The judicial panel set up in the wake of national protests following the gang rape of a young woman on a bus in New Delhi submitted its report Wednesday, castigating politicians, police and the army for failing to protect women and children and calling for far-reaching changes in the way India is governed.
The three-member panel was established to assuage national outrage over the gang rape and murder of a 23-year-old student last month, but did not bow to public pressure to propose the death penalty for rapists or lower the age for trying young offenders.
Instead, the panel's 200-page report slammed decades of apathy and criminal behavior in the way the country has been governed and said the nationwide protests following the gang rape were "a call to India to change the way in which women are treated." It also laid bare a deep disconnect between India's young people and its government.