Justice JS Verma, after submitting the report recommending changes in laws related to sexual crime, said that he was shocked over the seemingly unsympathetic attitude of the administration to the public outpouring of grief, and their resultant frustrated anger should serve as an eye-opener to our leaders. Since governments don’t take people’s reactions seriously one presumes they will take commissions and committees they appoint seriously.

Try telling a mid-level government officer that a particular stretch of road is unsafe for women. His first reaction is of disbelief because that stretch falls in his area. At best, he will ask his junior to “find out if it is true.” That officer will not act unless the senior has “put it in writing.”