Hunger and fear stalk family of Mandawali gang-rape victim
TRAUMA Girl’s mother, the sole breadwinner, is with her at hospital; sick father at home with other kids
NEW DELHI: The father and three-year-old sister of a minor girl who was gang-raped in Mandawali on Sunday have not eaten since. And it is not just because of the trauma.
The 40-year-old man, bedridden with a prolonged cardiac ailment, is dependent on his wife — a daily wager. Since she is with her daughter at All India Institute of Medical Science (AIIMS), there is nobody to support him and the younger daughter.
The seven-year-old girl was kidnapped and brutalised by three neighbours late on Sunday night. She suffered injuries in her private parts.
“My wife earns `300 everyday either by working in the fields or at construction sites. I am weak because of my heart condition and anaemia. I can’t even stand without support,” said the father, sitting on a cot outside the shack from where the minor girl was kidnapped by three neighbours.
“Our neighbours sometimes give us food. But they can’t feed us every day as they are also poor,” he said.
The area near Yamuna Khadar, where the family lives in a hut, does not have electricity supply and access to drinking water, roads and toilets. The victim’s father explained that they were able to sustain all these years because of their helpful neighbours. But the trust has been shaken after their daughter’s gang rape.
“Despite being a slum area that has no civic amenities, our area had not experienced such an incident. But now I am afraid. Those who perpetrated this dastardly act were not outsiders but our neighbours,” he said. July 25 A 4-year-old girl was allegedly kidnapped and raped by her 28-year-old neighbour in outer Delhi’s Shahbad Dairy.
She suffered injuries in her private parts and was admitted in a government hospital. The accused, Junaid, was arrested.
July 23 A 14-year-old Dalit girl was allegedly raped several times by her neighbour and forced to drink a ‘corrosive substance’ that severely damaged her internal organs in north Delhi’s Burari.
The girl later succumbed to her injuries during treatment at hospital.
“I fear for the safety of my other four minor daughters,” he said.
The family, which belongs to a village in Uttar Pradesh, have now decided to leave the city.
“My children walk some two kilometres on the dirt roads that pass through the jungle to reach school everyday. If neighbours would became predators, how can we send our children to school,” the father said.
He said the rape victim was a Class 1 student at a nearby government school.
Even as the family is struggling to cope with the tragedy help is yet to come from official quarters. The victim’s father said neither the government nor any private organisation has come forward to help them.
The family is hopeful that the local politicians, who had visited them during elections and promised them every possible help to make their lives better, will render some help. July 22 An 18-year-old girl suffered burns after her friend’s sister allegedly threw acid at her for refusing to marry her brother in east Delhi’s Gandhi Nagar. The girl sustained 40% burns. May 25 A 13-year-old girl with Down syndrome was admitted to AIIMS after she was kidnapped, brutally raped and dumped near the railway tracks allegedly by her neighbour in southeast Delhi’s Pul Prahladpur. She suffered bruises on her neck and abdomen apart from other injuries.
May 10 A nine-year-old girl was raped allegedly by his neighbour, a toy seller, at his tiny room in Sanjay Camp slum near Nigerian embassy in Delhi’s high-security diplomatic enclave. The 21-yearold accused was later found to be an alleged serial rapist who had raped five more girls in the same locality. April 24 A 26-year-old man allegedly raped a four-year-old girl in his neighbourhood and attempted to strangle her at his home in east Delhi’s Kalyanpuri. Presuming that she had died, the neighbour tried to leave the girl at her house when her grandmother caught him.
The girl was admitted to
AIIMS.
April 7 An 8-year-old girl was kidnapped, raped and then murdered allegedly by her next door neighbour in Kali Basti near Uttam Nagar. The girl’s seminude body was found buried under mud in a pond in an isolated area, some 150-metres away from her home.