Angry Indian netizens react to 8-month-old girl's rape

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The rape of an eight-month-old baby in India has shocked the country and the world with netizens calling it a “new low for male sexual violence,” even after a series of recent shocking assaults.

The little girl was reportedly raped in her home in Delhi. Her parents, day laborers, found her on the bed covered in blood after returning from work on Sunday and rushed her to hospital, where she had to undergo three hours of surgery.

A 27-year-old cousin of the eight-month-old has been arrested for the assault, the Press Trust of India reported. If found guilty, he could be jailed for life.

After news broke on Tuesday, netizens took to social media to express their shock and frustration.

“The worst has happened… Am totally numb,” Swati Jai Hind, chairwoman of the Delhi Commission for Women, tweeted, adding that the little girl, whom she had visited in hospital, was still on life support.

“How can Delhi sleep today when (an) 8-month (-old) baby has been brutally raped in Capital? Have we become so insensitive or we have simply accepted this as our fate?”

CGTN screenshot of All India Mahila Congress Twitter account.

“Need a stronger word than 'sickening'. New low for male sexual violence in India as 8-month-old baby raped by her 28 year old cousin in India's rape capital Delhi,” wrote another Twitter user, @V_Angry_Indian.

Many could only post the words “My God,” alongside links to the story.

Others drew connections with an article published in the Times of India on Tuesday about a female school teacher in the central city of Raipur who had allegedly told her pupils that “girls wearing lipstick, short dress are asking for… rape.”

“If dressing ‘properly’ or staying at home had anything to do with stopping rapes then an 8 months old wouldn't be battling for her life in hospital,” the All India Mahila Congress, the women’s wing of the Indian National Congress party, tweeted.

“Entire attitude and approach to this crime has to change in society and Law,” it wrote.

A string of high-profile rapes in recent years has prompted repeated calls for harsher legislation and a change of attitude in India.

In 2012, the death of 23-year-old medical student after she was beaten and raped by six men on a moving bus in New Delhi drew condemnation around the world.

Earlier this month, a series of assaults in northern Haryana state once again caused outrage. In one case, a three-year-old girl was raped by a 14-year-old boy, while in another a 50-year-old man was arrested for sexually assaulting a 10-year-old girl, the news website First Post reported.

In 2015, the last year for which figures were available, close to 11,000 cases of child rape were reported in India, AFP news agency reported citing the National Crime Records Bureau.

“Our system is impotent. If rape of 8 month baby won’t bring reforms, nothing will!,” Delhi's Swati Jai Hind tweeted Tuesday.

(With input from agencies)

Top picture: Little girls take part in protest against the rape and murder of a teenage girl in Kotkhai, Shimla, India, July 17, 2017. /VCG Photo

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