Indians worldwide take to streets demanding safety for Indian women

Thousands of diaspora Indians protested in more than 130 cities across 25 countries on Sunday, to demand justice after last month’s rape and murder of a trainee doctor at a hospital in the city of Kolkata, Reuters wries.

The protests started in large and small groups across Japan, Australia, Taiwan and Singapore, before spreading to cities in Europe and the U.S.

The doctor, 31, had retired to sleep on a piece of carpet in a seminar room after a marathon 36-hour shift, given the lack of dorms or resting rooms. She was later found bleeding from her eyes and mouth, with injuries to her legs, stomach, ankles, her right hand and finger.

Hundreds of protesters gathered in several cities in the San Francisco Bay Area, demanding accountability for the crime and safety for Indian women. Although tougher laws were introduced after the 2012 gruesome gang rape and murder of a 23-year-old student on a moving bus in New Delhi, activists say the Kolkata case shows how women continue to suffer from sexual violence.