More female police to be hired in India

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NEW DELHI, Jan. 4 (UPI) -- Indian officials pledged to hire more female police officers as a step toward protecting women in the wake of the gang-rape and death a student in New Delhi.

Protesters have demanded an end to a culture in which many rapes are not reported and police sometimes blame the victim, Britain's Daily Telegraph reported.

Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde announced that more female police officers will be hired to staff New Delhi's 166 police stations -- around the clock.

"I have signed the file for appointing two woman sub-inspectors and seven woman constables in every police station in Delhi," Shinde said.

Protests, sometimes violent, followed the Dec. 16 gang-rape of the 23-year-old student on a bus by six males who also attacked the victim's boyfriend and then threw the couple off the moving vehicle.

The woman died last week after being transferred to Singapore for treatment.

Five of the suspects were charged with rape, murder and other offenses and face the death penalty if convicted. The sixth person involved is apparently a juvenile.