President Murmu's 10 hard-hitting remarks on crimes against women: 'I am outraged ...'

Murmu spoke for the first time on the gruesome Kolkata rape and murder incident

In an emotional and hard-hitting article, President Droupadi Murmu has expressed her angst over the rising cases of crimes against women in the wake of the rape & murder of a young doctor in Kolkata.

In an article on PTI titled "Women's safety: Enough is enough", President Murmu called for a comprehensive societal and governmental response to address the deep-rooted objectification of women and ensure a lasting change.

She said that as a society, we owe it to our daughters to remove the hurdles from their path of winning the freedom from fear.

Here are top 10 quotes made by Murmu in her article:

* "The gruesome incident of rape and murder of a doctor in Kolkata has left the nation shocked."
What is more depressing is the fact that it was not the only incident of its kind; it is part of a series of crimes against women."

* "Even as students, doctors and citizens were protesting in Kolkata, criminals remained on the prowl elsewhere. The victims include even kindergarten girls."

* "No civilised society can allow daughters and sisters to be subjected to such atrocities. The nation is bound to be outraged, and so am I."

* "In December 2012, we had come face to face with that element when a young woman was gang-raped and murdered. There was shock and rage. We were determined not to let another Nirbhaya meet the same fate. We made plans and devised strategies. These initiatives did make a difference to an extent. Yet, our task remains unfinished as long as any woman feels unsafe in the environment where she lives or works."

* "Women have had to fight for every inch of ground they have won. Social prejudices as well as some customs and practices have always opposed the expansion of women’s rights."

* "This is a rather deplorable mindset. I won’t call it a male mindset, because it has little to do with the gender of the person: there are many, many men who don’t have it."

* "It is this objectification of women by a few that is behind the crimes against women. It is ingrained deeply in the minds of such people."

* "Did we learn our lessons? As social protests petered out, these incidents got buried into a deep and inaccessible recess of social memory, to be recalled only when another heinous crime takes place. This collective amnesia, I am afraid, is as much obnoxious as that mindset I spoke of."

* "Let us deal with this perversion in a comprehensive manner so as to curb it right at the beginning. We can do this only if we honour the memory of the victims by cultivating a social culture of remembering them to remind us of our failures in the past and prepare us to be more vigilant in future."