India, Jan. 4 -- One of the challenges I face as a gender writer is to find stories of hope, aspiration and optimism. You can see it very often shining through in sports, in education, even in jobs and skilling. But sexual crime - as we enter 2026, there is no sign of it abating - is another story. The year begins with a collective sigh of relief that convicted rapist and former BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar will continue to serve out his life sentence for raping a minor girl in 2017. But the fact that he could come this close to walking free tells you something about justice for women - how high the price, how ruinous the cost, how low its priority, and how dogged its pursuit by women themselves. Sengar was convicted for kidnapping and raping a then 17-year-old girl when she had approached him for a job in June 2017. It took a year and an attempted self-immolation by the girl before Uttar Pradesh police would even file her complaint. Her father was arrested on trumped-up charges and died in custody. In 2019, the car in which the girl was travelling was hit by a truck; she survived, her aunts did not. The case was then transferred out of UP to a Delhi court that sentenced Sengar to life imprisonment. Then, on December 23, 2025 a two-judge Delhi High Court bench ruled on what seemed to be technical quibbling over whether Sengar was a "public servant" (higher degree of punishment) or not. Not a public servant, ruled the judges and suspended his sentence. The survivor, her family and activists protested at India Gate - or tried to before Delhi police whisked them away. The CBI challenged the order and the Supreme Court ruled that Sengar would continue in jail. Should we celebrate that we've dodged yet another travesty of justice? As 2025 came to an end, a court in Ernakulam finally convicted six men of raping and abducting a woman actor in 2017, but found no evidence against the actor Dileep, who the woman says hatched the plan. The acquittal came as Dileep's new film was released. Even when they are convicted, the powerful wriggle their way around. How many times has Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh been out on parole? How does self-styled godman Asaram Bapu, serving a life sentence for raping a minor, keep getting interim bail extended? And can we ever forget the image of men who gang-raped a pregnant Bilkis Bano during the 2002 Gujarat riots being feted as they were released on remission? It was public outrage again that sent them back to jail. It's not that justice is never served. It's just that it is served conveniently, depending on who the survivor is and who is the perpetrator. So, all the accused in the rape and murder of a Dalit girl in Hathras are acquitted. The juvenile who had originally accused then wrestling head Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh of sexual assault takes back her statement. Of the seven women who filed rape complaints in the 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots, one died before trial could be concluded, five retracted, and, in the end, only one remained. It took nine years and three Supreme Court interventions before her testimony packed off the accused to jail. Rape is a crime against society and not just one woman. Justice should not ask for this level of courage from survivors. But it does, and still there are women who fight on. These are the women we should celebrate. These are the unsung heroes who give me hope....