‘I should’ve given birth to a girl’
FIVE YEARS At Ravidas Camp, families of Dec 16 convicts are trying to move on with life
NEW DELHI: A withering money plant in an empty pint bottle of beer is the only new addition to 65-year-old Rambai’s tiny tworoom set in Ravidas Camp ever since her husband died early this year. She has placed the plant near the entrance, the only source of light in her dingy house.
“I bought the plant for ₹10 after a neighbour told me it would bring back my son, Mukesh,” Rambai told HT in a feeble voice.
The frail woman continues to live in hope even five years after her two sons, Mukesh and Ram, were held and convicted with four others for gang-raping and killing a physiotherapist in a bus in south Delhi on December 16, 2012 – incident that shook Delhi, sparked outrage across India and triggered a slew of changes in rape laws.
But the money plant has brought little change in terms of luck or money for Rambai. Mukesh, the occasional driver and cleaner of the bus on which the gang rape happened, is on death row. Rambai barely has any money even to visit him in Tihar Jail. Her older son, Ram - the driver of that bus - had earlier committed ‘suicide’ i n
Tihar Jail in 2013, forcing her to believe he was guilty.
Rambai, who was initially boycotted by the locals, continues to live in Ravidas Camp, a slum in south Delhi’s RK Puram Sector 3.
Apart from her two sons, the slum was home to two other of the four rapists – gym instructor Vinay Sharma and fruit seller Pawan Gupta. The four men’s families continue to live in hope; some of them also in denial.
“Once in two months, I manage to arrange ₹250-300 for auto fare to visit Mukesh. But when we meet, we barely speak. We are both living in pain. So we just look at each other and cry. Jail people don’t even let me take food for him anymore,” said Rambai.
Still refusing to believe Mukesh’s role in the crime, Rambai spends most of her day and night sleeping in a tiny, dingy room that does not even have a bulb. “Do you bring some news about Mukesh? Has the court said something? Will he be released?” Rambai asked this reporter.
After the Supreme Court upheld the death sentence of the four adult rapists, their fate now hangs with the Indian President. Mukesh’s lawyer recently appealed for a review of the sentence but the Delhi Police sought its rejection even as the Supreme Court reserved its order on the petition. The other two have also filed review petitions. The minor in the case has already released from the juvenile home after serving his sentence and is currently leading an anonymous life.
Rambai, meanwhile, has been struggling for money and mostly remains confined to her room ever since her husband died earlier this year, neighbours said. Aware that she is not in the health to work anymore, the slum’s residents have arranged ₹1,000 as monthly pension for her.
But Rambai wants someone who can be beside her in her loneliness. “If I die, no one will even know for days. I should have given birth to a girl, who would never have got into trouble. The other two families have their daughters looking after them,” said Rambai.
The other two families Rambai was referring to were of Vinay and Pawan, two other convicts, who lived in separate homes, a few metres away, in the same slum.
Unlike Rambai, the families of Vinay and Pawan have been trying to move on in their lives even though they regularly visit their wards in jail and continue to hope for a change. The duo’s sisters have been pillars for their ageing parents.
When Vinay’s younger brother Raj, a Class 11 student, and older sister, Manju, found it difficult to move on, they convinced their parents to get their tiny residence coloured. The house was painted in a bright blue colour a year ago, but the family was unable to get going. So Raj decided to cook frequently for his family. “My classmates say cooking helps in keeping life moving,” Raj added.
Unlike his father who found it difficult to retain his housekeeping job at the airport in the initial months of Vinay’s involvement theirs. Do grown-up children lisin the crime, Raj had found supten to their parents anymore?” port in his school friends. Pawan’s older sister later
“Raj’s friends knew about explained the family’s anger. Vinay’s character. They knew “I know how it is going to end Raj was different, so they up for Pawan and others. But I accepted him without getting keep comforting my parents that judgemental. Why should everyeverything would be fine one day. one in the family suffer because of My mother is disabled in her leg one person?” said Manju. The and is hopeful of Pawan’s return. family does not defend Vinay I don’t have the courage to tell anymore, but they live in hope them the reality,” said Pawan’s that he would be “forgiven and sister who would not reveal her released”. name.
In the same narrow by lane, Initially boycotted by other Pawan’s family drew the curtains residents of the slum, the three on getting to know that a journalfamilies have now been accepted ist was at their doorstep. “You by the society. “Ideally, we have done us a lot of good. Now should have barred them from please leave. We have guests at this slum at the very beginning. home. We are trying to move on,” That would have saved our slum a woman sarcastically said from the shame that is part of our hisinside. tory now. But since they have
“The media never quoted us stayed on, we have accepted correctly. They would cook up them. We invite them for every statements after speaking to us. wedding, each function,” said No one cared that our elderly parBihari Lal, the president of the ents were suffering for no fault of Residents Welfare Association.
Once in two months, I manage to arrange ₹250300 for auto fare to visit Mukesh. But when we meet, we barely speak. We are both living in pain. So we just look at each other and cry.