A factory in India that created the country's first gun designed specifically for women is now facing widespread criticism. The gun, named the Nirbheek, was named after a woman who died after she was gang raped in 2012.
The 500-gram, titanium alloy gun was manufactured by the Indian Ordinance Factory in Kanpur, India. The gun, introduced Jan. 6, is a light-weight, .32-caliber revolver intended to help women in India protect themselves.
"It is easy to handle and fits nicely in a lady's purse," Sartaj Singh, chairman of the Ordnance Factory Board of India's Ministry of Defense," told Forbes.com.
The gun was named after Nirbhaya, the name the Indian media gave to a woman who was brutally attacked and gang raped by several men on a bus in December 2012, CNN reported. The woman later died from her injuries, sparking anger and a reevaluation of the treatment of women in India.
Both the gun and Nirbhaya were named after the Hindi word meaning fearless.
"It can serve as a deterrence," Abdul Hamied, general manager of the IOF, told CNN. "There's something you can do to prevent these attacks. You can also enthuse confidence among women," Hamied said.
But a wave of opponents say the gun only promotes violence, and won't do much to make women feel safer.
"Nirbhaya was a victim of violence caused by a desire of six men to project their masculinity through domination," Ruchira Gupta, founder of the anti-sex trafficking group Apne Aap Women Worldwide, told CNN. "Ultimately we have to challenge the culture of domination and violence through nonviolence not through introducing more tools of violence," Gupta said.
Shalini Seth, a medical executive, told The Times Of India an attacker will overpower a woman with or without a gun.
"There is nothing they can do to a woman with a gun that they cannot to one without," Seth said. "In rape, the threat is not so much to life and a weapon may not be helpful once a tormentor has prevailed on his prey."
So far only 10 of the $2,000 Nirbheek revolvers have been sold, CNN reported. But according to Forbes.com, over 100 orders have been placed, most of which came from women.
"The government is introducing expensive weaponry to sit in handbags," Control Arms Foundation of India founder Binalakshmi Nepram told CNN. "It's an abhorrence to women."
