Shocking images: Woman burned alive for fighting back against her rapists

A young woman tried to fight off the three men who were raping her, but her attackers doused her in kerosene and set her on fire. Her skin was charred black, cracked and blistered from the flames.

Smita Sharma, a photographer who began taking photos of rape survivors in December 2014, met her.

‘I’ve never seen a person who was burnt to this extent before,’ Smita told MailOnline.

‘Her brother and sister were in the hospital room, and they allowed me in. Technically I shouldn’t have been there. ‘But her mother wanted me to tell her story.’

But, this was not the only case in a country where 36,735 rapes were committed only in 2014, based on data from India’s National Crime Records Bureau.

Smita has been telling the story of India’s victims of rape using her camera and taking photos which have brought her close to some of the most shocking crimes committed in a country.

As she reports, the victims of rape too often are blamed for becoming a victim.

‘There was one lawyer – a defence lawyer – who pointed his finger at me,’ Smita said.

”You media people,’ he told me, ‘you are blowing it out of proportion. Anyone from the age of 12 to 40, that is consensual sex, not rape.’

‘And he’s a lawyer. That angered me. I know as a journalist I should not get emotional, but I was really angry.’

Nurse Parama, 23, was raped by her ex-husband in front of his four friends.

Sonia was travelling home with her friend Prajuna when two truck drivers, who had befriended their families, offered them a lift home. But instead of taking them back, they raped the schoolgirls, leaving them to walk home half-naked and bleeding

Mansi, 13, was trafficked and raped by a man, but managed to run before he could sell her to a brothel. She reported the incident, but instead of the man being prosecuted, she was held.