India's Home Ministry said Friday it will recruit 2,500 female police personnel in New Delhi and dispatch at least a dozen to every police station in the city to enhance security for women. “By making these names and profiles public we think crime can be curbed, as in India people are sensitive to public embarrassment and once the public is aware of such people roaming around their area they will become more careful,” Dabbas said. The men accused in the gang rape that led to the death of the 23-year-old Indian woman were formally charged with murder, rape and kidnapping in a New Delhi court Thursday. He said authorities were waiting for the outcome of a bone marrow test before deciding whether a sixth suspect in the attack, believed to be a minor, will be charged as a juvenile or an adult. Numerous protests have taken place, new laws have been proposed and senior lawyers in the court district where the accused men have been charged say they will not represent them. The attack on the woman, who died last week from her severe injuries, has appalled and enraged many Indians, prompting widespread debate over the way the country handles sexual assaults and the treatment of women in Indian society. According to National Crime Records Bureau statistics, there were some 67,000 police personnel in New Delhi at the end of 2011, of which 5,180, or less than 8%, were women. Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde, announcing the plan to recruit more female police officers, said India's justice system had failed to deal with rape, with thousands of cases pending in a overburdened court system.
– India is taking a tangible first step to address concerns that its largely male police departments look the other way when it comes to rapes and sexual assaults: It's recruiting women to the force, reports Pakistan Today. Each precinct in New Delhi, where last month's gang rape took place, must add 12 women in the coming months, says the nation's interior minister. Overall, 2,500 female officers will be recruited, reports the Wall Street Journal. (The victim's boyfriend spoke out for the first time yesterday, offering new details and complaining about the response of police and passersby.)