Placards read "RE-PUBLIC IS NOW RAPEUBLIC" and "AM I NEXT? CHANGE THE SYSTEM." On Wednesday, around 200 students from Delhi University marched from Lady Shri Ram College to Astha Kunj Park in South Delhi, where a 17-year-old was allegedly gangraped on Tuesday.
"Nothing changed since Dec 16, 2012," said Ananya, a first-year student at Miranda House. The protest was a grim echo of the 2012 Nirbhaya movement.
Students listed familiar failures: few PCR vans, dark roads, absence of streetlights, no functional Pink Booths. LSR students said they are instructed to move in groups after dark. "Down with the patriarchy," they shouted.
At a meeting with the Students' Union, grievances poured out: lack of timely communication about the incident, guards not informed, no official statement. The college administration promised security audits, more lights, and increased patrolling.
The police response has been a show of force: 379 people apprehended under Section 65 of Delhi Police Act, domination and search operations across Central Range, checking parks, subways, foot-over bridges.
But the students' question is deeper: "Walking with the protesters was Yukshita Sharma, a faculty at Law Centre and an advocate practising at Delhi High Court. She said incidents where women are targeted with water balloons containing semen and urine in colleges — as reported in 2018 — show that hostility is not new.
The 17-year-old is now hospitalised. The march ended, but the anger — that safety is still a privilege, not a right — remained on the streets.