Women-Led Student Protests Demand Action After 4 Minor Girls Raped in Delhi

Author: Nayan Bansal

September 29, 2026

Trigger Warning: The following article includes descriptions of violence and sexual assault.

HRRC stands with the victims, their families and all the students protesting for better women’s safety. HRRC adheres to the United Nations’ principles of the rights and dignity of women and children, and calls on the Delhi government to conduct immediate and transparent investigations into the rapes and hold those responsible accountable for their crimes

December 2012 student protest against rising violence against women. [Image Credit: Nilanjana Roy/Wikimedia Commons]

In India's capital city of Delhi, four cases involving minor girls being raped have emerged in past two weeks, sparking public outrage. 

The first case involved the rape of a 16-year-old girl carried out by four men on the night of September 10th in Swaroop Nagar, North West Delhi. The men killed the girl after the assault and dumped her body nearby. Police found the girl’s body on September 13th in an unidentifiable condition. All four accused have been arrested, three of them juveniles. The case is registered under Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO) and sections of Bhartiya Nyay Sanhita (BNS) for murder, false information, disappearance of evidence and acts done by many persons involving common intention. Chairperson of the Delhi Women Commission condemned the incident and assured legal aid and counselling would be provided to the victim’s family. 

The second case involved a minor girl the age of 10 who was abducted and assaulted by a 56-year-old man after she went out to buy some stationery items around midnight on September 16th. A First Information Report (FIR) was registered in the nearby women’s police station, and the accused has been put into judicial custody. The case was registered against the accused under POCSO and wrongful confinement. Further investigations are ongoing.

The third case involved the assault of a six-year-old girl by a 34-year-old man in central Delhi on the afternoon of September 21st. A local caught the man assaulting the girl and immediately went to the nearby police station to register the complaint, which has been registered under the necessary sections of POCSO and BNS. The suspect has been in police custody since, and the minor was sent immediately for medical examination. Judicial proceedings will begin soon.

The fourth case involved the gang-rape of a 17-year-old girl on her birthday, on the night of September 21st. The suspects are three men who posed as policemen. The accused were arrested between September 22nd and 24th; the Delhi High Court sent them into judicial custody for 14 days. Two of them were arrested within 12 hours after the police call and one was arrested after the suspect fired three rounds of bullets at police. Police returned fire and hit the suspect in his leg. The encounter happened just fifty meters away from the Lady Shri Ram College (LSR) of University of Delhi. Police increased security in the area following the incident, and the college shifted its classes to online for the next day.

Following the September 21st incident of 17-year-old’s gang-rape, many women-led student protests emerged. On September 23rd, the students of LSR organised a large protest gathering for campus security, expressing concerns over safety and harassment that have been occurring for years.

Another large protest emerged on September 25th which involved women students from many colleges within the university. This protest focused on broader issues of female safety and security and followed the incident of the recent Jamui (Bihar state) minor assault case on September 19th. Protestors voiced their outrage about still having to fight for the right to safety for the women in the year 2026, calling attention to the larger social and state practices of restricting women in their everyday lives. While there was heavy police presence at the protest, protestors expressed concerns about trust and safety as law enforcement have also been charged in rape cases, such as in the case of a woman from Haryana in Uttar Pradesh. The female students united along the message, ‘Hum Auratein Aazad Hain’ (We, women, are free), and protested against measures of public surveillance of women and restrictions that exist to inhibit mobility of women on campuses and public spaces. 

Students Federation of India (SFI) held a “Campus Justice March” on September 26th with the slogan, “Make Delhi Safe Again”. The students' march questioned how long women would live in fear and why India is still not safe for women. Additionally, they questioned why such incidents continue to occur despite repeated public debates and security assurances on women safety. Demands for greater accountability and stronger actions from the authorities towards women safety in India were publicly expressed with vigor. 

Following these incidents in the capital, the lieutenant governor of Delhi ordered safety audits of the parks and assured the deployment of pink police into the region for higher security of the women. The pink force will be deployed under operation ‘Shishtachar’ (manners) to target harassment and teasing in public places, especially near colleges, metro stations, schools and other similar hotspots. The police audit found out that most of these parks are poorly lit and lack CCTV surveillance. However, the government has not taken any additional steps to address the issues. 

Judicial proceedings will follow in all the four cases of rape and assault under the relevant sections of POCSO and BNS.

According to a National Crime Records Bureau 2023 report, on average, three minors are raped daily within Delhi. According to a news report, the child rape cases in India increased by four times the amount in last decade, from 10,934 cases recorded in 2015 to 43,675 cases in 2024. The report also mentioned that most child rape cases involve teenage girls between the age 12 and 18. While the data says that this increase in reported rapes may be due to increased awareness and better reporting mechanisms, the safety concerns of women and girls remain as they were a decade ago. Further, the news report stated that, in 97 percent of the cases registered, the accused was someone known to the victims. 

Despite being party to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and the UN Convention on Elimination of Discrimination Against Women, the recent rape cases of minors in Delhi tells a different story about the state of child and women welfare in India.

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Glossary 

• Accused - a person who maybe guilty of crime 

• Assault - a violent physical or verbal attack

• Assurance - state of being certain or guarantee of certainty

• Audit - official examination of financial accounts of an organisation or an individual 

• Confinement - act of enclosing someone

• Deployment - placement or arrangement of something or someone 

• Disappearance - removal from the sight 

• Evidence - a sign of proof 

• Juvenile - related to children or of the age of a child 

• Harassment - an act of creating a hostile and annoying situation to someone

• Hotspot zone - a place of more than usual interest, activity, or popularity 

• Immediately - without waiting or without delaying 

• Intention - purpose or goal

• Investigation - an act of detailed examination of a crime

• Judicial custody - the person charged is detained under court's custody and not under the supervision of police 

• Lieutenant governor - a high official who govern the union territory, such as in Delhi, India 

• Minor - a person who is not yet old enough to have the rights and maturity level of an adult

• Pink police - a preventive police unit led by all women police personnel

• Pledge - to promise

• Protest - act of showing dissent or disapproval against authorities usually peacefully 

• Rape - doing sex or having sexual relationship without the consent of the individual 

• Stationery - sheets, pads, envelopes, rolls, reels, and books for writing on

• Surveillance - watching over someone directly or through technology 

• Teasing - an act of annoying women in public places

• Threatened - to utter expression or intention of doing something evil 

• Wrongful confinement - capturing someone wrongfully within certain limits to restrain the person going beyond those limits