Before you all get on the India hatred train, say that India has a "rape culture" and start labeling all of us as rapists, read this (I've written this in the context of USA, but it applies to most western countries) :
1.First fact: Media reporting standards are not the same
India's media reports things differently from media in other parts of the world. Media reports in various parts of the world have themes. American media focus a lot on race issues. Middle East media focuses a lot on sectarian issues. Indian media focuses a lot on gender issues. It would be faulty to not recognize the themes and blindly use media as a barometer.
Crimes get a disproportionate share of India's media reporting. Top news sources in the US, don't report rapes in the way India does. For instance, 25 women in the US were raped/assaulted in the time I took to write this comment (about 30 mins). You wouldn't likely read about any of these 25 cases in the media.
When a woman was sexually assaulted in an Uber taxi in Delhi, it became a major news and the government quickly reacted. But, such crimes involving Uber is fairly routine in the US.
Sources :
http://www.whosdrivingyou.org/rideshare-incidents.html#SexualAssaults
In the US and Europe, such rape stories would come in local media and just move out of national attention. You probably didn't even come across it. US local governments didn't pursue Uber with the same vigor. Indian media selectively picks up a case and rallies around that. This creates a distorted reality.
The sad truth is that it is not India vs. US. It is that women get raped and it doesn't become a big news. See this as a global problem.
2.Second fact: India's rape rate is not the highest in the world. Not even close
According to the 2010 UN data on rape, the rapes per 100,000 people in India is 0.4 and 27.3 in USA. Going by these statistics, rape rate in USA is a whopping 6825% of India, so much for the "rape culture" in India.
Sources :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rape_statistics
http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/top-5-countries-highest-rates-rape-1434355
http://www.nationmaster.com/country-info/stats/Crime/Rapes/Per-capita
If you don't like the statistics, construct better ones. Figure out what factor you want to measure that is not covered in the reports from world bodies. Construct scientifically accepted surveys. Get to the root of the problem with logic. Use your stuff between the ears, instead of passing judgements with hot gas.
Under reporting of Rapes like you asked
Now I knew that you will going to mention this that rapes are under reported in India and it's true, but the matter of fact is that rapes are under reported everywhere in the world, including USA. More than 70% of rapes go under reported in USA.
Sources :
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/21/rape-study-report-america-us_n_4310765.html
https://cavatus.wordpress.com/2012/03/24/sweden-a-raped-country/
Now for the sake of argument, let's give you the benefit of doubt and assume that only 5% of the rapes in India are reported and 95% cases go unreported. Also assume that 100% of rapes in USA are reported.
By that logic, the real rape rate in India will be 0.4 x 20 = 8. Now let us go further and double that too, we get 8 x 2 = 16, which is still way less than 27.3 (the rape rate in USA).
Therefore, even if you multiply the rape rate of India by 40, it still doesn't matches USA. This proves that India is a much safer country for women compared to USA.
In cultures across the world, rape carries a stigma. Because, most of the rapes happen with people who are close to the woman. Thus, there is a strong social pressure against reporting. This basic fact is lost on the many who are giving their uneducated comments on the issue.
The number of recorded rapes in India is certainly a substantial underestimate, but even if we take five times—or ten times—that figure, the corrected and enlarged estimates of rapes would still be substantially lower in India than in the US, the UK, Sweden, or South Africa (even with the assumption that there is no underreporting in these other countries).
-Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen.
Do you want to discuss rapes or engage in stereotypes?
Here is a simple question for those want to discuss this issue:
Are you interested in creating solutions for making women safe across race, creed, class and country?
Do you want to pick up some news item to justify your own stereotypes about a country?
If you belong to the former group, let us constructively engage in a debate on the solutions. If you belong to the latter group, you are not the solution, but the problem.
In summary, this is plainly a media distortion where one country reports rapes with more vigor than an another country. This leads to blind stereotyping that destroys people's lives & careers for no fault of their own.
Instead of getting into such faulty stereotyping without any statistical evidence, let us as humans figure out ways we can make world safer for women. Because, they are getting raped all over the world at an alarming rate.
You still believe India has a "rape culture" and that USA is a very safe country for women?
Even more data :
Rape Data on India
Reported Rapes
A. Based on United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) data from 2012:
24,923 reported rapes in India, or 4.26 reported rapes for every 1,00,000 women
This places India at 85 out of 121 countries.
This video discusses the above statistics:
Rapes are over-hyped in India - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdGUPTub-L0&index=90&list=WL
Also see this : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GdoeoU48DIg
Unreported Rapes
B. Based on a survey conducted by UN Women:
India reported 8.5 rapes for every 100 women over their lifetimes, based on the answers they gave household-level surveyors.
The question "if the women had experienced sexual violence at the hands of an intimate partner or any other person" placed India at 39 out of 99 countries.
Ten per cent of women in India reported having experienced sexual violence by their husbands during their lifetime. In the UN Women database, this places India at 43 out of 86 countries with comparable data.
Source : http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/comment-article-rape-rhetoric-and-reality/article6705077.ece
Rape Conviction Rate
According to the Guardian, just 7% of reported rapes in the U.K. resulted in convictions during 2011-12. In Sweden, the conviction rate is as low as 10%. France had a conviction rate of 25% in 2006.
Poor India, a developing nation with countless challenges, managed an impressive 24.2% conviction rate in 2012. That’s thanks to the efforts of a lot of good people — police, lawyers, victims and their families — working heroically with limited resources.
Source : Why Rape Seems Worse in India Than Everywhere Else (but Actually Isn’t) - http://world.time.com/2013/11/08/why-rape-seems-worse-in-india-than-everywhere-else-but-actually-isnt/