Create a National Bureau for Crimes Against Women, led by a woman veteran
The Issue
To: Shri Amit Shah, Union Home Minister; Smt. Annpurna Devi, Union Minister of Women and Child Development; the Union Minister of Law and Justice; and Shri Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of India
Every 71 seconds.
That is how often a crime against a woman was registered in India in 2024. Registered, not committed. By the time you finish reading this, three more women will have walked into a police station. Many more will not, because they already know what happens next.
Here is what happens next.
In 2024, India registered 29,536 rapes. That same year, courts convicted in 5,032 rape cases. When the year ended, 1,85,785 rape cases were still waiting for a verdict. Our courts finished 20,587 rape trials in 2024. At that pace, clearing the cases already waiting would take nine years, even if not one new case were filed.
Nine years. A girl assaulted at fourteen can be twenty-three before a court tells her it believes her.
And the man? In 96.8% of rape cases registered in 2024, he was someone she knew. A relative. A neighbour. A teacher. A colleague. Through those nine years, he often lives on the same street, and she is the one who moves.
The silence is bigger than the numbers. Among married women aged 18 to 49, 29.3% have faced physical or sexual violence from their husband, and 77% of women who face violence never seek help from anyone. Every statistic in this petition is the part of the iceberg that made it above water.
We already have laws. We have the Nirbhaya Fund, fast-track courts, helplines, and a Women Safety Division inside the Home Ministry. What we do not have is one agency that owns a woman's case from the minute she reports it to the day the sentence is served, and that answers to the public for every day of delay. So cases fall between a police station, a forensic lab, a prosecutor's desk, and a court calendar, and nobody is accountable for the gap.
We, the undersigned citizens of India, demand four things.
1. Create a National Bureau for Crimes Against Women, by Act of Parliament. A dedicated investigative and administrative agency, built on the model of the CID, with a cell in every district. Within 24 hours of any complaint, the Bureau ensures the FIR is registered, the medical examination is done, forensic evidence is secured, the survivor is protected, and she is given a lawyer and a named case officer she can call. The Bureau owns the case end to end: investigation support, prosecution support, witness protection, compensation, until the sentence is served. The Bureau must be headed by a woman with at least 25 years of service in the Indian Armed Forces, appointed for a fixed five-year term, removable only with the approval of Parliament, and reporting to Parliament every six months. Its head must answer to the nation, not to the local power structure an accused may belong to.
2. Pass a Time-Bound Justice for Women Act with fixed, certain punishment. Charge-sheet within 60 days. Trial verdict within six months of the charge-sheet. Appeals decided within six months. A defined minimum sentence for each offence that cannot be diluted by compromise or settlement, served in full. Every missed deadline is recorded against the officer or court responsible, with written reasons, and unexplained delay triggers disciplinary action. Fill and fund every sanctioned fast track special court so these timelines are physically possible.
3. Make every case public by default. Under the proactive disclosure duty of the RTI Act, publish a live national dashboard showing, for every police station: the date of each complaint, FIR, charge-sheet, every hearing, the verdict and the sentence. Publish the names of convicted offenders. The survivor's identity stays protected without exception, as the law already requires, and any leak is prosecuted. No citizen should have to file an RTI application to find out whether the State is doing its job.
4. Make every adult man measurably accountable, every day. Introduce a National Conduct Standard: a certified course on consent, the law on sexual offences and the duty to intervene, renewed every five years, required before any adult receives a driving licence, passport, arms licence, college degree, or employment with a government body or any employer with 10 or more staff. Completion is recorded on DigiLocker, and completion rates are published monthly for every district. Every employer and educational institution with 10 or more people must publish, every year, the number of harassment complaints received, how many were resolved within 90 days, and the outcomes. The law applies to every adult. The numbers above tell us who it is really for.
Why now
India ranks 131 out of 148 countries on the Global Gender Gap Index 2025. Women here spend 289 minutes a day on unpaid domestic work; men spend 88. We carry this country. We are asking the country to carry us home safely.
We ask the Government to introduce this legislation in Parliament before 8 March 2027, International Women's Day. If it does not, the signatories to this petition will volunteer for a nationwide, peaceful, voluntary Bharat Bandh on that day, and we will repeat it until these demands are met. Shops will close by choice. Offices will empty by choice. Let the country feel, for one day, what it costs when women stop.
