A look on how the culture of rape has been propelled by men in India. By: Emante Washington Mobley

 It is easy to assume a woman is raped by some stranger and was just an unassuming victim. However, more often than not, the rapist is a family member and the event occurs over a long period of time. Other family members also never make mention of the fact and ignore the fact that another woman is being raped.

 "Her father, a farmer aged around 50, allegedly raped her several times," police spokesman K.L. Sherpa in Jalpaiguri district said.  "She alleged that her uncle also raped her and of late her brother had also started."  Police said the victim claimed she got pregnant twice but was forced to have abortions and that she attempted suicide four times. Her mother knew but kept silent, police said.

 Women in India are subject to the large scale patriarchal society that everyone has long since been accustomed to.  This has made women viewed as objects of inferiority to men and doesn’t give their voice any power.  Beyond that, women are subject to a great level of shame and stigma when they come forward saying that they’ve been raped.

 Women are likely to be blamed for their own rape.  A woman wearing a short skirt or going out late is often alleged to have such reasons attributed to why men raped them.  Even in the case of the Delhi Bus Rape, the men alleged that the victim should not have been out so late at night with another man and should not have fought her attackers back.

 The way that some villages in India are set up, women can subject to rape as court punishment for a crime.  In January 2014, a 20-year-old woman in West Bengal state was gang-raped by 13 men on the orders of a village court as punishment for having a relationship with a man from a different community.

 A passage from the early Upanisads follows:  “When she has changed her clothes... one should approach that splendid woman and invite her to have sex. Should she refuse to consent, he should bribe her. If she still refuses, he should beat her with a stick or with his fists and overpower her, saying: 'I take away the splendor from you with my virility and splendor.”  Supporting the rape of a woman if she does not succumb to the will of the man.

 Public protests after the fatal gang rape of a woman on a Delhi bus in December 2012 jolted many in the world's second most populous country out of apathy and forced the government to enact stiffer penalties on gender crimes.  Since then, voracious reporting by the media, campaigns by the government and programs by civil society groups have brought greater public awareness of women's rights and emboldened more victims to come forward and register abuses.

 The best thing India can do is normalize respect for women and make it a necessity, not an option. The base place to start this so that it becomes a standard of people for future generations is to allow that type of respect to be taught in school. India needs a new education system, and with the right things being taught, alongside women, they can go forward to a better society in which men aren’t propelling a culture of rape.