Are women safe in India? More reports of 'gang rape' and murder

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Recently two young Indian girls - age 12 and 14 - were gang raped and murdered in India. (Rape is a sexual crime in which a man forces himself on a woman. A gang rape is when several men abuse a woman sexually.)

The nation of India has significant problems.  

Half of the world's slaves are currently in this country (yes, slavery still exists even though it is illegal). A huge percentage of Indians also live in terrible poverty (poverty is a condition where a person lacks enough money to live meaningfully).  

This article below points out that about half of India's population - over 500 million people - do not even have indoor toilets! So poor women who do not have indoor toilets have to go outside to relieve themselves and men sometimes wait for them and rape them when they do this.

The world needs to put greater pressure on the nation of India to solve its problems - or at least try to solve its problems. 

Here is an article about the situation of rape in India among poor women.

An article about this situation:

http://www.capitalfm.co.ke/news/2014/06/raped-murdered-girls-reveal-horrific-risks-for-indias-poor/

Vocabulary to help you understand the article:

a risk - a chance you take that may have negative consequences; a situation in which there could be something bad which happens

a trek - a walk, a journey

under the cover of darkness - at night, in a situation where there is no light

vulnerable - at risk of being harmed, without protection

an abduction - when someone is taken or captured against his/her will, kidnapping, 

to lynch - to hang a person by the neck until the person dies

to relieve themselves - to go to the bathroom

an ordeal - a situation which is difficult and even dangerous; basically some Indian women can't even relieve themselves in the countryside without being worried about being harmed

a meager living - not much money, very little money

harassed - bothered

reluctant - if you are reluctant to do something, you really don't want to do something

fatal - leading to death

pounced on them - jumped on them

communal latrines - bathroom facilities shared by a community

to defecate - to poop; I really don't know any other way to define defecation. When you relieve yourself in the bathroom but you do not urinate. I wonder how defecate is defined in a dictionary?

acute - in this case acute means bad.  Especially acute = especially problematic, troublesome, strong, bad

impoverished - very very poor

rural - in the countryside, the opposite of urban (urban means related to the city)

to ensure the killers are brought to justice - to make sure the killers are adequately punished

a daunting challenge - a difficult challenge, a tough challenge

plaguing - causing continual and big problems for

stagnant water - water that does not flow...it just stands in a pool and becomes rotten or unhealthful

raw sewage - when you flush your toilet, the water takes your excrement (poop and pee) into the sewer system. Raw sewage means this type of material.

potholed dirt lanes - a pothole is a hole in a road; in the spring there are usually many potholes in city streets due to changing weather conditions - the potholes have to be filled or car wheels will be destroyed

to fuel - literally to fuel something means to provide gas for energy to some type of vehicle; figuratively to fuel something means to cause something to become bigger

carry more weight - to be more important; so basically the government just ignores poor people in the rural areas

the incidence of rapes - the existence of and the numbers of

fast-track courts - places where guilty people can be punished quickly; but, is deterrence enough to stop these rapes?  Deterrence means that if you punish some people severely, others will not do the same thing later.  I do not think deterrence is enough to stop these rapes.  Also, frankly, I think Akhilesh Yadav is an irresponsible asshole for his attitude toward rape in his country.  I thought 'socialists' cared about other people?

low caste - India has a highly stratified society.  There are different layers to their society, from high to low. If a person is in a low-caste, he/she does not have much power or money or many opportunities in life.

entrenched - a trench is a long hole in the ground.  To entrench is for a soldier to dig a long hole to defend himself.  If something is entrenched somewhere, it has existed for a long time and it will be hard to change this situation.

prejudiced against their caste - the police do not like people of that social layer and did not want to do anything about children from that social group who were raped

boys will be boys - so a member of India's government literally said that boys or men will just naturally commit rape - it is part of being a guy.  This country has huge problems and it looks as if the people in charge are TOTAL IDIOTS.  The world needs to put pressure on these idiots.  I would never travel to India now under any circumstances.