Indians take part in a candlelight vigil for a victim of gang rape in New Delhi, on January 13, 2013.

India promised a lot following the 2012 gang rape of a physiotherapy student so brutal that she died of her injuries.

It would give legal aid to victims, make it easier for rape survivors to register the crime, develop a more sensitive police force and "fast-track courts" to expedite cases, it would add more street lights and CCTV cameras to make women feel safer.

Let's put all that to one side, because hardly any of it has happened.

AMRIT DHILLON Girls in India can't be like girls in the West, says shopkeeper Vijay Verma.

What about the hope that Indian women would be less at risk of sexual violence and harassment because of the jolt to the national conscience from a case that shook the country to its core?

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AMRIT DHILLON Hair stylist Karan Sankhla says women "need to take precautions".

Let's park that on one side too, because women are just as vulnerable as before. Their daily lives are still ruled by fear.

And if they are unfortunate enough to be raped, a report last month by Human Rights Watch showed that they will still be subjected to humiliation and doubt and questioned about their promiscuity and moral character by police and health workers.

Let's ask instead about the fundamental point: has the average Indian man changed at all in his attitude towards women?

AMRIT DHILLON Picture framer Vimal Pradhan says if men won't change, women must.

Judging by the latest rape statistics released by India's National Crime Records Bureau on November 30, it appears not. Rape cases rose by 12.4 per cent in 2016 after a dip between 2014 and 2015.

The increase is probably the result of more women being prepared to report the crime, but it certainly shows that if women hoped the 2012 gang rape would usher in a more progressive male mentality, they were wrong.

'WOMEN SHOULD WATCH WHAT THEY DO'

Regressive attitudes towards women are rooted in India's deeply traditional and conservative culture, in which women embody a family and community's izzat, or honour.

The clothes they wear, where they go, at what time, with whom, must be controlled lest they bring dishonour and disgrace through unacceptable behaviour, such as being seen with a man who is not a relative, smoking, drinking, dancing, wearing revealing clothes or being out after dark.

Men who believe women should not be free to live as they wish are not monsters. Many are hard-working, decent men trying to do the best for their families in very trying circumstances.

But the basic fact is that - barring a Westernised elite that is so minuscule it barely counts - they cannot countenance giving women the personal and social freedoms that are taken for granted in the West.

Take Virendra Kumar, 37, who sells flowers on the roadside in south Delhi. Married with young children, he says emphatically that the men who raped and killed Jyoti Singh Pandey with unbelievable ferocity after she boarded a bus with a male friend to go home after seeing the film Life of Pi on December 16, 2012, "should hang" for their savagery.

Though the Indian government flew Pandey to Singapore for an intestinal transplant – her assailants used an iron rod that ripped out her intestines – she died on December 29.

Kumar expresses sympathy with Pandey and her family but insists that women need to watch what they do.

'A MAN WILL ONLY HAVE BAD THOUGHTS...'

"I sit out here all day and see couples on the street holding hands, hugging. These are things that should happen behind closed doors. If the girl who was gang-raped had been making out with her friend on the bus, then that would have provoked the men who raped her," he said.

He states firmly that Indian society does not allow a woman to smoke or drink or wear what she likes.

"She must be covered and look respectable. That way, no man will try anything," he says. "A man will only have bad thoughts about a woman if she is showing a lot of flesh. Not otherwise."

Vijay Verma, 53, has several customers impatiently crowding around the counter of his grocery store in New Friends Colony in Delhi but takes a few minutes to give his views, which are not very different from Kumar's.

Verma is aware that times have changed. Girls and boys mix more freely, girls go to college and cafes, and interact with men in the workplace. He finds all that acceptable.

Then comes the invariable "but".

"But girls here can't be like girls in the West. They have to dress decently and watch where they go, who they are with. If they don't observe these restrictions, they are perceived negatively by men and will be at risk," he said.

RAPES DON'T HAPPEN IN VILLAGES

These are ordinary men and their views are near-ubiquitous in India, in rural and urban areas, across class, and across religions. Proof that they are entrenched deep in Indian psychology comes from the fact that the same opinions have been voiced by numerous politicians since 2012.

"Earlier, if men and women held hands, they would get caught by parents and reprimanded, but now everything is so open ... Rapes happen because men and women interact freely," said Mamata Banerjee, a woman who has been chief minister of West Bengal state since 2011.

"Rapes take place in cities and not in villages. Women should refrain from venturing out with men other than their relatives. Such incidents happen due to the influence of Western culture and women wearing less clothes," said Mohan Bhagwat, leader of the influential Hindu social organisation the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh in 2013.

"Women should not venture out with men who are not relatives," said politician Abu Asim Azmi in 2014, in answer to a question about rising numbers of rapes.

Azmi also said: "The more nudity, the more fashionable a girl is considered. Ants will swarm the place where sugar is."

AGAINST INDIAN CULTURE

Amir Malik is a driver for a rich family. His job is mainly to ferry around the family's 21-year-old daughter, both for her studies and her socialising. In August, he sought a word with his employer.

"I couldn't take it. It felt wrong. She sits in the back with a skirt so short her thighs show. Or she wears skin-tight leggings that make her look naked. I told my boss I'm not comfortable with her in the back dressed like that. From the village I come from, only disreputable women dress like this," Malik said.

Malik said his employer agreed to ask his daughter to "tone it down a bit".

"But I haven't seen any difference. I'm looking for another job. This is against Indian culture," he said.

Hair stylist Karan Sankhla, 22, agrees with Malik. Women should feel safe wherever they go but they must behave and dress "within a limit".

The hair salon where he works in Bharat Nagar is next to a seedy hotel. Sankle says he sees girls coming with their lovers during the day, having lied to their parents that they are going to work. This, he said, is unacceptable.

"The 2012 victim did nothing wrong. She was innocent. But women can't go to bars wearing short skirts and see-through tops and behave wildly and also say they want to be safe. They need to take precautions. If they don't, they give men wrong ideas," he said.

THE NUB OF THE PROBLEM

It's not that nothing at all has changed in India since 2012. There is now more debate about women's rights and a greater awareness of the need to educate young boys while still at school.

More and more women's groups are mobilising to fight for freedoms. Rape victims are more likely to reveal their identity because they realise it is the rapist, not they, who should be ashamed.

Three years ago, Prime Minister Narendra Modi captured the nub of the problem perfectly when, referring to rape, he urged parents at a huge rally at the Red Fort in the capital to take responsibility for the behaviour of their sons rather than putting the onus on their daughters.

"Even when they are only 12, young girls are always being asked so many questions by their parents, like 'where are you off to?'. But do these parents ask their sons where they are going?" he asked.

At his cluttered studio where he frames pictures, Vimal Pradhan, 39, is the only man interviewed who had no "but". The father of two boys, Pradhan said that if men are never judged for being out late, for dating, or for drinking, why should women? In fact, Pradhan believes that if Indian men won't change, women must change.

"They are too well behaved. If a man ogles or gropes them, they should slap him hard. They should be more aggressive and scream for help to make it clear they won't tolerate any nonsense," he said.