Women have heads shaved by mob of men because they resisted rape

'We have been beaten very badly. I have injuries all over my body and my daughter too has some injuries', says victim

India registered nearly 40,000 rapes in 2016, or an average of around 100 cases every day (NOAH SEELAM/AFP/Getty Images)

Two women have been beaten up and had their heads shaved by a mob of men in India after they resisted an attempted gang rape, police said.

Several men, including a local government official, barged into the home of the mother and her daughter with the intent of raping the teenager, police in northeastern Bihar said.

“When the mother and daughter protested, the men got angry and called a local barber, who shaved their heads,” senior officer Sanjay Kumar told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

The men then assaulted the mother and daughter with sticks, before parading them around the village before neighbours protested against their treatment.

“We have arrested two men and are searching for the other five,” Mr Kumar said, adding that the criminal investigation was ongoing.

Describing the attack, the mother told NDTV: ”We have been beaten very badly. I have injuries all over my body and my daughter too has some injuries.”

Her daughter told the broadcaster: "I was alone with my mother around 6.30 in the evening when five men from the neighbourhood forcefully entered the house and tried to molest me.

“When my mother and I protested, they started beating us with a stick and took us outside of the house.”

India has a poor record on sexual violence against women, despite legal reforms following the gang rape of a student on a bus in Delhi in December 2012.

Nearly 40,000 rapes were registered in India in 2016 – an average of about 100 cases each day - according to the latest government data.

Earlier this week, a man in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh ran over and killed two women with his car after they protested against his attempt to molest one of their daughters.

Four men attacked a girl with acid in Bihar in April after she tried to fight off their gang rape attempt.

In 2014, village elders in Bihar shaved the head of an orphan girl, blackened her face with ash, and paraded her through their neighbourhood as punishment for talking to her boyfriend in a public place.

Additional reporting by the Thomoson Reuters Foundation