(Image source from: Most Indian men blames women for abetting rape})

It's almost a year now since the gruesome rape and tragic death of 23-year-old Nirbhaya shook the country, spurring nationwide protest and inciting the mob to take to the streets to demand better safety, faster law and efficient police network for women. Following this, the law was upgraded, new police procedures were introduced, and fast-track courts were set in motion. But despite the growing changes, India's approach to sex and sex crimes seems to be still stuck in the past.

A joint survey, launched by India Today Group and marketing research organization MDRA, revealed 'orthodox' and disquieting views of men towards sex and sex crimes.

While a staggering 36.3 per cent of men surveyed blamed a woman's revealing clothes for abetting rape, a 33.3 per cent attributed it to a rapists' perversion, and a small percentage held male chauvinism as responsible for such crimes..

Marital rape, on the other hand, appeared to be of little concern to most men. While a staggering 79.3 per cent of men said it was their right to have sex with their wives, a 48.1 per cent admitted to "sometimes" insisting on intercourse without partner's consent. What's more shocking is that a 13 per cent of men confessed to doing so "often".

The startling findings of the survey questions the common perception that “education is the panacea for all of India's ills”, for it's the highly-qualified, postgraduate degree holders who held women responsible for inciting rape.

Not just that, the deep-rooted orthodoxy is also evident in respondents' attitude to premarital sex.

Of the entire pool of male respondents, 44.8 per cent shunned the whole concept of premarital sex as "wrong".

The survey's findings points towards just one big truth — 'Indians have a long way to go before women are allowed a say over their bodies and sex is shorn of the stigma'.

AW: Suchorita Dutta Choudhury