Blaming victims won’t ensure safety - West Bengal must protect women, not shift responsibility

Mahatma Gandhi once said that true freedom for a nation comes when a woman can walk alone on the streets at midnight. Decades after independence, however, this vision remains a distant dream. Women in India still cannot move freely and safely not at midnight, not during the day, not at any hour. The irony is compounded when the very governments responsible for ensuring their safety attempt to dictate when women can venture out. It becomes even more perplexing when such statements come from a female chief minister.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee recently made controversial remarks regarding women’s mobility in the context of rising sexual violence in the state. The backdrop is the horrific gang-rape of a second-year female medical student in Durgapur, Paschim Bardhaman district, just three days ago. The student, originally from Odisha, had stepped out with an acquaintance from her college campus on the evening of October 10, around 8 PM, for a meal. According to the police, some local youths made indecent remarks to her, snatched her mobile phone and money, and then, after sending her male companion away, took her into a nearby forest where she was gang-raped. Three suspects have already been arrested.

This is not an isolated incident. In July 2025, a gang-rape occurred at a law college in Kolkata. Last year, a trainee doctor was brutally gang-raped and murdered at R.G. Kar Medical College, sparking nationwide outrage. Opposition parties attribute the increasing incidents of sexual violence in West Bengal to a failure in maintaining law and order.

Yet, in the midst of growing public outrage, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee chose to direct her comments toward the victim rather than the perpetrators or the systemic failures. She questioned why the student had left the campus at night and suggested that college authorities bear responsibility for women’s safety, implying that women should avoid going out after certain hours. Such remarks, especially coming from a female leader, are deeply troubling. Notably, the police confirmed that the assault occurred around 8 PM, a time when it is perfectly normal for women to travel. If 8 PM is deemed “unsafe,” it highlights the absence of security at any time of day.

Every citizen has a right to safety, and it is the government’s fundamental duty to ensure it. Students and professionals, particularly women, often have to travel alone at night for work or study. Governments must guarantee their safe return home, implementing effective patrolling, surveillance, and rapid response mechanisms. The Durgapur gang-rape underscores a total failure of law and order. That a student, even with a male companion, could be taken to a forest and raped speaks volumes about the state’s inability to protect its citizens.

Blaming the victim for stepping out at a particular hour is unacceptable and reflects poorly on the administration. Safety is not conditional on the victim’s actions; it is a state responsibility. Mamata Banerjee’s controversial remarks have drawn sharp criticism from opposition parties, who likened the situation in West Bengal to Taliban-like conditions, highlighting the irony of poor women’s safety under a female chief minister.

According to NCRB data, 29,670 rape cases were reported across India in 2023, not accounting for unreported incidents. Women face sexual harassment not only from strangers but also from known individuals and even family members. Gang-rape cases are on the rise, with West Bengal reporting one of the highest numbers of incidents after Delhi. In such a context, victim-blaming comments are not just insensitive, they are dangerous.

The state government must take immediate steps to strengthen women’s safety: rigorous law enforcement, widespread awareness campaigns, and proactive measures to prevent crimes. West Bengal, the land that nurtured social reformers like Raja Rammohan Roy and Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, should be a beacon of women’s protection. Instead, the narrative that women themselves are responsible for their vulnerability undercuts decades of social progress.

Ensuring women’s safety is non-negotiable. It is the duty of the state to guarantee that no woman fears stepping out for education, work, or daily life. Anything less is a betrayal of both justice and leadership. Blaming victims is not a solution, it is a moral and administrative failure that West Bengal can ill afford.