She could identify good and bad touch: Mother

NEWDELHI: The mother of the fouryear-old girl, who was allegedly sexually assaulted by a classmate of the same age in a west Delhi school last Friday, said her daughter was able to talk about the incident because she had been trained in identifying “good and bad touch.”

The girl was allegedly sexually assaulted with a finger and a sharpened pencil by a classmate in the school building, the mother said. The mother said the alleged abuse had left her daughter scarred and she runs away whenever it is brought up at home. She added the child says she wants to become strong in the future so she is able to fight off any assaulter.

“Since I had trained my daughter about the concepts of ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ touch, she knew right from the beginning that whatever was happening to her was not right. At the school, she had tried to push the boy away from her. When she returned home, she kept drawing my attention to her pain and injury to her private parts,” the girl’s mother told HT on phone on Thursday. “She says she wants to eat a lot of food so that she can grow strong and beat up anyone who tries to hurt her in the future,” the mother said.

The girl, who is on way to physical recovery, has not been opening up with outsiders, the mother added. “Delhi Commission of Women members counselled her, but she wouldn’t speak to them. I had to step in and convince her that these were good people,” the mother said. The girl was, however, able to talk about the assault to a magistrate earlier this week or even sign any legal documents, she added.

The girl has refused to go back to school, the mother adds, saying they do not intend to send her back either. “If she grows up in that school and those classrooms, she will begin to realise the seriousness of what had happened to her. She will not be safe there and will be under constant threat of being bullied and reminded of the assault as she grows up,” she said.

During her visit to the school with her parents and police on Monday, the girl pointed out the location where she was allegedly assaulted.

The mother said she has written to the education department and sent a list of three schools with a request to accommodate her daughter in any of them. “We will do everything to ensure normalcy is returned to her life. We will rebuild the confidence in her,” she said. NEWDELHI: The Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights (DCPCR) on Thursday issued summons to the officials of the west Delhi school where a fouryear-old girl was allegedly sexually assaulted by a classmate.

The DCPCR asked the school’s manager, principal, two teachers and an ayah (helper) to appear before it on November 27.

The girl’s mother on Thursday told HT that she was determined to get a criminal case registered against the school “for allowing the crime to happen in their classroom”. “My daughter was left alone with the boy on two occasions,” she said.

The mother said she would pursue the case despite the age of the accused. “Police must also bring the school authorities in the ambit of the crime. What happens to justice for my child? Will no one be held accountable?” she said.

She said she viewed the CCTV footage and alleged that it showed that her daughter was left without care on two occasions. She alleged the assault happened in the classroom as well as the washroom and that there was allegedly no staff present in both those instances.

The school’s lawyer said, “It is natural for a mother to lash out at the school, the way she is doing. But when the dust settles and rationality prevails, it will be clear that such an incident was unforeseeable by the school or anyone else... In the CCTV footage we have scanned so far, the boy has not been seen venturing near the girl’s washroom.”

In contrast to the mother’s allegations that there was no one in the classroom, the lawyer said that the incident could not have occurred in the classroom as it had 37 students and two adults.

Asked if any criminal case would be registered against the school, Dependra Pathak, Delhi Police’s spokesperson, said all aspects were being looked into.

Since I had trained my daughter about the concepts of ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ touch, she knew right from the beginning that whatever was happening to her was not right.

4-YEAR-OLD VICTIM’S MOTHER