NEW DELHI - Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Friday that a spate of rape cases had shamed India as he urged parents to take responsibility for the actions of their sons.
"When we hear about these rapes our heads hang in shame," Modi said in a speech on Indian Independence Day.
"Even when they are only 12, young girls are always being asked so many questions by their parents, like 'where are you off to?'. But do these parents ask their sons where they are going?
"The law will take its own course but as a society every parent has a responsibility to teach their sons the difference between right and wrong.
"Those who commit rape are also someone's sons. You should stop them before they take the wrong path." Anger among Indians over sexual violence has been steadily rising in the last two years, fuelled by a series of high-profile assaults including the fatal gang-rape of a student on a bus in New Delhi in December 2012.
There have also been a series of sex attacks on foreign tourists, including on a Danish tourist who was gang-raped near Delhi's main train station.