On December 16, 2012, a 23-year-old physiotherapy intern named Jyoti Singh was beaten, gang-raped, and tortured in a private bus in which she was travelling with her male friend, Avnindra Pratap Pandey, in Munirka, a neighbourhood in South Delhi. There were six others in the bus, including the driver, all of whom raped the woman and beat her friend. Since Indian law does not allow the press to publish a rape victims name, the victim was widely known as Nirbhaya, meaning "fearless," and her struggle and death became a symbol of womens resistance to rape around the world. Nirbhayas injuries were so severe that she died 12 days later in a hospital in Singapore, where she was airlifted.

All six men involved in the crime were arrested and charged with rape and murder. The juvenile defendant was sent to borstal youth detention for three years and then released, as he was just short of 18 years when he committed the crime. The other five men were convicted and sentenced to death by hanging. Ram Singh, the bus driver, committed suicide in Tihar Jail during the trial. Four of the convicts were hanged in March 2020, while the fifth died by suicide in prison.

The Nirbhaya case sparked widespread protests and led to the introduction of stringent new laws for crimes against women in India. Nirbhayas mother, Asha Devi, has become an activist and campaigner for womens safety, fighting for justice for her daughter and for "all of Indias daughters". In December 2013, the family of the victim, along with social entrepreneur Sarvesh Kumar Tiwari, established the Nirbhaya Trust, an institute formed to assist women who have experienced violence to find shelter and legal assistance.