indian court on Tuesday convicted three men for gang-raping an American tourist in June, an attack that prompted the U.S. to issue an advisory warning its citizens of the dangers involved in traveling to the South Asian nation. 
   
   The men were sentenced to 20-year prison terms, said Vinod Kumar Dhawan, who headed the police team investigating the assault at a popular destination for backpackers in north India. 
   
   ...
target: – India today convicted three Nepalese men in the gang rape of an American tourist in a small Himalayan town, reports the Wall Street Journal, with each of the men drawing a 20-year prison term. The woman, then 30, now 31, was assaulted after accepting a ride back to her guesthouse from a truck driver, who, along with two other men, allegedly assaulted her and left her by the side of the road. The verdict comes down one day after the anniversary of the fatal gang rape aboard a New Delhi bus that catapulted rape into a major issue in India—and imposed a 20-year minimum sentence for it. There were protest rallies and candlelight vigils in memory of the event around the country yesterday, the AP reports. One Bollywood actress led a troupe of street performers and performed plays all along the fateful bus route. "I don't think things have changed," one protester told al-Jazeera. "It's just that women are less fearful of saying what's happening."