© Murali Krishnan

Deepa (who only has one name) is sitting desolate in the corner of the busy Thane railway station in Mumbai. She looks exhausted, weary and frightened after a long train journey that lasted 8 hours …

Karuna Mondal, 51, of the village of Hiranmoypur in the Sundarbans clearly remembers the day her husband ventured out in the morning for a fishing trip with some other men. That was seven years ago.

Despite numerous campaigns and popular slogans over the years, the fondness for sons remains strong among Indian parents. Many of them continue to see boys as an investment and girls a liability.

A recent series of gruesome rapes and murders has sparked outrage in northern India. The incidents are the latest for a region with a grim history of violence against women. Murali Krishnan reports from New Delhi.

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In public transport, women fall prey to hooliganism and harassment almost every single day. Almost every woman in India’s commercial capital Mumbai who has travelled by the local train will have a horror story to tell about being harassed sexually or verbally. Dipesh Tank, 33, an activist, is on a mission to make Mumbai local trains and stations harassment-free for commuters.

The hunger to learn and have an education is a dream most Kashmiri girls aspire and want. © Murali Krishnan

Empowerment for Muslim women in India is still some distance away. Many are denied an education and forced into early marriages. But a recent Supreme Court ruling banning unilateral divorce could be the harbinger of better things to come.

The brutality of a recent rape and murder has drawn attention to an alarming rise of sexual violence in India. Activists say the surge is part of a deeper social dysfunction. Murali Krishnan reports from New Delhi.