India Rape: Girl Kidnapped And Attacked

A three-year-old girl is in hospital recovering from serious injuries after she was kidnapped and gang raped in southern India.

The girl is currently under observation in intensive care.

She was sleeping beside her mother on a pavement in Tirur, in Kerala, when she was kidnapped on Monday night.

The family - whose members are homeless - only noticed she was missing on Tuesday morning.

The girl was found unconscious by students on their way to school.

One of the students told a local newspaper that: "She had a high fever and she had ants crawling all over her body."

Doctors at the hospital where the girl is being treated say it will take her months to recover.

Despite outrage in India over the Delhi gang rape in December, many more cases of rape are being reported across the country.

The government is now trying to introduce tougher anti-rape laws.

In Delhi, four rape cases a day have been reported since the beginning of this year, according to police figures. The average for 2012 was two rapes a day.

Campaigners believe the rise is partly the result of more women coming forward to report crimes of sexual violence.

The gang rape and murder of the Delhi student has provoked a national debate and shattered what was once a taboo subject - violence against women.

Nonetheless, women are increasingly scared to travel alone at night in the capital.

The city's only taxi service for women - which uses only women drivers - has told Sky News they have been inundated with calls.

Driver Kushi Prajapati says: "After the Delhi gang rape we've been busy day and night. Women feel very unsafe and they use our taxi service for safety reasons."