11
The Issue
To: Shri Amit Shah, Union Home Minister; Smt. Annpurna Devi, Union Minister of Women and Child Development; the Union Minister of Law and Justice; and Shri Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of India
Every 71 seconds.
That is how often a crime against a woman was registered in India in 2024. Registered, not committed. By the time you finish reading this, three more women will have walked into a police station. Many more will not, because they already know what happens next.
Here is what happens next.
In 2024, India registered 29,536 rapes. That same year, courts convicted in 5,032 rape cases. When the year ended, 1,85,785 rape cases were still waiting for a verdict. Our courts finished 20,587 rape trials in 2024. At that pace, clearing the cases already waiting would take nine years, even if not one new case were filed.
Nine years. A girl assaulted at fourteen can be twenty-three before a court tells her it believes her.
And the man? In 96.8% of rape cases registered in 2024, he was someone she knew. A relative. A neighbour. A teacher. A colleague. Through those nine years, he often lives on the same street, and she is the one who moves.
The silence is bigger than the numbers. Among married women aged 18 to 49, 29.3% have faced physical or sexual violence from their husband, and 77% of women who face violence never seek help from anyone. Every statistic in this petition is the part of the iceberg that made it above water.
We already have laws. We have the Nirbhaya Fund, fast-track courts, helplines, and a Women Safety Division inside the Home Ministry. What we do not have is one agency that owns a woman's case from the minute she reports it to the day the sentence is served, and that answers to the public for every day of delay. So cases fall between a police station, a forensic lab, a prosecutor's desk, and a court calendar, and nobody is accountable for the gap.
We, the undersigned citizens of India, demand four things.
1. Create a National Bureau for Crimes Against Women, by Act of Parliament. A dedicated investigative and administrative agency, built on the model of the CID, with a cell in every district. Within 24 hours of any complaint, the Bureau ensures the FIR is registered, the medical examination is done, forensic evidence is secured, the survivor is protected, and she is given a lawyer and a named case officer she can call. The Bureau owns the case end to end: investigation support, prosecution support, witness protection, compensation, until the sentence is served. The Bureau must be headed by a woman with at least 25 years of service in the Indian Armed Forces, appointed for a fixed five-year term, removable only with the approval of Parliament, and reporting to Parliament every six months. Its head must answer to the nation, not to the local power structure an accused may belong to.
2. Pass a Time-Bound Justice for Women Act with fixed, certain punishment. Charge-sheet within 60 days. Trial verdict within six months of the charge-sheet. Appeals decided within six months. A defined minimum sentence for each offence that cannot be diluted by compromise or settlement, served in full. Every missed deadline is recorded against the officer or court responsible, with written reasons, and unexplained delay triggers disciplinary action. Fill and fund every sanctioned fast track special court so these timelines are physically possible.
3. Make every case public by default. Under the proactive disclosure duty of the RTI Act, publish a live national dashboard showing, for every police station: the date of each complaint, FIR, charge-sheet, every hearing, the verdict and the sentence. Publish the names of convicted offenders. The survivor's identity stays protected without exception, as the law already requires, and any leak is prosecuted. No citizen should have to file an RTI application to find out whether the State is doing its job.
4. Make every adult man measurably accountable, every day. Introduce a National Conduct Standard: a certified course on consent, the law on sexual offences and the duty to intervene, renewed every five years, required before any adult receives a driving licence, passport, arms licence, college degree, or employment with a government body or any employer with 10 or more staff. Completion is recorded on DigiLocker, and completion rates are published monthly for every district. Every employer and educational institution with 10 or more people must publish, every year, the number of harassment complaints received, how many were resolved within 90 days, and the outcomes. The law applies to every adult. The numbers above tell us who it is really for.
Why now
India ranks 131 out of 148 countries on the Global Gender Gap Index 2025. Women here spend 289 minutes a day on unpaid domestic work; men spend 88. We carry this country. We are asking the country to carry us home safely.
We ask the Government to introduce this legislation in Parliament before 8 March 2027, International Women's Day. If it does not, the signatories to this petition will volunteer for a nationwide, peaceful, voluntary Bharat Bandh on that day, and we will repeat it until these demands are met. Shops will close by choice. Offices will empty by choice. Let the country feel, for one day, what it costs when women stop.
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Petition created on 30 September 2026