NEW DELHI — Authorities shut down roads in the heart of India’s capital on Monday in an attempt to end a week of demonstrations seeking better protection of women from sexual assaults.

Thousands of armed police and paramilitary troops blocked roads in central New Delhi to prevent protesters from marching to the presidential palace. A small group of demonstrators gathered at a venue less than a mile away from India’s Parliament to press the government to act after the gang rape and beating of a woman on a moving bus.