Named after gang rape victim Nirbhaya, the Nirbheek is a small, lightweight revolver being marketed to Indian women.
The brutal gang rape of a young woman on a public bus in Delhi in December 2012 — in which six men raped and beat her so severely that she died — enraged the Indian public, inspired mass protests across the country and catapulted the problem of violence against Indian women into the international spotlight.
One year and an updated rape law later, a state-run company is marketing a solution to the harassment Indian women have said they face on a daily basis — a small, lightweight firearm billed as “India’s first gun for women.”
The Nirbheek is a .32-caliber handgun made of titanium alloy.
Weighing in at just over a pound, it’s the smallest revolver made in India, and “ideal to fit a purse or a small hand bag,” according to the Times of India newspaper, which first reported the story.
The gun was designed to be a hybrid of a Smith & Wesson and a Webley & Scott and will come packaged in a maroon velvet case.
Because, after all, “Indian women like their ornaments,” Abdul Hameed, the general manager of the Indian Ordnance Factory (IOF), the state-run manufacturer of the gun.
The name Nirbheek is a synonym of Nirbhaya, the pseudonym given the 23-year-old rape victim because Indian law protected her identity. Both Nirbheek and Nirbhaya mean “fearless”.
The price tag? A whopping 112,360 rupees, the BBC reports, or the equivalent of $1,950. That’s significantly more than the average annual income in India, which is about $1,100, according to the country’s Central Statistics Office.
The IOF has sold 20 of them so far in January, with “many more inquiries.”
