In 2015, more than 34,000 cases of rape were reported in India alone — a devastating statistic that barely cracks the surface on India's epidemic violence against women.

Here, a photographer who works in Asia and abroad on social issues and who has asked to remain anonymous, shares the firsthand traumas behind this staggering statistic:

"In India, rape is just the beginning of the story. After that, if the rape is reported at all, comes a whole host of other hurdles, like dealing with police (who are sometimes untrained and extremely insensitive), shame from their family, threats and violence, and ostracization from their community. The courts can take years or even decades to reach a verdict on a particular case, with many rapes ordered as a twisted form of justice from the village courts. There are even instances when these girls are forced to actually marry their rapist.

Rape and child abuse happens all over the world, but the gruesome details of the rapes in India are what drove me to cover this story. The student in 2012 who was raped on a moving bus with a metal rod; the woman who was raped in a hospital after giving birth; the 15-year-old girl who was raped and then set on fire; the 6-year-old girl raped with a 4-foot iron rod; the girl who was gang-raped and had stones, blades, and sticks forced inside her. I wanted to go beyond the statistics and characterless headlines and show the world who these girls really are."



*All names of minors have been changed for the victim's protection.