One of the men who brutally raped and killed a girl on a Delhi bus says women are responsible for being raped.
Mukesh Singh, one of the five men (another juvenile was also sentenced) convicted of the 2012 Delhi bus gang rape, has said women are to blame for being raped.
In a truly shocking interview, filmed as part of film producer Leslee Udwin's documentary, India's Daughter, about the notorious gang rape and murder of 23-year-old Jyoti, Singh placed the blame of the horrific incident squarely at the feet of the innocent victim. Jyoti, a physiotherapy student, was on her way home from watching Life of Pi at the cinema with a male friend when she was attacked, raped, tortured and murdered.
'A decent girl won't roam around at nine o'clock at night. A girl is far more responsible for rape than a boy,' he said.
'Housework and housekeeping is for girls, not roaming in discos and bars at night doing wrong things, wearing wrong clothes. About 20% of girls are good.'
He described the murder as an 'accident', saying that if Jyoti hadn't fought back she wouldn't have been killed.
'When being raped, she shouldn't fight back,' he said. 'She should just be silent and allow the rape. Then they'd have dropped her off after "doing her", and only hit the boy.'
Singh, whose death sentence is currently on appeal, also said that executing him will cause more danger for other rape victims.
'The death penalty will make things even more dangerous for girls,' he said. 'Before, they would rape and say, "Leave her, she won't tell anyone." Now when they rape, especially the criminal types, they will just kill the girl. Death.'
Film producer Leslee described her encounter with Singh and the other rapists as leaving her 'feeling like my soul had been dipped in tar.'
Though gender inequality is rife in India - and girls are treated as inferior from birth - the Delhi bus rape did do something to at least start to change the ingrained sexist mindset. The unimaginable violence suffered by Jyoti prompted widespread demonstrations for Indian women to have greater protection from sexual violence.
As Leslee says, what she found encouraging after all the horrors of the case, and lack of remorse from the rapists, is 'the new-thinkers, especially among the youth, in India who want change and are clamouring for it. And I am absolutely optimistic that we are now on the cusp of change.'
India's Daughter will be broadcast on Storyville on BBC Four on Sunday 8 March at 10pm.
