NEW DELHI, Dec 29: The 23-year-old girl who was gang-raped in a Delhi bus two weeks ago died in a Singapore hospital on Saturday of multi-organ failure. Her death set off national grief and soul-searching across India, but it also shored up hope for better treatment of women of all ranks and from every part of the country in the future.

The girl, a paramedic student whose identity has been kept private in a rare moment of discretion by the media, succumbed to severe lacerations inflicted by the unspeakable assault and torture with a crow bar. Her male companion was clubbed unconscious before both were thrown out under a busy flyover connecting the city to the airport.

As her death occurred, all six suspects were placed in high-security cell at Delhi’s Tihar jail, reportedly charged with murder.

India’s national capital recorded 635 rapes this year alone — a rape every 14 hours — and that is just the number that has been reported. The national average works out to a rape every 22 minutes.

“Until the Delhi male turns indignant at the sight of a fellow man molesting a woman, and acts to stop him, the problem will not go away,” said a TV analyst.

But the problem is nationwide and it presents itself in the least tenable forms in far away places like Kashmir and Manipur, where security forces stand accused of widespread involvement. Several protesting groups pointed this out.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh led the nation in making the resolve to better protect women in India. “I join the nation in conveying to her family and friends my deepest condolences at this terrible loss. I want to tell them and the nation that while she may have lost her battle for life, it is up to us all to ensure that her death will not have been in vain.”

As people’s anger spilled out into the streets, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi broke his silence on the incident and called for introspection and resolve to ensure the security and dignity of women.

“My heart goes out to the family of the young girl and millions of young Indians, families who work, hope and pray for a better India. We as a nation must reflect on the events of the days gone by,” Mr Gandhi said.

“As citizens, we must resolve to respect the dignity of women and follow the laws of the land,” he said.

“I join my mother and sister in offering deep-felt condolences to the young girl’s family, My thoughts and prayers are with the family,” Mr Gandhi said in his message to the victim’s family.

Mumbai’s film industry led the chorus of contrite assurances to women.

Actor Amitabh Bachchan read a poem he wrote to mourn the girl’s death. His wife and Rajya Sabha MP Jaya Bachchan broke down, saying “we are all responsible for this”.

TV channels and newspapers that have been less than charitable in protecting the identities of victims and the accused in the past set a new bar for discretion.

The Broadcast Editors’ Association has asked news channels to refrain from covering the victim’s funeral, so that the privacy of the bereaved family is respected in their moment of grief.

The association has issued detailed guidelines to ensure that the privacy of the victim’s family is respected. In its guidelines, the editors’ body has asked news channels not to show any visuals of the funeral or even shots of the deceased’s home or family.

The girl’s body was expected to arrive late night from Singapore and there have been calls to give her a state funeral.