A P P E A L HELP FOR FIVE- YEAR- OLD VICTIM OF RAPE
CARE TODAY appeals to citizens for contributions
There is a five- year- old girl in Delhi who, like all children her age, loves to cuddle up to her mother, play and talk about everything under the sun. Meet Gudiya, who is in recovery, after being brutally attacked and raped by her neighbour on April 15. This brutal rape has ripped her and her family’s life apart.
In what can only be described as one of the worst horror stories to have played out in the National Capital, Gudiya was raped by two men, one her neighbour who she had trusted enough to go to when he called out to her. The rapists attacked her in a brutal manner, inserting candles and a hair oil bottle inside her, and then locking her up at the scene of the crime, hoping she was dead.
Miraculously, and under expert medical care, the five- year- old fought for her life at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences ( AIIMS) in Delhi. Though grievously injured, she lived to see another day.
Recently the Parliament passed the Criminal Law ( Amendment) Bill, 2013, laying down stringent punishment for crimes against women, even death. But the threat of death penalty has not deterred criminals. One in three rape victims in India is a child. According to a recent report published by the Delhibased NGO Asian Centre for Human Rights, there has been a 336 per cent jump in child rape cases between 2001 and 2011 in India, totalling 48,338 in a decade.
Before we give into our numbness resulting from the frequency of such cases, we must take action and help Gudiya. Still vulnerable, she needs to rediscover her childhood, and learn to live life one step at a time.
She cannot go back to her east Delhi tenement where she was raped, it is no longer the ‘ safe home’ she once knew. She needs to be nurtured through her recovery process by all of us. She needs to heal, physically through expert medical care involving surgery, medication and nutrition support. Most importantly, she needs help to heal psychologically through sustained and long- term counselling. She needs to go to school, to learn and grow like other children her age.
To ensure that we do not forget Gudiya as just another statistic on the rape chart, Care Today, part of the India Today Group, is launching an appeal to support her through this crucial healing process. We request donors to contribute to this cause and enable us
to respond to the child’s needs.
# hamarigudiya