Afourth-grade student of Noymile Tripura Guchchagram Primary School was found raped and murdered in a forest. This is the latest incident in Khagrachari, where at least five girls have been raped in the last three months. While the incident has sparked outrage and demonstrations and the alleged culprits have been arrested, the incidences of gang rape seem to have grown exponentially across the country. The stories of horror plague both rural and urban population centres. While sexual crimes occurring in the city hog all the headlines, rights activists say that only about half the victims of rape actually seek any kind of remedy from law enforcers. Victims often are deterred from seeking legal remedy due to a myriad of social, legal and institutional factors.

Rapists rape because they know they can get away with their crimes—because they are well connected, and are influential enough to escape the clutches of law. The lack of gender sensitivity of law enforcers who are predominantly male, and of society in general, dissuades many rape victims from seeking justice. The issues are direr in the area where this girl was raped and brutally murdered.

Law enforcement and the justice system must step up efforts so that legal process, from the time any sexual crime is reported to the final conviction of the rapist is effective in dispensing exemplary justice. Only a strict crackdown showing no tolerance to these crimes, whoever the perpetrator is, can tackle the rising incidences of rape. We hope that these horrific cases, of rape and murder, will be properly investigated.