Laws by themselves may not be able to change society, but they can be used to influence social attitudes in the long run if implemented at every opportunity. When this process does not work, there is cause for serious alarm. The Delhi High Court acquitted the writer and film-maker, Mahmood Farooqui, of the charge of rape by stating that the survivor's "feeble hesitation" could "never" have been understood as "positive negation". This approach sets India back by more than 40 years of hard struggle by campaigners for a just rape law, when the two policemen who raped a tribal girl, Mathura, were acquitted twice over: because Mathura was supposed to have been "habituated to sexual intercourse" and because she did not shout for help. The problem, though, is ridiculously simple. The world needs to accept that 'no' means no; 'no' cannot mean yes, even if it is whispered or gestured or communicated by physical resistance, however weak. But when a woman says no, the matter shifts from semantics and law and becomes encrusted with age-old habits of control, suppression and gender-hatred; there can be no refusal. Reportedly, according to the high court, Mr Farooqui assumed consent. Why? Again according to the court, reportedly the educated status of the survivor should have prompted her to articulate her refusal clearly. In other words, Mr Farooqui was free to assume whatever he wished.

Consent is a crucial factor in a rape case, even in the case of young people "experimenting" with life, although another court acquitted three boys accused of gang rape last month because the girl they allegedly raped was an 'experimenter'. Mathura keeps coming back. Yet the 2013 amendments to provisions of the rape law in the Indian Penal Code produced one of the most advanced and perceptive definitions of consent. It has to be an "unequivocal, voluntary agreement" by verbal or non-verbal means to a "specific" sexual act. Lack of physical resistance does not mean consent. Thus it brings into view situations of blackmail, custodial rape, other forms of power play and gang rape. By shifting the emphasis from a woman's 'no' to her articulated 'yes', the amended law gives both partners in a sexual act equal responsibility and equal freedom. It seems that the law is still waiting to be implemented.