“Back then, the bus stop was a dark spot after the street vendors left and the market shut. The tube lights at the bus stand also barely worked, as far as I remember,” said 52-year-old Rakesh, worker at a restaurant behind the stop.

It was at this stop that a 23-year-old medical student was waiting with her friend on December 16, 2012 to go back to her home in Dwarka. Around 9.30pm, tired of not finding a government bus, she and her friend boarded a private bus.

They never reached home.

The bus driver and five other men in the bus brutalised and gang-raped the student and thrashed her friend as they drove around south Delhi, finally throwing them out on the road near Mahipalpur. She died 13 days later in a hospital in Singapore, igniting waves of anger that swept across the country, forced the government to change the country’s rape laws, and galvanised a generation of young people to fight for women’s rights. Since then, the state and central governments have announced a slew of measures ostensibly meant to protect women from violence, but on the ground, are they working? To find out, HT traced the journey of the young student that fateful December night, a night that changed India.

Also Read: How courts, cops dealt with rapes since 2012

Manoj Tiwari, 37, is just packing up his pakoda cart. He remembers being there on December 16, 2012, and how he packed and left at 9pm. “Back then, there was no Metro station but the market has existed for decades. Behind the stand, street vendors used to set up shop and cover them with a black sheet facing the bus stand. No one would know what happened on the road and it wasn’t well lit either,” he adds.

For him, not much has changed at the spot. “The only difference I see is the Metro station here,” he says.

HT found that the streetlight next to the bus stop is not functional, and only one of the four tube lights in the stop is working. The only light streaming in are from the Metro station, the pole lights from the flyover in front and the headlights of cars whooshing past.

One big change is the police presence. Tiwari says a patrolling van and a bike make rounds of the road regularly. “A few days ago, a woman was sitting at the bus stand alone and looked rather dishevelled. The van spotted her and an official asked her what she was doing -- to which she said that she fought with her family and run away. The officer told her to go home or sit in the police kiosk 50m away,” adds Tiwari.

When HT visited the police booth, four policemen were present who said that 12 officials are posted here on rotation -- three to four people in each shift.

“After 2012, there’s an intense focus on this area. Therefore, the vigil is usually more strict here,” said one of the officers.

The women in the locality say the grisly crime changed their lives, but only temporarily. Lucky, a 22-year-old woman who only gave her first name, says she was born in Munirka and only 12 when the December 16 incident happened. “When I grew up and needed to take bus to school and college, my parents were a little apprehensive but eventually they eased into it. I too stopped worrying too much,” she adds.

On tenterhooks

Like in most parts of Delhi, the bus stop is dominated by men after 9pm. The women are few and scattered. Some are on their phones, and others huddle in groups of two or more. HT boarded the bus number 764, which plies between Najafgarh Terminal and Nehru Place and is a popular choice for commuters to go from Munirka to Dwarka. Between 9 and 9.30pm, two 764 buses stop at the stop. HT took the second one, around the same time the student had stepped onto the chartered bus.

There is only one woman on the bus, and around 20men. And, despite guidelines by the government in 2015 stipulating the presence of amarshal in every Delhi Transport Corporation bus to ensure the safety of women commuters late at night, there aren’t any in this particular bus.

The lone woman passenger — 40-year-old Manu Singh Rajput — says she worked as a salon manager in Saket and travels back home to Dwarka every night. “My father calls me at least five times in the 25-minute travel time. It’s late... he gets worried ,” she adds.

A native of Nepal, Rajput has been working in the Capital for 20 years and says she has developed a thick skin due to the sexism and racism hurled at her. “There are barely ever any marshals on this route especially at night. The whole purpose of their existence is defeated if they are not present at night,” she says. But her bigger concern is buses speeding to get more passengers or finish the trip quickly.

Rajput shares another major concern - buses don’t stop for women passengers. “At night at least, they should consider that if a woman is standing alone, they should stop,” she says.

Near Basant village, around 9.45pm, 23-year-old Komal Gupta boards the bus. She is on her phone, a feature model, and says she takes this bus every day from Nawada to Dwarka Mor, a distance of about 25 minutes. A salon worker, she says it is past 9.30pm when she leaves work.

Gupta says she is on the phone with her husband throughout the time she is on the bus. “I keep telling him about each stop so he can keep track. At the time I travel, sometimes I am the only woman and it’s very scary,” she adds.

At 10.10pm, the bus screeches to a halt at Dwarka Mor and Gupta stumbles to the gate. Her husband is outside, at the stop.

Gupta and Rajput are unaware of panic buttons installed on the right- and left-hand sides of the seats. They don’t even know if they work.

The conductor of the bus says marshals vanished after evening hours on this route. “They take it as a formality and don’t want to do night shifts,” he adds. He is also not aware if the panic button, a wireless mike next to his seat or the two CCTV cameras installed in the bus are functional.

It is now 10.25pm and the bus is approaching its terminal station -- Dwarka. In this journey of 55 minutes and 22km, only six women have boarded the bus packed with men. They will be alert every single minute of the long, late-night trip.

Delhi Police said they have “zero-tolerance” for crimes against women.

“We are earnest and sensitive in dealing with any kind of cruelty meted out to a woman...,” said Delhi Police spokesperson, Suman Nalwa.