India Convicts 2 Men of Raping Their 10-Year-Old Niece<br />31, 2017<br />MUMBAI, India — Two Indian men were convicted on Tuesday of raping their 10-year-old niece in a case<br />that hit global headlines when the girl was denied an abortion by India’s top court and had to give birth, the local news media reported.<br />An increasing number of such cases have come to the courts in recent years, with as many as 10,854<br />cases of child rape reported in India in 2015, according to the National Crime Records Bureau.<br />A court in India on Tuesday found two of the girl’s uncles, both brothers, guilty of<br />rape with sentencing set for later this week, according to the Hindustan Times.<br />The girl, whose identity has been kept secret, initially told the police and child welfare activists<br />that she had been raped several times in recent months by the first uncle, who is in his 40s.<br />Activists say that awareness of and reporting of sexual violence against women has risen since a fatal gang-rape<br />of a student on a bus in New Delhi in 2012, which prompted nationwide protests and a tightening of the law.<br />The girl was 30 weeks pregnant in July when a court in the northwestern city of Chandigarh<br />turned down her abortion plea because her pregnancy was too far advanced.<br />In May, a court allowed another 10-year-old girl, who was said to have been raped by her stepfather, to undergo an abortion.
