Maliwal launches 'Rape Roko' movement, calls for death penalty for child rapists

New Delhi, Feb 13 : Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) Chairperson Swati Maliwal on Tuesday launched a 'Rape Roko' movement against sexual violence and announced holding of mass demonstrations across the country on March 8 -- the day marked as International Women's Day.

She led a march from Vishwavidyalaya Metro station to the Delhi University Arts Faculty where she addressed a gathering of students and exhorted them to express outrage on crimes against women and infants. 

The Commission, she said, will send 100,000 letters containing commission's demands signed by one lakh individuals to the prime minister and work towards turning the 'Rape Roko' into a true people's movement. 

"I can't tell you how horrified, how terrified, how troubled I am... there's no conversation, there's no public anger, there's no outrage," she said on the rape of an eight-month-old some days ago. 

"We've done whatever we could. We have gone to courts, spoken to leaders, tried writing letters to the government but it has not worked till now," she added.

That's why, she said, the Rape Roko movement had been launched. "I really want that this movement should become a people's movement, and I feel that people will come down on the streets and they will express their anger in a peaceful manner," she said.

As a means of deterrence to such crimes against infants, Maliwal advocated the death penalty within six months of the crime for the perpetrator. She also said trials of crimes against women should also be completed within six months. 

"There's a lack of deterrence. And that is what we are targeting," she said. 

"On March 8, people of India will throng the streets of Delhi as well as other cities and we are hoping that the government will then listen. We will be reaching out to everyone," she said.