There was this high profile criminal case that happened recently. From Wikipedia:

On 9 August 2024, a 31-year-old female postgraduate trainee doctor at R. G. Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata, West Bengal, India, was raped and murdered in a college building. Her body was found in a seminar room on campus.

While India is extremely unsafe for women and crimes against women are like an epidemic, every few years a case comes to light that ends up getting a lot of attention in the form of protests, discussion/debates, media coverage and, sadly, political parties slinging shit at each other. This particular case fits the bill because it is especially egregious, happened at a government medical college, to an educated woman, and the hospital and Kolkata police tried their best to sweep this under the rug.

Recently a statue was installed near the principal’s office at R.G Kar Hospital (where the crime took place). This is what it looks like:

It’s called Cry of the Hour. From an article:

The statue, made by artist Asit Sain, shows a woman crying, symbolizing the pain and suffering the victim went through in her last moments.

I think this statue is terrible. Don’t know what the point of it is. IMO it just solidifies the framing of the issue where women are showed as weak and in need of protection from men by men whereby the proposed solutions are always just punitive measures. In truth, the country is extremely misogynistic. It has always been and the problem has exacerbated under BJP. The ubiquitous misogyny prevents the instatement of the supposed solutions. I really hate this place.

Those who installed the statue said this in its defense:

Despite the criticism, the junior doctors defended their actions, emphasizing that the statue is symbolic and does not reveal the victim’s identity.

The junior doctors explained that the statue was not meant to directly portray the victim but was a symbol of the ongoing protests and the agony she went through.