As the body of the 23-year-old student gang-raped on a Delhi bus was cremated yesterday, Indian politicians proposed draconian measures against sex offenders, including chemical castration.

Scuffles broke out again in Delhi, and outrage over entrenched misogyny in India was heightened by reports that another woman had been gang-raped and killed near Calcutta in West Bengal.

In Delhi, thousands of riot police manned barricades in streets leading to India Gate and the ancient Jantar Mantar, two focal points for demonstrators over the past week. Protesters shouted: “We want justice” and held banners reading “Capital punishment”.

To many in the crowds, the stringent security measures were further evidence of a ruling elite increasingly out of touch with the popular mood. “It’s a shame that we should