today? When a woman is molested or assaulted in some way she will call the police in order to file a First Information Report (FIR). In 2011 nine convictions of crimes against women were made but 11,000 FIRs were registered (Maliwal). Only 50 percent of FIRs from 2015 have been written down and the rest are pending convictions which will most probably never reach the court. Many fluid samples of women who were raped go to Delhi’s only forensic library and 1,500 became petrified because they were not examined on time. This means 1,500 crimes against women will never go to court, let alone become convictions. Police corruption, which is rampant in India, is the reason FIRs are not filed. Police officers are paid off by perpetrators of sexual assault to ignore complaints and delay the process. Crimes against women are frequent because men are not afraid of the consequences of assaulting women. Men with the intention of doing such things are aware that conviction rates are low to none. These men come from all socio-economic backgrounds, despite popular belief that they are from small villages in Bihar, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh.
And so the common conception that men from small rural villages without education are the primary perpetrators is untrue. Swati contends that many of the male perpetrators of rape have sisters, mothers, and women cousins. For Swati the answer is forcing fear into the hearts of Delhi’s men. Without the fear of the law how will women’s safety be ensured? Before Swati was Chairperson, her department only employed six lawyers, now they have twenty two and the number is growing. Swati’s aim is to increase convictions. Swati has slept, along with her department, in women’s shelters in order to get the perspective of these women on the situation. She did not want to interview them during the day because police officers would be around and it would affect the authenticity of the interviews. Prostitution is another major issue in Delhi, which Swati deals with on a daily basis. Prostitution in India is not exactly a subject you can bring up at the dinner table, but under the eyes of tightlipped Delhi elite there is a huge sex-trafficking scene. A woman on GB Road (Garstin Bastin Road) is supposed to entertain thirty to forty
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